Having seen examples of BITS being used to transfer files from http addresses as well as regular windows file shares, I thought I'd test pulling and pushing to/from ftp. I used the below powershell commands:
Start-BitsTransfer `
-Source ftp://username:password@ftp.somewhere.com/file.zip `
-Destination c:\temp\file.zip
Start-BitsTransfer `
-Source c:\temp\file2.zip `
-Destination ftp://username:password@ftp.somewhere.com/file2.zip
In both cases I got the error:
Start-BitsTransfer : Cannot find drive. A drive with the name 'ftp' does not exist.
At c:\temp\bits2ftp.ps1:3 char:1
+ Start-BitsTransfer `
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (ftp:String) [Start-BitsTransfer], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DriveNotFound,Microsoft.BackgroundIntelligentTransfer.Management.NewBitsTransferCommand
As such, I assume this isn't possible... however thought I'd post on here in case there is a way to do this (e.g. does it work on certain ftp servers)?
Also posting on here since I've seen no mention of anyone attempting this before, so thought I'd provide a Google hit for the next person to wonder.