To query what the default umask is for files you would "put",
  site umask

AIX's default is 027, which means all files wind up with rw- r-- ---
permissions.

To change it for this ftp session, you can
  site umask 022

To change it permanently for a particular receiving machine,
(e.g. Rebecca changed penguin's on 3/30/2001), append a 
  -u 003
or whatever you want, to the end of the ftp line in /etc/inetd.conf, eg
  ftp  stream  tcp6  nowait  root  /usr/sbin/ftpd  ftpd -u 003
and 
  refresh -s inetd

------------------------------------------------------------------------        
To ftp on AIX from/to VM, ftp almvma                                            
or if you forget the almvma, type open almvma at the ftp> prompt.               
                                                                                
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ftp commands           |   Remote System  |  Local System
-----------------------+------------------+-----------------
Change target          |  cd jasper0.191  |    lcd
List Files             |  dir *.aixnotes  |    !ls
                       |  ls              |    !ls -l
Show current directory |  pwd             |    !pwd
Erase files            |  rmdir           |    !rmdir
Rename file            |  rename          |    !mv

------------------------------------------------------------------------        
globbing:                                                                       
                                                                                
  - The append & put ftp commands perform file-name expansion and then          
      use only the first file name generated.                                   
  - The cd, delete, get, mkdir, rename, & rmdir commands do not perform         
      file-name expansion and take the pattern-matching characters              
      literally.  Thus, get *.aixnotes doesn't work at all and gives an         
      error message (501 Invalid file identifier. Use "name.type").             
                                                                                
  To act on/with multiple files with pattern-matching, use mput, mget,          
      or mdelete.                                                               
  - The mput command expands locally.                                           
  - The mget & mdelete commands are expanded at the remote machine.             
                                                                                
------------------------------------------------------------------------        
Other commands
  -help <subcommand>                                                          
  -mdelete = Remote erase.                                                         
                                                      
------------------------------------------------------------------------        
To automate an ftp session, for example, doing it from a cron job,
you need to have an ~/.netrc file with permission 600, with a
"machine" line that matches the ftp command.  For example, my
eagle-beancounter-job on sycamore creates this .netrc file,
- - - - - - - -  Cut Here  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
machine eagle
login root
password needb0at      <--  Or whatever the root password is.
macdef init            <--  macdef=Define a macro.  init is the name of
image                       a special macro that is always run.
get /www/logs/storage/.last_week.access_log /var/tmp/junk
quit
                       <--  This null line ends the macro definition.
- - - - - - - -  Cut Here  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After a chmod 600 ~/.netrc, you can ftp eagle.