The Astro FTP Server

Occasionally people would like to use the old FTP method of sharing files. To do this, your personal FTP files should be placed in your home directory, in a subdirectory 'public_ftp/'.
For example, the files in

~/public_ftp/

are available on the FTP server and can be accessed with the URL :

ftp://ftp.astro.caltech.edu/users/<username>

Please note:

• For security reasons, you can only use this area for exporting files so your outside colleagues can pick them up. Outsiders cannot drop off files in our anonymous ftp area. Please do not make any of your files or directories group- or world-writeable.
• For incoming files, outside collaborators may deposit the items in a global incoming subdirectory of the ftp site (URL: ftp://ftp.astro.caltech.edu/incoming/. Once deposited, these files becoming invisible to outside users, and the administrative staff receive an e-mail notifying of us of the files deposited and the e-mail address of the anonymous user who deposited them.
  Please let us know if you are expecting files to be delivered anonymously to the incoming FTP area, and we will notify you when they arrive. This approach, while a bit complex, avoids a number of security issues associated with incoming FTP sites.