# Fellow AOL users - how to get in with ftp? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442 "2002-08-25T02:30:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/1 "2002-08-25T02:30:56Z")
I want to be able to get access to my aol webspace from a non-aol softwared computer (i.e. at work) I open up a dos prompt, type **ftp [members.aol.com](http://members.aol.com)** then type my user name when asked, the password when asked. it then fails to connect. Am I doing something wrong or am I not allowed into my own aol webspace without being logged into aol? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/2 "2002-08-25T02:50:51Z")
IANA computer geek, but my first thought would be to wonder whether your boss has put something on all his employees’ computers that prevents them from logging onto anything that isn’t “work”. 😃 Why do you need to go through the DOS prompt? Can’t you just go to AOL’s home page and log on from there? > **[AOL - News, Politics, Sports, Mail & Latest Headlines](https://www.aol.com/)** > > Discover the latest breaking news in the U.S. and around the world — politics, weather, entertainment, lifestyle, finance, sports and much more. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/3 "2002-08-25T03:01:47Z")
Nope. It’s AOL’s fault. If you want to access your shared AOL webspace from an ftp client rather than from the (primitive and hideously designed) built-in ftp of the AOL software, there’s only one way you can do it: Make a dialup connection using AOL, then, while THAT is your active TCP/IP connection, launch your favorite ftp program and have at it. If your IP is assigned by anything other than AOL, though, forget about it: it’s AOL’s software or it’s nothing. Just another good reason to switch. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/4 "2002-08-25T03:37:05Z")
Excuse me…but FTP means File Transfer Protocol. How could you connect to AOL through that? AOL is not on the net. It is an OSP. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/5 "2002-08-25T04:11:06Z")
**Duck Duck Goose** and **Reeder** it is not AOL I want to connect to. it is my AOL webspace - where my homepage is located. I want to ‘get into’ that so I can transfer files to it from work. I know now from **AHunter3** that I can’t. Thanks for the info **AHunter3**. This is a big arse. because finally I have a use for my collective webspace (from various isps) but it’s a pain to access them. It used to be that it was a piece of gateux to access them, but I had no use for them. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/6 "2002-08-25T04:18:13Z")
**Ahunter3** I have another isp that I wanted to be able to access without being logged into it because it was not a free phonecall one. I would prefer that one because it has a respectable amount of space compared to the insulting 2MB I get on aohell. Based on what you tell me I now realize that that isp (freeuk) probably does the same thing - looks at my ip address. So… isn’t there a way of tricking the isps into thinking my ip address was asigned by them? maybe log in, note ip address, log out, log in on something else, set ip address as that noted? or am I doomed to either log in at home (if I want access to aol) and log in at home and cost money (if I want to access my decent webspace isp)? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/7 "2002-08-25T22:37:50Z")
I have free web space available to me through earthlink (my original dialup ISP) and verizon (my DSL ISP). Unlike AOL, neither of these prevent me from accessing my web space via ftp client regardless of how I’ve attained my TCP/IP connection. I get into earthlink via ftp when connected via DSL, or into verizon when connected via dialup (not that I do that very often), or into either one of them when I’m at work and getting my IP address via the workplace’s DHCP. This may be true of your other ISP, or it may be peculiar/proprietary like AOL. PS: for what it’s worth, you don’t have an insulting 2 MB on AOL–you have 2MB _per screen name_, which I believe adds up to 14 MB total. Still inconvenient to switch from one screen name to another and start from scratch with the “keyword: myftpspace”, deal with AOL’s miserable ftp interface, etc., in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/8 "2002-08-25T22:50:47Z")
PPS: In playing around on aol’s web site, I am not finding any access to my ftp space using the web interface as **Duck Duck Goose** suggested. [http://members.aol.com/\_ht\_a/hmtwnpromo/myftpspace/](http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/hmtwnpromo/myftpspace/) The links exists here, but if you aren’t using AOL’s built-in browser the links don’t work. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/9 "2002-08-26T04:10:42Z")
I used to be able to FTP to my web space from any ISP, but AOL apparently killed that ability four or five years ago. I believe that you can still upload to an “incoming” subdirectory of your AOL site. Then you’d have to log onto AOL to move (rename) the file. You know you can use rename to move it? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fellow-aol-users-how-to-get-in-with-ftp/125442/10 "2002-08-26T06:30:33Z")
It is coincidental that you should be asking this. I built my web site over a period of time and the main page is within earthlink webspace; the overflow **WAS** distributed across 3 different AOL screen names but I’m in the process of modifying links and uploading the files to verizon webspace. Some of the links that require modifying, of course, are located on the files that are in earthlink space, so I have NetFinder running with one window open to my earthlink webspace and a second window open to my verizon webspace. I can access my AOL webspace too but not with NetFinder–I have to launch AOL and use its proprietary interface. I can’t believe they haven’t changed it since AOL version 2.6!!! Unbelievably klunky! Compare: _Uploading a file with NetFinder_ Step One: drag file from its location on my hard drive into the NetFinder window, and into whatever subdirectory I want it to be in. _Uploading a file with AOL’s built-in FTP interface_ Step One: Navigate into the subdirectory I want the file to go into Step Two: Click the Upload button Step Three: Type the name that I want the file to have after I upload it Step Four: Specify ASCII or Binary transfer mode Step Five: Click the Specify File button Step Six: Navigate to the file on my hard drive and click OK or Open or whatever the button says