I just wrote an Automator app using AppleScript (along with a couple of bash lines) to start FTP with a single click. However it runs more than a tad slow. Here's the code:

set ftpstatus to "off"
try
    do shell script "echo \"QUIT\" | telnet 127.0.0.1" & " ftp 2>&1 | grep  \"Escape character is\" > /dev/null"
    set ftpstatus to "on"
on error
    set ftpstatus to "off"
end try
if (ftpstatus = "off") then
    set ipaddr to IPv4 address of (get system info)
    set sun to short user name of (get system info)
    do shell script "sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist" with administrator privileges
    tell application "Finder" to display alert "FTP Launched and ready for file-transfer" & character id 8233 & character id 8233 & character id 8233 & "Address: ftp://" & ipaddr & ":21" & character id 8233 & "User Name: " & sun
else
    do shell script "sudo -s launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist" with administrator privileges
    tell application "Finder" to display alert "FTP session closed"
end if

Here's what the code does:

1. Check if FTP server is running
2. If yes, turn it off and throw a message box saying "FTP session closed"
3. If no, turn it on and throw a message box saying "FTP session open" along with my IP address and username

This script works like charm but since it's too slow, I am wondering if there's any way to convert it to a bash shell script. That should speed up things a lot. Any suggestions?