I just did this myself, so the steps are still nice and fresh:

Quick-n-dirty instructions on getting an ftp client onto your empeg. These instructions assume that you have at least read up enough to know where to get certain empeg-related tools, how to get to a shell prompt on your empeg, how to talk to your empeg via terminal app, some familiarity with Linux/UNIX commands, etc.

* grab "debian-image_990822.tar.gz" from any number of empeg-related websites
* extract it into some scratch space on your workstation
* get a terminal app working to talk to your empeg
* quit from the player software to a shell on your empeg
* on the empeg type "rw" and "rwm" to mount your filesystems read-write
* make some scratch space on your empeg to receive uploaded files (I used /drive0/debian)
* type "rz" on the empeg to upload files via zmodem
* upload the following files from your Debian/ARM distro:

/usr/bin/ftp
/etc/services
/etc/protocols
/etc/nsswitch.conf
/lib/libnss_compat-2.1.2.so
/lib/libnss_db-2.1.2.so
/lib/libnss_files-2.1.2.so

* on the empeg cd to /etc and do:
ln -s [path to uploaded services] services
ln -s [path to uploaded protocols] protocols
ln -s [path to uploaded nsswitch.conf] nsswitch.conf

* cd to /lib and do:
ln -s [path to uploaded libnss_compat-2.1.2.so] libnss_compat.so.2
ln -s [path to uploaded libnss_dbt-2.1.2.so] libnss_db.so.2
ln -s [path to uploaded libnss_files-2.1.2.so] libnss_files.so.2

now your "ftp" client will work from the empeg.

I prefer to make symlinks than actually copying files around. That way I can quickly locate what files were "originally there" on the empeg and which ones I have created symlinks for.

Not all those libnss files may be necessary, but I haven't bothered to actually see which ones are required. They're small so it's not really a big deal...

From here, it's a simple matter to get the whole Debian/ARM distro on your empeg and then set up a chroot'ed environment to do some serious playing around with. (ftp'ing that 26MB file is a lot faster than a zmodem upload. :)