UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi all,

My problem is simple. I would like to download the contents of a directory on an ftp site. I can access the site through windows, but there are many files and it would be too tedious to click and download each file. Thus, I am trying to use

scp -r username@xx.xx.xxx.xxx:/directory .

but this is not working. I am not being prompt for a password, and the connection is timing out.

I can access the ftp site through windows internet explorer fine. The address is in the form https://xx.xx.xxx.xxx/directory

I am kind of new at this so I think I might be missing a step or something.

Thanks, in advanced.

If you don't have to issue a sudo command...

scp -r <username>@xx.xx.xx.xxx.xxx:/<dir>/<space> .

Should prompt for a password.

Well to be honest I do not know if I need to issue a sudo command. I believe the commands you listed are the same as the one's I used in my original post. I am getting a message that says the following:

ssh: connect to host xx.xx.xxx.xxx port 22: Connection timed out, any ideas?

Connection time out could mean just about anything... might want to ask the sftp site host if it allows ssh connections for a start.

Your command was this:
scp -r username@xx.xx.xxx.xxx:/directory .

My suggestion is this:
scp -r <username>@xx.xx.xx.xxx.xxx:/<dir>/<space> .

I should have been more specific and told you that you're missing that second / before the <space> <dot>. That will grab the directory and all of its contents...just be sure its going to a directory you can write to.

is sshd running on the host you are trying to connect to? if a timeout appears it don't looks like it does...

Thanks for the info guys, I did not realize the host was required to enable ssh. They very well could be the issue, I can verify thanks!