if all tou want to do is connect to an ftp server, wouldn't it make more sense to use
FTP?

Code:
[rcgreen@acer rcgreen]$ ftp acer
Connected to acer (192.168.0.3).
220 acer.localdomain FTP server (Version wu-2.6.1-18) ready.
Name (acer:rcgreen): rcgreen
331 Password required for rcgreen.
Password:
230 User rcgreen logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> dir
227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,0,3,53,126)
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for directory listing.
total 16976
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500         19686 Apr 13  2003 COPYING
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500       3489636 Mar  2  2003 Tk-800.024.tar.gz
drwxrwxr-x  38 500      500          4096 Mar  2  2003 Tk800.024
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500            36 May  6  2003 address.jeremy
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500        122298 May 10  2003 advent-1.0.0.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500         57263 Sep 11  2001 advent.dat
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500         72782 May 14  2003 advent.sav
drwxrwxr-x   3 500      500          4096 May 10  2003 adventure
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500          1096 May 10  2003 advpoof.dat
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500             7 Mar  8  2003 bar
drwxrwxr-x   2 500      500          4096 May 10  2003 bin
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500          9155 Jul 11 18:54 blacklist.txt
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500          8576 Jul  8 20:00 blocked.txt
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500          1004 Mar 30  2003 bluescreen.c
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500            30 Jul 10 10:29 commands.txt
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500       3021448 Jun 21  2003 cyrus-imapd-2.1.13-4.i386.rpm
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500         94939 Jun 21  2003 cyrus-imapd-utils-2.1.13-4.i386.rpm
-rw-------   1 500      500           411 May  9  2003 dead.letter
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500       1420248 Jun 18  2003 dosemu-1.0.1-1.i386.rpm
-rwxr-xr-x   1 500      root           64 Apr  6  2003 foo.tcl
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500            49 Mar 30  2003 foo.txt
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500           281 Jun  8  2003 foo.xbm
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500           281 Jun  8  2003 foo.xpm
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500           627 Apr  2  2003 foobar.html
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500          2061 Mar 11  2003 index.html
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500         16335 Apr  5  2003 logo.gif
drwxrwxr-x   3 500      500          4096 Jun 29 02:49 lpb
drwx------   3 500      500          4096 Aug 13 21:23 mail
-rw-------   1 500      500         35087 Sep  6 20:35 mbox
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500           620 Jul 15 19:42 my.whitelist
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500             0 Jul 11 18:58 nblk
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500        164325 Jun 21  2003 perl-Cyrus-2.1.13-4.i386.rpm
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500           556 Dec  5  2002 pess17.gif
drwxrwxr-x   6 500      500          4096 Jan  5  2003 prog
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500             6 May  7  2003 sta
-rw-r--r--   1 500      500           789 Jul 10 20:27 subject.recipe
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500          2999 May  8  2003 tlog.html
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500          2784 Jul 21 10:39 tour.html
-rw-rw-r--   1 500      500          3126 Mar 18  2003 ugly.ico
drwxrwxr-x   3 500      500          4096 Aug 30 08:10 vis
226 Transfer complete.
ftp>