The FTP Service will be disabled soon!

An announcement about the exact date of decommissioning will be sent to the campus during March 2024. All faculty and staff are requested to copy all personal files from the pub, incoming, or home folders to another location before this date.

One of the problems Weizmann users often face is the difficulty in exchanging files with others, both at the Institute and anywhere else in the world. To enable easy file transfer, we have set up an anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server, which allows anyone, anywhere to connect, upload and download files.

Instructions for Use 

Weizmann users may request a user ID and password via our HelpDesk (also reachable at extension 4444).

Any user with or without an account on the FTP server, within or outside the Institute, can gain access via anonymous login, with the user ID being anonymous and the password being any valid e-mail address (i.e. test@test.com).

You may access our anonymous FTP server via your browser, at ftp://ftp.weizmann.ac.il, or using any standard FTP client.

Uploading Files

There are two folders on the server - one for users with active accounts (with a valid user ID and password), and one for anonymous users.

Users with an account can upload their files to the directory /pub/<user-id> or to /incoming. You cannot view an ls directory listing under /pub/, as this functionality is disabled. Simply enter a specific user directory, such as /pub/<user-id>, in which ls directory is be possible.

While users with an account can upload files to either /pub/<user-id> or /incoming, anonymous users are only allowed to upload files to /incoming. Viewing an ls directory listing under /incoming is not possible, too, as this functionality is also disabled.

Limitations on /incoming

  • Existing files cannot be overwritten.
  • Files cannot be deleted.
  • New directories cannot be created.

Downloading Files

All files on the FTP server, whether in /incoming or in /pub/<user-id>, are available for download. You must know the exact file location when downloading from /incoming, and the exact directory name when downloading from /pub/<user-id>.

Retention Policy

The FTP server is not meant to serve as a long-term file archive. As such, files may be deleted at any time without warning, typically when space needs be freed, starting with files that have resided on the server the longest.

Backup Policy

FTP-stored files are never backed up.

Important Notes

You may encounter situations where certain file lists or directories cannot be found. The reason may be that the content being sought has been determined to be copyright-protected. As uploading of copyrighted files is illegal, we may disable certain directory listings in some instances.

Should you encounter unusual control characters in files downloaded from FTP, this is likely the result of downloading Windows files to Unix/Linux systems. Windows utilizes two end-of-line characters, whereas Unix and Linux use just one, resulting in what will present itself to be a strange, superfluous control character. Some FTP clients compensate and correct this difference in end-of-line characters automatically, whereas others cannot. To resolve the problem, simply activate the ascii operator when performing ftp download commands.

In cases where downloaded files suffer from multiple lines appearing as a single line, this is likely the result of downloading files the other way - from Unix/Linux to Windows systems. The second end-of-line control character Windows expects is missing, resulting in line breaks being omitted.