Windows 7 Command Line FTP

Windows 7 has a command line FTP client that is the same as in Windows XP and Windows Vista.  Click here for Windows XP (Windows XP article after validation, is reproduced here)

FTP client is used to transfer files between your PC and a Server or vice versa.

Command Line FTP

• Select Start > Run and enter cmd in the Search Program and files box. This brings up the command prompt window.
• Enter ftp and press the Enter key. You will get a ftp prompt (ftp>)
• Type help at the prompt. This will give you a listing of the commonly used ftp commands.
• Type open followed by the hostname to connect to the remote server. For example, open foo.com
• If the webserver requires authentication, enter the username and password. This will connect you to the FTP Server
• Anytime use ‘ls’ to get a listing of files in the remote directory and ‘cd’ to change directories.
• Use the ‘get’ command to get files from the local server and ‘send’ or ‘put’ command to upload files from your local PC to the remote server.
• Need to download or upload multiple files? Not an issue – Use ‘mget’ and ‘mput’ for this.
• How do you know when a file has been downloaded or uploaded? Use ‘Bell’ for this. At the ftp prompt type bell and press the key. On completion of upload or download you get a sound prompt.

Find Status

Are you in ASCII or Binary mode? Use ‘Status’ to find that

ftp> status
Connected to referpages.com.
Type: ascii; Verbose: On ; Bell: Off ; Prompting: On ; Globbing: On
Debugging: Off ; Hash mark printing: Off .

• In the above example, the transfer mode is ‘ascii’. To change the transfer mode to ‘binary’ enter the following at the ftp prompt:

ftp> binary on

200 Type set to I

Use status command to verify:

To change back to ascii

ftp> ascii on

200 Type set to A

Use status command to verify:

ftp> status

Connected to referpages.com.

Type: ascii; Verbose: On ; Bell: Off ; Prompting: On ; Globbing: On

Debugging: Off ; Hash mark printing: Off .

• Like to disconnect and go for a drink? use ‘disconnect’ or ‘quit’ to close the ftp session

Only few of the available ftp commands were listed in this article.

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