Help: wget refuses to chdir into parent directories over FTP?

Dear wget team,

I am trying to use wget to mirror an FTP directory structure on a
server that does not allow anonymous FTP, and where I have only
limited access rights, and no ability to modify its configuration.

I am being hampered either by my own lack of knowledge of wget, or a
design flaw in wget. I hope you can help me determine which it is.

My problems come from the fact that I have to log into the server as a
particular username (say "mike"). When I log in (over FTP) this places
me in /users/mike. But all the files of interest live under /site.

If I am FTPing in interactively, all is well. I "cd" to "/site" and
"get" the files I need.

But I have also tried to mirror the whole site with wget, and this is
where I get stuck. When I try:

wget -m (or wget -r ...) ftp://mike:mypassword@xxxxxxxxxxxx/site/

or: 

wget -r  ftp://mike:mypassword@xxxxxxxxxxxx/../../site/

or even, trying to fool wget:

wget -r  ftp://mike:mypassword@xxxxxxxxxxxx/%2E%2E/%2E%2E/site/

wget always refuses to change directory out of /users/mike:

     Connecting to ftp.site.com[address]:21... connected.
     Logging in as mike ... Logged in!
     ==> SYST ... done.  ==> PWD ... done.
     ==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD /users/mike/site ...

     No such directory `site'.

Is there a way to use wget to do what I need to do?
Or do I have to use another tool?
If so, can anyone recommend one?


Thanks very much!


Mike Decerbo
mike at mit dot edu