Tools

Connect to the FTP client using the Windows command line

This article provides procedures on using the Windows command prompt to connect to an FTP server.

First published date

10/11/2018 3:15 PM

Last published date

8/13/2022 3:24 AM

Overview

This article describes how to use the Windows command prompt to connect to an FTP server.

Product section

Serv-U Managed File Transfer & Serv-U FTP Server

Resolution

  1. Click Start, select Run, and then enter cmd to give you a blank c:\> prompt.
  2. Enter ftp.
  3. Enter open.
  4. Enter the IP address or domain that you want to connect to.
  5. Enter your user name and password when prompted.

You can now send FTP commands to the server.

Some common commands used by the command line client are Put, Get, Dir, and CD. The following example shows a Windows command prompt to connect to an FTP server:

C:\>ftp
ftp> open
To 127.0.0.1
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
220 Serv-U FTP Server v4.2 for WinSock ready...
User (127.0.0.1:(none)): user_name
331 User name okay, need password.
Password:your_password
230 User logged in, proceed.
ftp> dir

Since FTP is a Microsoft utility, and cannot be covered in any detail here, it is recommended you refer to Microsoft's own documentation for complete information: How to Use the FTP utility in a typical session (© Microsoft 2020, obtained on January 21, 2020).