ostu - automating microsoft ftp client (by tony fortunato)

© 2009 www.thetechfirm.com

Troubleshooting

Tony Fortunato, Sr Network SpecialistThe Technology Firm

Automating Microsoft’s FTP Client


What are you talking about?

I’m in the middle of a troubleshooting exercise and have to FTP a file to a server In this case I would like to automate this procedure so I can either schedule it, or

run it from a batch file

Why should I have to type all the various FTP commands, when I can automate it?

I have also used this tip when performing baseline measurements and upgrading network equipment after hours


List of FTP commands for the Microsoft command-line FTP client

ftp [-v] [-d] [-i] [-n] [-g] [-s:filename] [-a] [-w:windowsize] [computer]

-v - Suppresses verbose display of remote server responses. -n - Suppresses auto-login upon initial connection. -i - Turns off interactive prompting during multiple file transfers. -d - Enables debugging, displaying all ftp commands passed between the client and

server. -g - Disables filename globbing, which permits the use of wildcard chracters in local

file and path names. -s:filename - Specifies a text file containing ftp commands; the commands will

automatically run after ftp starts. No spaces are allowed in this parameter. Use this switch instead of redirection (>).

-a - Use any local interface when binding data connection. -w:windowsize - Overrides the default transfer buffer size of 4096. computer - Specifies the computer name or IP address of the remote computer to

connect to. The computer, if specified, must be the last parameter on the line.


Some Common FTP Commands

Open hostname – connects you to a ftp server Bin – sets you to binary mode Hash – shows those hash marks as you copy files Cd – Change remote directory Lcd – change local directory Get – download a file Mget – copies one or more remote files to the local computer Put or send – upload a file Delete – Deletes a file Bye – ends your session Disconnect – disconnects from the curent host, but keeps the ftp prompt up


Example

Its pretty simple, FTP acme.txt to my ftp server as newfile.txt Login; student Password; password

script.txt will look something like this open r2d2 student password hash bin put acme.txt newfile.txt bye

Batch file (script.bat) or command to run the script ftp -s:script.txt


Sample Output - Success

C:\testing123>script.batC:\testing123>ftp -s:script.txt ftp> open r2d2 Connected to r2d2. 220 Welcome to Quick 'n Easy FTP Server User (r2d2:(none)): 331 Password required for student 230 User successfully logged in. ftp> hash Hash mark printing On ftp: (2048 bytes/hash mark) . ftp> bin 200 Type set to BINARY ftp> put acme.txt newfile.txt 200 Port command successful. 150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for file transfer. 226 Transfer complete ftp: 1 bytes sent in 0.00Seconds 1000.00Kbytes/sec. ftp> bye 221 Bye


Wireshark Training - QuickStart

Tony Fortunato, Sr Network SpecialistThe Technology Firm

Thank you


For additional educational videos on Open Source Network Tools, please click on the following …

http://www.lovemytool.com/blog/ostu.html

LoveMyTool.com – Community for Network Tools