FTP and [shell] or doing more with [jit.uldl]

I've recently been using [shell] a lot more in a patch I'm working on and it's giving me plenty of benefits for certain tasks, however I've encountered a problem recently that I can't seem to crack:

Part of the patch involves uploading files to a server using FTP, which is straightforward enough using [jit.uldl] however that object's functionality is limited - it can't create directories and doesn't seem to be able to list existing directories (even using the 'dir_list' message).

As a result I've been looking at how to use FTP in Terminal and it's cinch, provided I use '-n' to prevent an attempted auto-login.

THAT's where my problem is in Max. If I send 'ftp -n' (followed by the hostname, as I do in Terminal) to [shell] it doesn't seem to work, nor does it give me any feedback. The only time I get any feedback is when I don't use '-n' and it fails to login.

Does anyone know why this is? Failing an explanation for the [shell] issue, is there a way I can use [jit.uldl] to create directories on a server and get a list of directories? I've got a feeling there's a simple explanation for this! Thanks in advance.