[[...]] [FTP] command issued as part of setting up a transfer with the connection connection direction being in the same direction as the command channel (i.e. the FTP server creates a temporary server socket and it is up to the client to connect to it.) Why do this? Generall--very generally--it's to get through a firewall. Why not just use [HTTP]? FTP is far faster than normally configured HTTP, and there are the usual legacy reasons, too. As of February 2003, [tcllib]'s [ftp] implements PASV, but [ftpd] does not. ---- http://compnetworking.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-pasv.htm RFC 478 [http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc478.html]: "Server-Server Interaction" RFC 1579 [http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1579.html]: "Firewall-friendly FTP" RFC 959 [http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc959.html] "The difference between PASV FTP and Normal FTP" [http://war.jgaa.com/ftp/?cmd=show_page&ID=ftp_pasv] "File Transfer Protocol"