Small binary file

If the file is small, the easiest way is using WebClient.DownloadData:

WebClient client = new WebClient();

string url = "ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip";

client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");

byte contents = client.DownloadData(url);

Small text file

If the small file is a text file, use WebClient.DownloadString:

string contents = client.DownloadString(url);

It assumes that the file contents is in UTF-8 encoding (a plain ASCII file will do too). If you need to use a different encoding, use WebClient.Encoding property.

Large binary file

If the file is large, so that you need to process it in chunks, instead of loading it to memory whole, use FtpWebRequest:

FtpWebRequest request =

    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip");

request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");

request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;



using (Stream stream = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())

{

    byte buffer = new byte[10240];

    int read;

    while ((read = stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)

    {

        // process the chunk in "buffer"

    }

}

Large text file

If the large file is a text file and you want to process it by lines, instead of by chunks of a fixed size, use StreamReader:

FtpWebRequest request =

    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.txt");

request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");

request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;



using (Stream stream = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))

{

    while (!reader.EndOfStream)

    {

        string line = reader.ReadLine();

        // process the line

        Console.WriteLine(line);

    }

}

Again, this assumes UTF-8 encoding. If you want to use another encoding, use an overload of StreamReader constructor that takes also Encoding.

The code you have above is very simillar to another Stackoverlow example I found and used myself 2 days ago. Provided you set the URI, User and Password correctly, it will download the file and set the contents to FileString. I'm not sure what you mean by wanting to read the file without downloading it. This is not really an option.

If you want to look at file attributes (I see you mention "version"), you could use the code below to get all the file Name, Data, and Size from the FTP server without downloading the file.

Call GetFileInfo and pass in the file name (make sure you follow through the code to set the full FTP path, User and Password). This will give you back a FTPFileInfo object with a Name, Date and Size.

  public static FTPFileInfo GetFileInfo(string fileName)

        {

            var dirInfo = WordstockExport.GetFTPDirectoryDetails();

            var list = FTPFileInfo.Load(dirInfo);

            try

            {

                FTPFileInfo ftpFile = list.SingleOrDefault(f => f.FileName == fileName);

                return ftpFile;

            }

            catch { }

            return null;

        }

     class FTPFileInfo

        {

            private DateTime _FileDate;

            private long _FileSize;

            private string _FileName;



            public DateTime FileDate

            {

                get { return _FileDate; }

                set { _FileDate = value; }

            }

            public long FileSize

            {

                get { return _FileSize; }

                set { _FileSize = value; }

            }

            public string FileName

            {

                get { return _FileName; }

                set { _FileName = value; }

            }



            public FTPFileInfo() { }

            public static FTPFileInfo LoadFromLine(string line)

            {

                FTPFileInfo file = new FTPFileInfo();



                string ftpFileInfo = line.Split(" ".ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

                file._FileDate = DateTime.Parse(ftpFileInfo[0] + " " + ftpFileInfo[1]);

                file._FileSize = long.Parse(ftpFileInfo[2]);

                file._FileName = ftpFileInfo[3];



                return file;



            }

            public static List<FTPFileInfo> Load(string listDirectoryDetails)

            {

                List<FTPFileInfo> files = new List<FTPFileInfo>();



                string lines = listDirectoryDetails.Split("rn".ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

                foreach(var line in lines)

                    files.Add(LoadFromLine(line));



                return files;

            }



        }

       private static string GetFTPDirectoryDetails()

            {

                FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(App.Export_FTPPath);

                request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;

                request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(App.FTP_User, App.FTP_Password);

                FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();



                Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();

                StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream);

                string fileLines = reader.ReadToEnd();

                reader.Close();

                response.Close();



                return fileLines;

            }

It is impossible to know what the issue is without details about the error/exception.

At a guess, you do not seem to be assigning a new value to version after the initial declaration

string version = "";

Try changing your code to

version = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newFileData);

C Sharp GUI app. Minimal ftp transfer, not elegant but it works fine.
GUI, not console.

Weather from noaa. Find your region (look for your metar)!
A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre- flight

Build with vs 2012 premium RC (july 2012)

(click on label, not button)

using System;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using System.Net;

using System.IO;

using System.Collections.Generic;



namespace getweather

{

    public partial class Form1 : Form

    {

        public Form1()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

        } 



         private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            Application.Exit();

        }



        private void CYYY_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            WebClient request = new WebClient();

            string url = "ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/decoded/CYYY.TXT";

            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("anonymous", "anonymous@example.com");

            byte newFileData = request.DownloadData(url);

            string fileString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newFileData);

            richTextBox1.Text = fileString;

        }



        private void CYSC_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            WebClient request = new WebClient();

            string url = "ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/decoded/CYSC.TXT";

            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("anonymous", "anonymous@example.com");

            byte newFileData = request.DownloadData(url);

            string fileString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newFileData);

            richTextBox1.Text = fileString;



        }



        private void CYQB_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            WebClient request = new WebClient();

            string url = "ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/decoded/CYQB.TXT";

            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("anonymous", "anonymous@example.com");

            byte newFileData = request.DownloadData(url);

            string fileString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newFileData);

            richTextBox1.Text = fileString;



        }



        private void CYUY_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            WebClient request = new WebClient();

            string url = "ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/decoded/CYUY.TXT";

            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("anonymous", "anonymous@example.com");

            byte newFileData = request.DownloadData(url);

            string fileString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newFileData);

            richTextBox1.Text = fileString;



        }



        private void CYHU_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            WebClient request = new WebClient();

            string url = "ftp://tgftp.nws.noaa.gov/data/observations/metar/decoded/CYHU.TXT";

            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("anonymous", "anonymous@example.com");

            byte newFileData = request.DownloadData(url);

            string fileString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newFileData);

            richTextBox1.Text = fileString;



        }

    }

}

WebClient request = new WebClient();

string url = "ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/fortran/" +"README.TXT";

request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("anonymous", "anonymous@example.com");

request.Proxy = null;



try

{

  byte newFileData = request.DownloadData(url);

  string fileString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(newFileData);

  Console.WriteLine(fileString);

}

catch (WebException e)

{

  // Do something such as log error, but this is based on OP's original code

  // so for now we do nothing.

}

I know this is an old question, but I thought I'd suggest using path.combine for the next guy reading this. Helps clean up these kinds of issues.

        string url = Path.Combine("ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/fortran", "README.TXT");

We can use below method to get the file attribute from ftp without downloading the file.This is working fine for me.

    public DataTable getFileListFTP(string serverIP,string userID,string Password)

    {

        DataTable dt = new DataTable();

        string fileListArr;

        string fileName = string.Empty;

        long fileSize = 0;

       // DateTime creationDate;

        string creationDate;



        FtpWebRequest Request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(serverIP);

        Request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;

        Request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(userID,Password);

        FtpWebResponse Response = (FtpWebResponse)Request.GetResponse();

        Stream ResponseStream = Response.GetResponseStream();

        StreamReader Reader = new StreamReader(ResponseStream);

        dt.Columns.Add("FileName", typeof(String));

        dt.Columns.Add("FileSize", typeof(String));

        dt.Columns.Add("CreationDate", typeof(DateTime));

        //CultureInfo c = new CultureInfo("ES-ES");

        while (!Reader.EndOfStream)//Read file name   

        {

            fileListArr = Convert.ToString(Reader.ReadLine()).Split(" ".ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

            fileSize = long.Parse(fileListArr[4]);

            creationDate = fileListArr[6] + " " + fileListArr[5] + " " + fileListArr[7];

            //creationDate =Convert.ToDateTime(fileListArr[6] + " " + fileListArr[5] + " " + fileListArr[7], c).ToString("dd/MMM/yyyy", DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);

            fileName = Convert.ToString(fileListArr[8]);



            DataRow drow = dt.NewRow();

            drow["FileName"] = fileName;

            drow["FileSize"] = fileName;

            drow["CreationDate"] = creationDate;

            dt.Rows.Add(drow);

        }

        Response.Close();

        ResponseStream.Close();

        Reader.Close();

        return dt;

    }