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From: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: FTP??
Message-ID: <8355@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 12 Feb 91 01:58:32 GMT
References: <58829@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Sender: usenet@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
Reply-To: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Organization: U.C. Davis - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Lines: 80

In article <58829@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> v118j3ml@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu writes:
>a service 
>called FTP...now, I've talked to some consultants at my school (State 
>University of New York at Buffalo), and they told me that FTP stood for
>FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL....
...
>they needed.  They told me that to access FTP, I type FTP [Hostname] at my
>DCL prompt, and then I would have to have an account to log into the remote
>system.
...
>Can someone please help me on getting started with FTP???  

Well, you have a VMS system, and I only know Unix, so I'm afraid
you're going to have to RTFM for the details here.  (Ask your
consultant if you aren't familiar with the RTFM system).

On Unix, ftp is a program (and a protocol) that lets your computer
connect to other computers.  You do indeed need an account on the
other computers to connect to them properly.  However, there are many
"Anonymous FTP" sites that wonderful people have set up with a special
account name called "anonymous", which will accept any password.  You
should generally type your user name for the password.  These systems
generally have an archive of files available for anyone who wants them.
A few have the Fred Fish disks.

To connect, you usually just type "ftp machine".  To give one
particularly popular example, type:

> ftp ab20.larc.nasa.gov

At this point, you will be asked for a user name.  You should type
"anonymous".  When you get asked for a password, you should type your
user name.  This makes sense.  You will then be logged on.

This sort of login is much more restricted than the normal login.
You can run programs as usual.  There are a few things you can do:

1. List the directory on the remote machine.  This is usually "ls"
   or "dir".

2. Change directories on the remote machine.  This is usually "cd" or
   "chdir".

3. Get a file from the remote machine.  This is usually done with
   "get" or "mget".  Note that if you are transferring a file that
   is not plain text, you should type the command "binary" before
   doing this.  "Get" will copy the file from the remote machine to
   the current directory on your machine.

4. Copy a file to the remote machine from the local machine.  This is
   usually "put", and is the opposite of "get".

Once you have done this, you will have files on your VMS or Unix (or
whatever) machine.  Since you want them on your Amiga, you still have
some work to do.

You will probably need to call the big machine via a modem with your
Amiga.  At this point, you can download the files using a protocol
such as kermit, zmodem, or such.  Note that if you use kermit, you may
need to "uuencode" the file before sending it.  This puts the file
into a text form.  Once you get it to the Amiga, you need to
"uudecode" it, which transforms it back to its original form.  There
are various programs that will do this for you.

Here's my (very informal) list of my favorite ftp sites.  There is a
more formal list posted regularly here by Michael Bergman
(d88-mbe@sm.luth.se).

128.8.10.14  Complete fish collection
128.174.5.59  mystery ftp site
ab20.larc.nasa.gov = 128.155.23.64
burdell.gatech.edu  usenet archives
uafcseg.uark.edu
ux1.cso.uiuc.edu fish disks
isca.icaen.uiowa.edu (128.255.19.175)  fish disks

Don't expect these all to work.  Have fun!

           Dan Zerkle  zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu  (916) 754-0240
           Amiga...  Because life is too short for boring computers.