The ftp command can be different on different distro's.
The default ftp command is rather simple and doesn't allow for what's being shown in your first post.
Have a look at the ftp manual page for the available options (
man ftp)
If all you want to do is fetch a file I would suggest using wget instead:
Code:
wget ftp://user:PASS@ftp.something.domain.com/SOMEFILE.out