this is real.

seen it with netscape when doing an ftp (not http) transfer >10MB
seen it with mirror when doing >10-15 files ~100Kb in size

and tried ftp directly doing multiple files with prompt and mget
and with a single large file - hung both times.

have tried to upgrade the ftp to rawhide (--nodeps on ncurses and readline)
and Uvh on ftp to (below) - it is still hanging:

Name        : ftp                          Relocations: (not relocateable)
Version     : 0.17                              Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
Release     : 2                             Build Date: Wed 05 Apr 2000 08:48:35
AM EDT
Install date: Wed 03 May 2000 09:29:49 AM EDT      Build Host:
porky.devel.redhat.com
Group       : Applications/Internet         Source RPM: ftp-0.17-2.src.rpm
Size        : 71889                            License: BSD

This is not a problem with FTP, but rather the network configuration.  The most
probable candidates are network driver's full/half duplex settings and link
speed negotiation (or forcing).