lotus

previous page: 10.2.3) What resources are available over the Internet?
  
page up: Sacramento FAQ
  
next page: 10.2.4) Local Legends On The Sacramento Usenet.

10.2.3) How do I use anonymous ftp?




Description

This article is from the Sacramento FAQ, by David F. Prenatt, Jr. with numerous contributions by others.

10.2.3) How do I use anonymous ftp?

When you know which anonymous ftp site has the information that you
want, log onto it using the ftp program:

* Type in "ftp" (without the quotes) at the Unix prompt,
followed by the name of the ftp site that you wish to
access. For example:

ftp ftp.site

where ftp.site is the name of a hypothetical ftp site that
you want to access.

* You will be asked to provide your username, type in:

anonymous

* You will then be asked to provide your password.

DO NOT TYPE IN YOUR PASSWORD! *ANONYMOUS* FTP IS SUPPOSED
TO BE *ANONYMOUS*. If you wish, you may type in your
Internet address as a return address, but you do not need to
do so. Virtually any response to the password request will
give you access to an anonymous ftp site.

* Type in the GET command, followed by the exact name of the
file that you want. For example:

get ftp-document

where ftp-document is the name of a hypothetical ftp
document that you want to obtain via ftp. This procedure
will retrieve any ASCII document.

* If for some reason, there is something wrong with the
document you obtain, it is probably not an ASCII document,
so start over at the beginning and set the code to binary by
typing in "binary" (without the quotes) after you have
opened the anonymous ftp site. For example:

binary

This should fix the problem so that you can GET the document
that you want. If it doesn't, then the file you have is
probably compressed or encrypted, so you will need to find
out what program you should use to decompress or decrypt the
file.

[Note: Check with your ISP for more information on the quirks of its
ftp programs.]

10.2.3.1.2) How do I use privileged ftp?

A privileged ftp site requires an actual username and an actual
password (as opposed to an anonymous ftp site). Privileged ftp sites
have all of the features of an anonyomus ftp site; you can also use
the PUT command with privileged ftp. For example:

put ftp-document

where ftp-document is the name of a hypothetical document that you
want to load to your privileged ftp site.

10.2.3.1.3) How do I obtain ftp files by e-mail request?

For information on ftp by e-mail service, send an e-mail message to
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com (<mailto:ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com >) with the
text "help" somewhere in the body of the message. Many ftp sites have
mail-server software that will send ftp files by e-mail request. For
example, to obtain this faq by e-mail send the following message to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu:

send usenet/news.answers/sac/faq/part*
. . .
quit

Where * is replaced by the numbers 1 and 6 in successive lines of
text. Other FAQs that I have written are archived at rtfm.mit.edu in
the usenet/news.answers directory under the appropriate archive name.
See Section 1.5 for more information about these other FAQs. To
obtain one of these other FAQs, change the text of the line in your e-
mail message that begins with send so that the archive name
sac/faq/part* is replaced with the archive name of the other FAQ.

10.2.3.2) How can I find out what information is available via ftp?

You can use various "search engines" on the Internet, such as
"gopher." My favorite search engine for the World Wide Web is Yahoo
(<http://www.yahoo.com/ >).

10.2.3.3) How do I transfer files to and from my personal computer and my
Internet account?

You can put your files on a diskette and use one of the workstations
on campus to ftp your files to and from your Internet account.
Alternatively, there are several file transfer programs available to
accomplish such tasks. Your best option among those that are
currently available is a kermit file transfer. Kermit is public
domain software that is available from IT-CAP; instructions for kermit
file transfers are available on the World Wide Web at the U.C. Davis
Network Administrators FAQ:

<http://tsp.ucdavis.edu/nar/FAQ-UNIX.html#Tag-MSKermit >

 

Continue to:













TOP
previous page: 10.2.3) What resources are available over the Internet?
  
page up: Sacramento FAQ
  
next page: 10.2.4) Local Legends On The Sacramento Usenet.