controlling ftp process from a shell script or program

[AURTT at ASUACAD.BITNET]

On our machine here at work wer are running BSD 4.3.  I am trying to
figure out an intelligent way to control an ftp process.  When I say
intelligent I mean that it must handle errors like timeouts or connection
refused.  If a connection establishes it should send the userid and
password.  I don't know how to get to the result of the ftp command.
In previous attempts I was able to pass commands to ftp via the popen()
function call, my problem is WHICH command to send and I need to know
what the result of the ftp was in order to do this.  I would greatly
appreciate any suggestions.  Thanks.