[Yum] user/passwd in ftp url supported?

[Simon Kitching]

Hi,

I would like to connect to a yum repository using a url like:
  ftp://user:passwd@host/rest-of-url

When I try this, I get:
  Error getting file  
   ftp://yum:yum@localhost/rh8.0-stable-i386/headers/header.info
  [Errno 4] IOError: <urlopen error (-2, 'Name or service not known')>

Is it possible to use non-anonymous ftp with yum?
[I'm running this using yum 1.0.3-1_80 on redhat 8.0]

By the way, is it possible to run newer yum versions on RH8.0?
The yum downloads page at  
   http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/download.ptml
seems clear that 1.0.3 is the appropriate version for RH8, but I'm
always hopeful :-) If so, any hints on what needs to be upgraded would
be appreciated. Note that I'm intending to use yum to apply mandatory
patches & updates to an RH8 server, so upgrading to RH9 is *not* an
option...

Thanks,

Simon