DOS or Command Prompt FTP Download Instructions

If you do not already have an FTP program or download manager installed on your machine, you can use the ftp executable in the command line interface. This usually works fine for small files or if you have access to a good amount of bandwidth without firewall restrictions.

To download files using a command or MS-DOS prompt, you will need to do four things:

  1. Open an MS-DOS or Command Prompt Window
  2. Start an FTP session
  3. Supply your username and password
  4. Download the necessary files and exit the FTP session
  1. Open an MS-DOS or Command Prompt Window
    In Windows, the shortcut for the command or MS-DOS prompt is usually located in:
    Start | Programs | MS-DOS Prompt
    or
    Start | Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt

    Once you have the command prompt window open, you will want to go to the directory where you want the software to be downloaded.

    For instance:

    C:\>cd C:\downloads

  2. Start an FTP session
    To start an FTP session you will enter the ftp command and the server to connect to:

    C:\downloads>ftp ftp.platte.com

    The ftp server will respond with:

    Connected to ftp.platte.com.
    220 ftp.platte.com FTP server (Version 6.5/OpenBSD) ready.
    User (ftp.platte.com:(none)):

  3. Supply your username and password
    At this point, you will enter your username:

    User (ftp.platte.com:(none)): username

    and password:

    331 Password required for username.
    Password:

    note: you will not see your password when you type it.

    The password is case sensitive, make sure you enter it correctly.

    Once you have successfully logged in, the server will respond with:

    230- OpenBSD 2.9 (GENERIC) #653: Sat Apr 28 13:57:59 MDT 2001
    230-
    230 User username logged in.
    ftp>

  4. Download the necessary files and exit the FTP session

    You may list the contents of files available for download by using the "dir" command:
    ftp> dir
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for '/bin/ls'.
total 102656
-rw-r--r--   1 1034  998         0 Oct  2 14:29 .message
-r--r--r--  11 0     0    10135845 Sep 11 14:44 acroread.zip
-r--r--r--  11 0     0    42376281 Sep 11 14:46 setup.exe
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 209 bytes received in 0.02Seconds 10.45Kbytes/sec.
ftp>
    Most files available for download are in binary format, this includes files with the extensions of .exe, .zip, or .tar.gz.
    Files that are not binary are ASCII files or text files (.txt).

    To correctly download binary files, you must switch to binary mode.
    To do this, type "binary" at the ftp prompt:

    ftp> binary
    200 Type set to I.
    ftp>

    (If you need to use ascii mode for an ASCII file, use the "ascii" command. Also, you may type "help" for a list of ftp commands.)

    Once this is done you are ready to download the files you need.
    All you have to do is type "get filename.exe" at the ftp prompt.

    ftp> get acroread.zip
    200 PORT command successful.
    150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for 'acroread.zip' (10135845 bytes).

    Once the file has been downloaded completely, the server will respond with:

    226 Transfer complete.
    ftp: 10135845 bytes received in 11.92Seconds 850.54Kbytes/sec.

    At this point, you may download another file. If the next file is binary, you do not have to type "binary" again.
    Otherwise if you have downloaded all needed files, just type "quit", and your files will be in the directory you ran ftp from.

    ftp> quit
    221 Goodbye

    C:\downloads>


If you need support downloading from our ftp server, you can contact us for support via e-mail:
webmaster@platte.com

If you need support for software installation or with software keys, please contact:
support@platte.com or keys@platte.com