A methodology for providing FTP-like server capability to a portable, intermittently-connected device, such as a digital camera device, is described. Using XML syntax, a photo-serving protocols suite supporting FTP-like photo-serving capability is incorporated into a digital camera device (or other portable device), so that digital images (or other files) on that device may be easily accessed by a variety of disparate hosts over standard protocols. If desired, standard (e.g., generic) FTP may be employed instead of the photo-serving protocols. All hosts that are commonly available include implementations of industry-standard TCP/IP protocols on which the photo-serving protocols may be borne. As a result, no host need have a proprietary, one-off solution to bear the photo-serving protocols. The camera device, at the level of the photo-serving protocols, functions in an identical manner no matter what host the camera device is attached to, and no matter how an individual industry-standard protocol suite is borne or implemented. In this fashion, a variety of host devices can access digital photos (or other files or objects) on the camera device with the same ease that a desktop computer may access files from an FTP server, for purposes of receiving or manipulating photographic image information captured on the digital camera device.