Mozilla can do it, why can't command-line ftp?

Hi,
there is a site where I would like to download a number of files.
I can happily do this one file at a time using Mozilla using
http://remote.site/subdir

Obviously it would be easier to use ftp with the -i option and mget
*.*.

Since ftp's normal port seems to be blocked, I tried:
ftp -i http://remote.site:80/subdir
Ftp tells me that it is 'requesting' this but then comes back to the
external command-line immediately.
Attempting the -n or -a options did not help.

What is Mozilla doing right that I am doing wrong?

tia

(btw. Please do not mail me, the address on the header is a red
herring)

andrew williams wrote:
> Hi,
> there is a site where I would like to download a number of files.
> I can happily do this one file at a time using Mozilla using
> http://remote.site/subdir
>
> Obviously it would be easier to use ftp with the -i option and mget
> *.*.

Have you tried wget?
See http://www.lns.cornell.edu/public/CO...t_4.html#SEC13
for more help.

HTH,
->HS

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andrew williams wrote:
>
> Hi,
> there is a site where I would like to download a number of files.
> I can happily do this one file at a time using Mozilla using
> http://remote.site/subdir
>
> Obviously it would be easier to use ftp with the -i option and mget
> *.*.
>
> Since ftp's normal port seems to be blocked, I tried:
> ftp -i http://remote.site:80/subdir
> Ftp tells me that it is 'requesting' this but then comes back to the
> external command-line immediately.
> Attempting the -n or -a options did not help.
>
> What is Mozilla doing right that I am doing wrong?

Try wget.

Regards, Ian

> there is a site where I would like to download a number of files.
> I can happily do this one file at a time using Mozilla using
> http://remote.site/subdir
>
> Obviously it would be easier to use ftp with the -i option and mget
> *.*.
>
> Since ftp's normal port seems to be blocked, I tried:
> ftp -i http://remote.site:80/subdir
> Ftp tells me that it is 'requesting' this but then comes back to the
> external command-line immediately.
> Attempting the -n or -a options did not help.
>
> What is Mozilla doing right that I am doing wrong?

What you're doing wrong is trying to use an FTP client to retrieve files
that are served out via HTTP. They're completely different protocols, so
you're not going to have any luck. "FTP's normal port" probably isn't
blocked, per se, they're probably not running an FTP server at all.
However, as others have pointed out, wget will probably do what you need.

steve