The European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) requires certain datasets to be uploaded to the Webin upload area (`webin.ebi.ac.uk`) before they can be submitted via XML files that reference the uploaded file.

According to [this doc][1], one can use `lftp` to upload a data file. However, when I try to do this in practice, I find that several modifications have to be made to get anywhere near a login to the Webin upload area:

Attempting a log-in under the default settings causes a freeze at line 
> `ls' at 0 [FEAT negotiation...]

    michael_science ~ $ lftp webin.ebi.ac.uk
    lftp webin.ebi.ac.uk:~> login myWebinAccount
    Password:
    lftp myWebinAccount@webin.ebi.ac.uk:~> ls
    `ls' at 0 [Connecting...]
    `ls' at 0 [FEAT negotiation...]

Attempting a log-in upon disabling FEAT negotiation and SSL encryption goes further, but still doesn't get the job done, as it freezes at line
> `ls' at 0 [Logging in...] 

    lftp -e 'set ftp:use-feat false; set ftp:ssl-allow false' webin.ebi.ac.uk
    lftp webin.ebi.ac.uk:~> login myWebinAccount
    Password:
    lftp myWebinAccount@webin.ebi.ac.uk:~> ls
    `ls' at 0 [Connecting...]
    `ls' at 0 [Logging in...] 

Has anyone successfully logged onto to the Webin upload area (`webin.ebi.ac.uk`)  recently? If so, how?

**Edit 1**: Upon communication with the ENA helpdesk, it turned out to be a server problem by ENA, which seems to have been resolved for now.

  [1]: http://ena-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upload_01.html#general-instructions-for-uploading-files-using-a-ftp-client
I was able to connect to `webin.ebi.ac.uk` yesterday, using both `ftp webin.ebi.ac.uk` command or Transmit (FTP client for OSX), but the connection was not very stable. Today I found it not possible to reach it using the same methods.