bypassing blocked ftp

August 17, 2005 1:46 PM

I'm at the library, connected to the internet using the library's wifi service. I'm trying to download a driver file, which is only available from the manufacturer via an ftp link. The library blocks ftp (at least via port 21 and the manu's ftp server doesn't respond on other ports). How do I download the file?
posted by tiny purple fishes to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Try Web 2 FTP.
posted by clevershark at 1:49 PM on August 17, 2005

Clevershark's option looks good, but if that doesn't work for you, maybe this will. It looks a little more complicated in that you download and run an app, but it is an ftp client that works over the http protocol.
posted by JJtheJetPlane at 2:38 PM on August 17, 2005

clevershark, I can use Web2FTP to browse the server and download smaller files but it just hangs when I try to download my file. I think the file's too big (although it's only 8M and their FAQ says they can handle up to 50). drats. Otherwise a great suggestion.

JJ, web-ftp is a CGI script to run off a server that you control; your server connects to the FTP server you're interested in, then you connect to your server via http. alas, that won't work for me.
posted by tiny purple fishes at 3:43 PM on August 17, 2005

The non-scalable solution would be to say what file it is and hope someone will put it up on their web space and give you a link.
posted by smackfu at 5:56 PM on August 17, 2005

I solved it by something along smackfu's lines: I emailed a friend who downloaded the file then emailed it to me.

For future reference, both clevershark's web2ftp and net2ftp, which I discovered on my own and which has a more polished UI, were able to download larger files from other ftp servers but not the one I wanted (ftp.linksys.com). So I'll blame the server. Thanks.
posted by tiny purple fishes at 7:51 PM on August 17, 2005