hey, i am using pure-ftp and i can upload and download files properly but the problem comes when i try to download a whole folder, it say "500 Unknown command." and sometimes "no socket" and then other times "Unable to parse 200 PORT command successful" dont know if this is a problem with FTP or file/user permissions b/c when i was trying to use proftpd it was givin me the same errors. But i checked to make sure that permissions were correct and they all should be....can someone please hellp?!

Don't know what pure-ftp is, but if you mean the command line form of FTP, you will be unable to grab full directories as such. Probably the easiest way would be to first make any necessary directories on your local machine, use the "cd" command to move around the directory structure of the remote machine and "lcd" to change destination directories on the local machine. Then, after setting file types (binary or ascii) use the mget command to pull the files down to the local machine.

Sorry if I completely misunderstood your question.

Jim Dishaw

pure-ftpd is an ftp server. Check freshmeat.
I think your problem is regarding whether passwords are stored persistently or not. To download a folder, you need authentication again. Check in your server settings whether you have disallowed this. Generally users enter a password and the ftp client caches it so that you dont have to re-enter it again and again. Folders have different permissions and listing a directory is no same cd'ing into a sub-directory. Do you have the execute bit set? Try saving your password in your client or ask for it to prompt for it at the least. Your client may be aborting the connection as you generally need to re-enter the password when you cd into a directory.
Try wu-ftpd. Its a good one.