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PixelSmith

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 29, 2005
7
0
Hi All,

Query regarding FTP connections over the internet: I'm increasingly having
to download repro files from FTP sites rather than being supplied a disc or
ISDN. It is often the case that any given site will connect ok through
Safari on a Mac but not on a PC with IE, and vice versa (with many other
combinations inbetween). This means that significant time is wasted trying
various combinations of platform and browser to try and get a transfer
going. Sometimes the link has a username and password built into it
(referred to by customer as browser optimised), other times this has to be
entered manually. In any case the whole process is very temperamental and
starting to become a proper hassle.

I wonder if anyone can clarify for me the difference between connecting
through a web browser or using an FTP client?; and what key questions to
consider when trying to connect? My limited understanding is that FTP should
be cross platform like web, but this is certainly not the case judging by
recent experience.

Example:>>>
Trying to download from a Hermstedt Stingray FTS server, using a URL.

Failed:
OS X - Firefox, error message reads something like "won't open"
OS X - Safari, error message reads something like "cannot open..."
Windows XP - IE6, eror message similar to those above
Windows XP - Smart FTP, error message similar to those above

Succeeded:
Windows 2000 - IE, connection and download worked ok.

Has anyone got any advice for troubleshooting FTP issues?

Cheers

Pixel
 

Sparky's

macrumors 6502a
Feb 11, 2004
871
0
For whatever reason Apple did this I'll never guess. You can't go directly from Mac to Mac via .ftp. We just started up a new G5 X-serve and got our .ftp all up and running just fine. the boss comes in and says his brother uploaded something there and I needed to download do alts and re-upload the files for his review. OK go to the Menu>Go>Connect to server, type in the IP of the .ftp and connect no problem, download the files, all is good. When I go to upload again I can't access the server getting the "You don't have access privileges..." yada yada (I'm admin level). Found out I needed a third party access utility like "Fetch" to access the (well any) .ftp site. got it run it poof! all is wonderful again. I can get there from the PC we have but not from the Mac. Strange but true, and as I said I don't understand Apples logic on this one..

Hope that helped
 
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