Microsoft DOS ftp command

Note: FTP is not an encrypted transmission, which means any data sent over it, including your username and password could be read by anyone who may intercept your transmission. If you're wanting a more secure transmission we suggest using SFTP.

Connect using FTP
Send and receive a file in FTP
FTP commands

Connect using FTP

To connect to another computer using FTP at the MS-DOS prompt, command line, or Linux shell type FTP and press enter. Once in FTP> type:

open ftp.example.com

In the above example, you'd substitute example.com for the name of your domain you're wanting to connect to. In addition to the domain name the IP address of the computer you're trying to connected to can also be typed typed in, for example, open 192.168.1.1.

Once connected you will be asked for a username and password. If these are entered properly you'll be successfully connected to the server where you can browse the files, send files, or receive files depending on your rights. Some servers may also allow anonymous logins you can connect to these computers using guest or e-mail address.

Send and receive a file in FTP

To get files from the server onto your own computer use the get command as shown in the below example. In this example you'd get the file myfile.htm.

Tip: If you want to get more than one file use mget and wildcards, for example, if you wanted to get all files that end with .htm you could type mget *.htm. Finally, if you do not want to be prompted as each file is being sent make sure to type prompt to disable prompting.

get myfile.htm

To send a file from your computer to the computer you are connected to assuming you have the rights use the send command as shown in the below example. In this example we're sending the myfile.htm to the directory we're currently in.

send myfile.htm

It is important to realize that the files being sent must be in your local working directory. In other words the directory you were in when you typed the FTP command. If you want to change to the directory that contains your files use the lcd command. For example, on Windows you'd type lcd c:\windows to set the local directory to the Windows directory.

FTP Commands

Depending upon the version of FTP and the operating system being used, each of the below commands may or may not work. Typing -help or a ? will list the commands available to you. Below is a general description of FTP commands available in the Windows command line FTP command.

• Linux and Unix FTP command help and information.