Best to go with SFTP by enabling Remote Login (SSH).

Transmit supports SFTP, you can do it from the command line as well, if you are on another platform such as Windows and you want to SFTP to your Mac, you can use WinSCP or other SFTP free apps.

FTP, Telnet, RSH, etc. All transmit passwords in the clear, and they should be completely removed from service as they are not secure by a long shot.

The only reason for FTP is an anonymous FTP server where you login with uid: anonymous and your email address as the password.

Absolutely right. People still use anonymous FTP because it's simpler than setting up an entire (anonymous!) HTTP server if you're just in the business of publishing files.

I would never dream of installing an FTP server which asks for authentication though.

OS X Server's FTP has been pretty lame for quite some time, and I can't think of any good reason to turn it back "on"

A much better choice is PureFTP, which is free, and has a nice Mac FTP Manager GUI:

http://jeanmatthieu.free.fr/pureftpd/

For the sake of security, I recommend making the move to sftp/scp, which are actually part of ssh. All traffic, including password exchange is encrypted. Most GUI tools support it now. Just enable "remote login" and that turns on ssh, which in turn enables scp/sftp. FTP should really be abandoned.

Ditch Apple's lame FTP server implementation and install PureFTPd, a free, much more robust solution that allows virtual folders and accounts (and can use Open Directory accounts, too):

http://www.pureftpd.org/project/pure-ftpd

While this hint will work as stated, it's pretty much incorrect usage of launchctl for the purpose of the hint.

launchctl load...loads the FTP service into launchd's database of services. When you do an unload, you are telling launchd to not manage it anymore.

So a better way to do this--probably the proper way--is to first issue the command to load the service:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

Then, if you'd like to stop FTP, issue this command:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.ftpd

And if you decide you'd like to bring it back up, use this command:

sudo launchctl start com.apple.ftpd

If you'd like for launchd to forget about FTP, that is when you would run this:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

The hint as-is will work, but seems a little counter-productive to make launchd remember and forget about FTP all the time.

@leamanc: Absolutely correct. I entered the comments wanting to post this, too. You beat me at it. :-)