FTP server existence Check

[jaymehta18]

Hi,

I have a script which connects to the FTP server and downloads few files from the server.

I had a problem in executing the script when the FTP Server was not active. The script tried to connect to the FTP Server but it didnt and the main thing was that it didnt even proceed further. It got stuck at FTP prompt.

I want to know how do we check before doing any work, existence of FTP Server. Please tell me how to check for it without the script hanging.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Jay

[ynilesh]

Run nmap portscanner on remote host from you localhost, which is not recommended though.

nmap  remote host ip/name

Output will be something like this, grep for port 21/ftp and based on that manage your script.

nmap remote-host-ip/name
Starting Nmap 4.53 ( http://insecure.org ) at 2008-07-31 19:24 IST
Interesting ports on   remote-host-ip/name (10.10.10.10):
Not shown: 1708 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
22/tcp   open  ssh
80/tcp   open  http
993/tcp  open  imaps
3306/tcp open  mysql

till the time let me think of some other way.

- nilesh