Problems with FTP

I have recently received several complaints from people who have been unable to download my FTP files. I've been told by our CS Help Desk that the difficulty is probably due to the lack of FTP functionality in Internet Explorer 7. In more detail, they wrote to me:

The problem you are experiencing is a known issue with Internet Explorer 7. Apparently, Microsoft stripped FTP functionality out of Internet Explorer 7 - connecting to FTP sites used to work with Internet Explorer 6.

Firefox can open FTP sites without a problem, so using that browser may be the easiest solution. If you prefer to use Internet Explorer 7, you can follow these steps to open an FTP site:

- attempt to connect to the FTP site as you normally would, and wait for the "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" error page,

- while at that page, click "Page" in the upper-right corner of Internet Explorer, then click "Open FTP site in Windows Explorer",

- in approximately 30-60 seconds, the FTP site should appear in a new window.

last updated March 11, 2008