Can you connect with /usr/bin/ftp (or whichever)?

You might want to extend the timeout and retry a few times, like this:

    use Net::FTP;

    my $ftphost      = 'ftp.ostrich.com';
    my $timeout      = 600;     # seconds, default is 120
    my $retries      = 5;

    for (1 .. $retries) {
        last if $ftp = Net::FTP->new("$ftphost", BlockSize => 20480, T
+imeout => $timeout);
    }
    die("Couldn't connect to $ftphost in $retries attempts: $@")  unle
+ss($ftp);
    ...
[download]

Update: Upon closer inspection, I think you just need to wrap ostrich with double-quotes in Net::FTP->new("ostrich",...). I get an error, albeit somewhat different, if I change my doubles to singles as you have.