Jerry, been having a think, I've tried using ftp_get, works for me on the rough script to download dsd.txt
<?php
// define some variables
$local_file = 'DSD.txt';
$server_file = '/pub/latest/DSD.txt';
$ftp_server = 'ftp.swpc.noaa.gov';
$ftp_user_name = "anonymous";
$ftp_user_pass = "";
// set up basic connection
$conn_id = ftp_connect($ftp_server);
// login with username and password
$login_result = ftp_login($conn_id, $ftp_user_name, $ftp_user_pass);
// try to download $server_file and save to $local_file
if (ftp_get($conn_id, $local_file, $server_file, FTP_ASCII)) {
echo "Successfully written to $local_file\n";
} else {
echo "There was a problem\n";
}
// close the connection
ftp_close($conn_id);
?>