ftp
at URLs ftp://dante.ctan.org/tex-archive and
ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive
respectively.
As a matter of course, to reduce network load,
please use the CTAN site
or mirror closest to you. A complete and current list of CTAN sites
and known mirrors is available as file CTAN.sites on the
archives themselves.
Better still, the script behind http://mirror.ctan.org/ will
cunningly choose a “nearby” mirror for you, using information from
the database ‘behind’ CTAN.sites; it will offer a connection
using http
(web) protocol if one is available, otherwise one
using ftp
protocol.
To access a particular thing through the mirror.ctan.org
mechanism, simply place the CTAN path after the base
URL; so
http://mirror.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/footmisc/ will
connect you to the footmisc directory at some CTAN
site (or a mirror) — note that the tex-archive part of the
CTAN path isn’t needed.
For details of how to find files at CTAN sites, see
“finding (La)TeX files”.
The TeX user who has no access to any sort of
network may buy a copy of the archive as part of the
TeX Live distribution.
This answer last edited: 2011-04-26
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=archives