Question Trouble connectiong to FTP server

[Jan Grenov]

Hi

I am developing an add-in for Autodesk Revit and I need to create a download module where users can download Revit Family files from an ftp server.
This is new land to me, so I need to learn more about handling this.

I tried to connect this way
Dim ftpRequest As FtpWebRequest = WebRequest.Create("ftp://ipnumber/Plug-in/" & "test.txt")
ftpRequest.Method = Net.WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile
ftpRequest.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("myusername", "mypassword") Dim response As FtpWebResponse = DirectCast(ftpRequest.GetResponse(), FtpWebResponse)
Dim responseStream As Stream = response.GetResponseStream()
Dim reader As New StreamReader(responseStream)

That worked on my test server, but it does not Work on the real server. I get a timeout error!

I have access to this information:
FTP server IP-address
Port number
User ID
Password

Now my question: Any hints on what may be the cause and where to find tutorials?

Regards
Jan Grenov

 

[jmcilhinney]

Now my question: what's different between the test server and the real server?

If it's just a simple file download then you'd be better off using a WebClient, which provides a simpler API. That said, to determine whether you're getting any data at all, have you tried just reading a few Bytes from the response Stream?

 

[Jan Grenov]

Thanks for replying

Well testserver versus real server ... Trouble is my ability to explain thogougly in plain English. Sorry.

Test server is a web server that I know to Work like "ftp://IPaddress/domain.dk/TestFolder/"
Real server is the web server that i actually should connect to like "ftp://SomeOtherIPaddress/domain.dk/TestFolder/"
...simple as that.

Though I have made add-ins for Autodesk products for a long time I am quite new to the discipline of connecting to ftp, so I guess that need more basic knowledge concerning this. I'll try to search WebClient solutions.
Any hints on where to start looking?

Jan

 

[jmcilhinney]

I'll try to search WebClient solutions.
Any hints on where to start looking?

The MSDN documentation. Assuming that you don't need any more fine-grained control, it's as simple as creating an instance and calling DownloadFile or DownloadString.