Firefox doesn't support FTP
I just found out Firefox don't support FTP link. Online search says "about:config" and search for "ftp" to enable. My Firefox (140.3.1esr) doesn't have any "ftp" parameter, at all. I had to use an old SeaMonkey all-in-one browser. So, how do you open FTP link?
On Wed, Oct 01, 2025 at 11:07:58PM -0400, William Park via Talk wrote:
I just found out Firefox don't support FTP link. Online search says "about:config" and search for "ftp" to enable. My Firefox (140.3.1esr) doesn't have any "ftp" parameter, at all. I had to use an old SeaMonkey all-in-one browser.
So, how do you open FTP link?
curl, ncftp, wget, etc. I don't think any of the browsers do ftp links anymore. -- Len Sorensen
To be honest, I do not do this anymore myself. I have sftp in DOS. It is possible that links still allows for it however. Kare On Thu, 2 Oct 2025, Lennart Sorensen via Talk wrote:
On Wed, Oct 01, 2025 at 11:07:58PM -0400, William Park via Talk wrote:
I just found out Firefox don't support FTP link. Online search says "about:config" and search for "ftp" to enable. My Firefox (140.3.1esr) doesn't have any "ftp" parameter, at all. I had to use an old SeaMonkey all-in-one browser.
So, how do you open FTP link?
curl, ncftp, wget, etc.
I don't think any of the browsers do ftp links anymore.
-- Len Sorensen ------------------------------------ Description: GTALUG Talk Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe@lists.gtalug.org Start a new thread: talk@lists.gtalug.org This message archived at https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/TNDV2O7...
From: Lennart Sorensen via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org>
I don't think any of the browsers do ftp links anymore.
FTP was a very early protocol. In retrospect, it wasn't designed very well. Or at least not designed following conventions that arose later. One problem arose with Network Addres (and port) Translation (NAT should be called NAPT because the port gets mapped too). I don't completely remember the details, but the negotiation and the transmission use two different ports and the port number for transmission is embedded in a message so NAT system needs to actually 1) understand that this is an FTP negotiation 2) decode some of the messages to find out what port will be used. I seem to remember that some NAT systems read the port from a fixed place in the message but the protocol specs don't dictate a fixed position: it's just an ASCII message. There are also security issues. Most things with FTP sites let you fetch with HTTPS, much more secure. When I first had access to the internet, FTP was the most important capability. I admit that email would have been more important but I was already on usenet.
On 10/3/25 12:17, D. Hugh Redelmeier via Talk wrote:
FTP was a very early protocol. In retrospect, it wasn't designed very well. Or at least not designed following conventions that arose later.
One problem arose with Network Addres (and port) Translation (NAT should be called NAPT because the port gets mapped too).
I don't completely remember the details, but the negotiation and the transmission use two different ports and the port number for transmission is embedded in a message so NAT system needs to actually 1) understand that this is an FTP negotiation 2) decode some of the messages to find out what port will be used.
There are 2 FTP modes, active and passive. NAT breaks active mode. Not all FTP clients supported passive mode, but browsers used it.
On 2025-10-01 23:07, William Park via Talk wrote:
I just found out Firefox don't support FTP link. Online search says "about:config" and search for "ftp" to enable. My Firefox (140.3.1esr) doesn't have any "ftp" parameter, at all. I had to use an old SeaMonkey all-in-one browser.
I haven't used a browser to access an FTP link in a very very long time. Under Linux I use the FTP program gFTP. Under Windows it has (or used to have) an ftp client you can run from a command prompt that was simply called ftp, IIRC. -- Cheers! Kevin. https://www.patreon.com/KevinCozens | "Nerds make the shiny things that | distract the mouth-breathers, and Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172 | that's why we're powerful" #include <disclaimer/favourite> | --Chris Hardwick
participants (6)
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D. Hugh Redelmeier -
James Knott -
Karen Lewellen -
Kevin Cozens -
Lennart Sorensen -
William Park