FTP Etiquette
Lest we forget, the Internet is there for people to do work. People using the network and the systems on it are doing so for a purpose, whether it be research, development, whatever. Any heavy activity takes away from the overall performance of the network as a whole.
The effects of an FTP connection on a site and its link can vary; the general rule of thumb is that any extra traffic created detracts from the ability of that site's users to perform their tasks. To help be considerate of this, it's highly recommended that FTP sessions be held only after normal business hours for that site, preferably late at night. The possible effects of a large transfer will be less destructive at 2 a.m. than 2 p.m. Also, remember that if it's past dinner time in Maine, it's still early afternoon in California—-think in terms of the current time at the site that's being visited, not of local time.
Basic Commands
While there have been many extensions to the various FTP clients out there, there is a de facto "standard" set that everyone expects to work. For more specific information, read the manual for your specific FTP program. This section will only skim the bare minimum of commands needed to operate an FTP session.
Creating the Connection
The actual command to use FTP will vary among operating systems; for the sake of clarity, we'll use FTP here, since it's the most general form.
There are two ways to connect to a system—-using its hostname or its Internet number. Using the hostname is usually preferred. However, some sites aren't able to resolve hostnames properly, and have no alternative. We'll assume you're able to use hostnames for simplicity's sake. The form is
ftp somewhere.domain
Domains for help with reading and using domain names (in the example below, somewhere.domain is ftp.uu.net).