after ftp. ftp.umass.edu, I get "UNKNOWN HOST" There is no prompt for username. What do I do so that I can ftp files out? Or even email, to an unknown host.
i think you are typeing it incorrectly.
i get a dns response from that host.
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: isis.oit.umass.edu
Address: 128.119.166.99
Aliases: ftp.umass.edu
type "ftp ftp.umass.edu" then it should prompt you for a u/p
If you are getting Unknown Host, This either means that
- Host name that you have provided is Invalid.
- DNS is not configured.
- There might be some problem in the network
- or the Host which you want to access is down.
Try to Ping the host.
And by looking the command that you have provided "ftp. ftp.umass.edu", here there is a problem - ftp followed by dot(.), but this will not give UNKNOWN HOST; indeed it will give "Command not found". So I assume that you are issuing the command correctly.
And to know whether you can mail on that server:
If you network programming, you can then write a DNS query to look for MX record, and if such record exist, then you can mail to that server also.