ftp is a flexible enough protocol that it can be used in
a variety of ways. In particular, the client can:
1. request that the server initiate the data transfer connection.
This is used by the standard Linux command-line ftp client,
and by Lynx. It doesn't work, because the firewall rejects
the server's attempt to connect back to the client machine.
2. request that the server listen(2) on a port, to allow some other
machine to initiate the data transfer connection. Chimera and
Netscape both do this, and follow up by initiating the connection
themselves. It works fine, because all connections are outbound.
So: if you want a command line ftp, you need to research and/or
hack a version that uses the PASV command. If you want some
way to get stuff off an anonymous ftp site _now_, your choices
are: do it from a central Computer Center machine, use Netscape,
or use Chimera.
<begin blatant advertising>
Chimera 1.70 works great on Linux. It's not the pig that Netscape
is: it is quick to load, no stupid blinks, no stupid backgrounds,
no stupid animations. The source is at
hasse.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de/~nikl/chimera-1.65p/
I will try to whip up a Red Hat RPM for it when time permits.
<end blatant advertising>
- Larry Doolittle ldoolitt@jlab.org