Ahh Ha! It helps to put the full URL. Please disregard my previous e-mail with wget output. So, here is the command and the output: wget --debug ftp://10.2.x.x/var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base/hdlist DEBUG output created by Wget 1.8.2 on linux-gnu. --18:18:37-- ftp://10.2.x.x/var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base/hdlist => `hdlist' Connecting to 10.2.x.x:21... connected. Created socket 3. Releasing 0x80768d0 (new refcount 0). Deleting unused 0x80768d0. Logging in as anonymous ... 220 10.2.x.x FTP server (Version wu-2.6.1-16) ready. --> USER anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. --> PASS -wget@ 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. Logged in! ==> SYST ... --> SYST 215 UNIX Type: L8 done. ==> PWD ... --> PWD 257 "/" is current directory. done. ==> TYPE I ... --> TYPE I 200 Type set to I. done. changing working directory Prepended initial PWD to relative path: old: 'var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base' new: '/var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base' ==> CWD /var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base ... --> CWD /var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base 550 /var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base: No such file or directory. No such directory `var/redhat.disks/redhat-9.0/RedHat/base'. Closing fd 3 Why isn't there a / before the var directory?