can't use binary transfer for ftp

Hi

I am using Ubuntu Linux on a virtual machine connected to windows on a home pc.

I am running a perl program which is giving me this message: error cannot use binary transfer. The error comes from the line highlighted below
my $ftp;
      $ftp = Net::FTP->new( "$dbsnp_ftp_site", Debug => 0, Passive => 1 )
        or die "Cannot connect to $dbsnp_ftp_site : $@";
      $ftp->login( "anonymous", "$email_address" )
        or die "Cannot log in ", $ftp->message;
      print STDOUT
          "Successfull anonymous login into $dbsnp_ftp_site, password = $email_address\n";

      $ftp->pasv() or die "\nERROR: cannot use passive mode: ", $ftp->message;
      $ftp->binary()
        or die "\nERROR: cannot use binary transfer: ", $ftp->message; <=======!!!
      my $dir = $opt{ftp_dir}->{SCHEMA}->{$type};
      $ftp->cwd($dir)
        or die "\nERROR: cannot enter directory $dir: ", $ftp->message;


Do you have any idea why this would fail? I've had problems doing ftp before I'm sure because i couldn't go into passive mode i think

many thanks