Just wondering

I use ncftp as ftp client, but I can't download all files of a dir and all subdirectories in that dir
On a windows pc, I just can drag and drop files, but in command line it doesn't quite work out

I want to do this, because I want to backup my webserver every week:

download several files to the hdd
put them in a tar archive with name as time and date
copy the archive to my home webserver and delete the old files


I know this should be able with cron, but I first need to write the script to download every file
any ideas someone?