ok, so for whatever reason (firewall) you can telnet to a unix box but not ftp. however you need some files from it. they are reasonably large, and contain binary information. how do you get them?
client $ script
client $ telnet (host)
..login..
host $ uuencode (filename) (filename)
host $ CTRL-D
client $ CTRL-D
you should now have the result of the session in a file (probably called typescript). all you need to do is strip the ^Ms out of it, and uudecode it. hey presto. neat :)