Module One - FTP

FTP? Well, it all mostly worked.

My usual ftp client - (Midnight Commander, a multipurpose text-mode file manager), didn't enjoy the server at all and complained bitterly about not being able to parse the directory listing. Seeing as one really needs a directory listing to navigate about an unfamiliar server, it made it a little difficult.

So I switched to plain old command-line text-mode ftp, which was perfectly happy with the directory listing. Found the file in a subdirectory, transferred it to my computer with a get command (ignoring the warning about the 60 bare linefeeds received in ASCII mode) and disconnected. And yes, as any non-windows person will tell you CAPITALIZATION (tsk, spelling) matters.

Again, like telnet, ftp is a no-nonsense protocol. You want a file? Log in and get it. Done. Oh, you can cover that with pretty clients that provide seamless integration into windows if you want. But the full functionality is still there with a simple client like the one I used. Four commands ("ls", "cd", "ls", "get readme.txt") was all that was needed to get the necessary file and it took about 20 seconds to do it. Which is the way I like it.