FtpWebRequest Download File

Question

The following code is intended to retrieve a file via FTP. However, I'm getting an error with it.

serverPath = "ftp://x.x.x.x/tmp/myfile.txt";

FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(serverPath);

request.KeepAlive = true;
request.UsePassive = true;
request.UseBinary = true;

request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;                
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);

// Read the file from the server & write to destination                
using (FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse()) // Error here
using (Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream))            
using (StreamWriter destination = new StreamWriter(destinationFile))
{
    destination.Write(reader.ReadToEnd());
    destination.Flush();
}

The error is:

The remote server returned an error: (550) File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access)

The file definitely does exist on the remote machine and I am able to perform this ftp manually (i.e. I have permissions). Can anyone tell me why I might be getting this error?

Answer 1

I know this is an old Post but I am adding here for future reference. Here is a solution that I found:

    private void DownloadFileFTP()
    {
        string inputfilepath = @"C:\Temp\FileName.exe";
        string ftphost = "xxx.xx.x.xxx";
        string ftpfilepath = "/Updater/Dir1/FileName.exe";

        string ftpfullpath = "ftp://" + ftphost + ftpfilepath;

        using (WebClient request = new WebClient())
        {
            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("UserName", "P@55w0rd");
            byte[] fileData = request.DownloadData(ftpfullpath);

            using (FileStream file = File.Create(inputfilepath))
            {
                file.Write(fileData, 0, fileData.Length);
                file.Close();
            }
            MessageBox.Show("Download Complete");
        }
    }

Updated based upon excellent suggestion by Ilya Kogan