> i.e. I agree with the rhetorical question:
> 
> > Shouldn't ftp behave the same independent of the use of a proxy?

Well, yes, but since FTP and proxy FTP (aka HTTP) have little in
common this isn't as easy as it might be.

RFC 1738 talks about ;type=<type-code> as a suffix to FTP URLs, where
<type-code> is 'a', 'd', or 'i'.  Maybe hints can be given this way to
the misbehaving proxies to use IMAGE mode?

Aside: has anyone identified which proxy or proxies are using ASCII
mode for FTP URLs?  A proxy that volunteers to use ASCII mode for just
about anything seems strange to me.

Regards,

Giles