Help with ftp

[Ken Bernstein]

Help!!!!
I realize that this is probably the wrong newsgroup to post to, but I am
reasonably news to the net, and I am sure someone on this group can answer my 
question.

I have read all about anonymous ftp to get sources,  but I am not sure on how
to do it.  Whenever I try I either get the message "xxx:unknown host" when I 
give the site name or "ftp: getsockname: Invalid arg" when I give the address.
Do I need something in my /etc/hosts, od is there some way of specifying the
path to a site for opens? I am at a loss, so whatever help anyone can give me 
would be greatly appreciated.