[JLFanboy]

Okay, so I don't know a thing about FTP. I've never understood it. To me, it's always just been these weird looking pages that don't have pictures and list everything. I've never had much use for them, either.

Now, though, there's this FTP server I've been trying to get access to. I usually do this through IE, and it's worked pretty well. Then I tried it through Safari, and it took me to the Finder. But nothing happened. I tried the Connect to Sever dialogue. But nothing happened.

I've been seeing a lot lately about "FTP being broken in the Finder." Is this it? I assume it is. So what's up? How can I get to this server?

I realize I'm exposing myself as a newbie, but I'd appreciate any help/suggestions.

Thanks.

[Detrius]

FTP is File Transfer Protocol. It's entirely for downloading (or uploading) files.

I know that you are a newbie and all, but you'll never learn until you try:

check out the command line application ncftp. The version that Apple includes with OS X is a bit outdated, but it will work well enough. Man pages are your friend (man ncftp).

[Camelot]

The short answer is that Safari hands off FTP connections to the Finder, and the Finder 'mounts' the FTP server on your desktop. The idea being that this provides a more Mac-like interface for navigating FTP sites.

This differs from IE where IE displays the file listings in the browser window.

There's a multitude of reasons as to why it didn't work, including server problems, firewall problems, and the Finder itself - the Finder is a mediocre FTP client, at best.

A better solution is to use a dedicated FTP client such as Fetch ( http://fetchsoftworks.com/ ) or Interarchy ( http://www.interarchy.com/ ). At the very least these programs would provide better feedback as to what the problem is.

The ncftp client previously mentioned is a command-line level ftp client, and not for the faint of heart or ftp-novice.

[AJ]

Originally posted by Camelot:

A better solution is to use a dedicated FTP client such as Fetch ( http://fetchsoftworks.com/ ) or Interarchy ( http://www.interarchy.com/ ). At the very least these programs would provide better feedback as to what the problem is.

The ncftp client previously mentioned is a command-line level ftp client, and not for the faint of heart or ftp-novice.

OT: Interachy is the dogs proverbial, if you know what i mean

AJ