ARCHIVED: Helpful hints for using FTP

If you want to use FTP from a Unix shell account, try NCFTP, an implementation of FTP that is superior to the standard FTP found on most systems. NCFTP supports up/down arrows for history, caches, and directories, and has many more features.

To use NCFTP, at the Unix prompt, enter:

  ncftp host

Replace host with the name of the site to which you wish to connect. To connect to a site that requires a username and password, enter:

  ncftp -u host 

For a complete listing of NCFTP's features, at the Unix prompt, enter:

  man ncftp

At Indiana University, NCFTP is available on most Unix central systems.

Instead of a command-line FTP program, you can use a desktop client like Transmit for Mac OS X. You can also use most web browsers; Mozilla's Firefox and SeaMonkey are both good options. Desktop clients and browsers are both much easier to use than command-line based FTP programs and allow you to transfer items directly to your hard disk. To access an FTP site via a web browser (and some FTP clients), use a URL such as:

  ftp://ftp.mozilla.org

You can also download many files via anonymous FTP from web sites. Obtaining files via the web is usually easier than FTP and rarely involves usernames and passwords.