FTP return codes and time outs

Hello,

can someone please tell me whether it is possible to check for return codes (or something else) when ftping. I have written a shell script on a unix box that ftp's some files to another box and I want to check that the ftp was succesful ?

Also can someone please tell me whether it is possible to stop my ftp connection timing out. This si for manual file transfers where I have logged on to a box and typed ftp hostname. I might then do something else and come back but the ftp connection has timed out and I have to log in again/open the connection.

Cheers