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I connect to a remote webserver from my home machine using FTP. However, if I don't do anything in FTP for a minute or two, the remote server closes the connection. Consequently, I have to do some stuff in my ftp prompt, like ls or cding a few times to prevent the connection from being closed.

I don't have administrative access to the remote server, so I can't change the FTP settings.

Here's my question: is there anything I can do to keep the FTP connection alive automatically? Is there a command, a script, etc.?

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The timeout is configured on the server side so as you said if you cannot change server settings the only way is to do some command.

Some servers support a way to increase the idle time using the "SITE IDLE xxxx" (with xxxx number of seconds) or just "IDLE xxxx" or sometimes "QUOTE TIME xxxx". But this is server dependant and there is a maximum value configured server side as well for this value.

On the other side some FTP clients therefore automatically send a command (usually NOOP: no operation) just the keep the connection steady. I could suggest to try to use one of this clients instead of the standard FTP client.

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  • Cheers. I checked the commands you suggested, unfortunately none of them work with the remote server. Perhaps I'll use a custom FTP client, or a script to just send ls every thirty seconds or so.
    – Newb
    Dec 19, 2013 at 10:50

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