The first column of stuff in the data below is the site name. Usually you can just run ftp and type open and then the site name. But some computers don't like the names (or don't have all of them) and prefer the next column of
stuff, the IP addresses. If you try the open command with the IP number and
it doesn't bite, it isn't gonna work. Because of this fact the html version of this sheet uses IP numbers rather than the site names.
Most mac ftp sites have encoded their files with BinHex 4.0 which end in the suffix ".hqx". To decode these files, you can just download them to your mac
and use Stuffit Expander to decode and expand them, reguardless of whether they are Stuffit (.sit) or Compact Pro (.cpt). This is much better than in the old days when you had to download a file to your mac, use Compact Pro or Stuffit to
decode them, and THEN, figure which program to use to decompress it.
On a unix shell account, ftp will prompts you for a username and password; you send "anonymous" as the username, and your email address as the password, for Mike Gleason it would be mgleason@cse.unl.edu and for me it would be bgrubb@scf.nmsu.edu. Here's a sample ftp session:
% ftp
ftp> open wuarchive.wustl.edu
Connected to wuarchive.wustl.edu.
220 wuarchive.wustl.edu FTP server (...) ready.
Name (wuarchive.wustl.edu:bgrubb): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
230- If your FTP client crashes or hangs shortly after login please try
230- using a dash (-) as the first character of your password. This will
230- turn off the informational messages that may be confusing your FTP
230- client.
230-
230- You are user number 221 out of a possible 225.
230-
230- All transfers to and from wuarchive are logged. If you don't like
230- this then disconnect now!
230-
ftp> cd systems/mac/
ftp> get ./info-mac/help/recent-files.txt Info-MacRecentFiles
ftp> get ./umich.edu/mac/00help/newfiles.txt umichRecentFiles
ftp> get ./info-mac/game/cumulonimbus.hqx cn.hqx
ftp> quit
% sz cn.hqx
Please note that there are other ways to connect to ftp sites then through a unix box. There are commercial services such as CompuServe and AOL as well as a whole host of Telnet and FTP programs for the Macintosh. A list of such
programs can be found in David L. Oppenheimer's (davido@Princeton.EDU)
excellent _FAQ list for comp.sys.mac.comm_ {/info-mac/comm/info/}.
Web users should be familiar with URLs, which are in the form ftp://sitename{or IP address}/filepathway. For the example above, the URL
would be ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/ or
ftp://128.252.135.4/systems/mac/.
Keep in mind that some sites may disenable the anonymous login for a while: during certain hours of the day, for maintainance reasons, or because of too much heavy traffic. Most will tell you the reason for refusing anonymous login, but a few will say nothing more than "User anonymous unknown" or "connection refused". Keep this in mind when a site on this list results in either of these responses.
If you want to read a file on a remote site, but don't want download it, and are not using a WWW browser, quit ftp, page the file, then restart ftp, try "get myfile.txt -" and ftp will dump the file to your terminal. Also exploit ftp's pipe and shell abilities, like "get myfile.txt |more" will do the same as above, except using "more" to page the file. On the other hand, Web browsers can read these files on-line without all this hand waving.
If you need to know the IP address of an ftp site, a common unix program
called "nslookup" can help. With some versions, "nslookup ftp.apple.com" would spit out "130.43.2.3." The reverse is also true, "nslookup 130.43.2.3" would print out "ftp.apple.com." Normally nslookup on an IP address just verifies the address as valid and to do a reverse lookup you must reverse the address and use the in-addr.arpa domain with the lookup type set to "ANY."
Most files you'll get off ftp are in that pain in the butt format, binhex.
Mike Gleason usually downloaded to his unix box, and then used an immensely useful utility called "mcvert" to de-binhex them there. Not only is this faster, but it doesn't tie up your own CPU. Stop over to one of the Info-Mac mirrors {info-mac/cmp directory} and grab it. After mcvert'ing files, they'll turn into files with ".bin" suffix on them, meaning they are in MacBinary format, and ready to download in BINARY mode {see Warning below}.
Here's a handy chart to keep track which programs unmangle which formats:
.sit refers to both 1.5 and dlx. Otherwise a '/' is used {1.5/dlx}.
Note: Almost every Mac communications program can decode .bin files.
* DropStuff with Expander Enhancer is an $30 shareware addon for Stuffit
Expander. DSEE is also used by other programs {marked with a *^}
to expand files. Current versions are 3.5.2 as of this writing.
** Stuffit Deluxe translators can be used with Stuffit Lite. Current
versions are 3.5.0 as of this writing.
Special formats
.arj - PC format common to European sites. Decoded by unArjMac and DeArj.
.dd - Disk Doubler {Mac} format. Decoded by DDExpand and DiskDoubler.
.html - WWW document. Used by WWW browsers such as Netscape and lynx.
.image - Mac disk image. Decoded and/or mounted by DiskCopy, MountImage,
Drop*Disk, and ShrinkWrap.
.lzh - old PC/Amiga format, replaced by .arc and .zip; decoded by MacLHA
and macunpack.
.pit - old {~1989} Mac compression format created by PackIt programs,
replaced by .sit. In general, a program that handles .sit files can
decode .pit files as well.
.pkg - AppleLink package format, replaced by .sit. Decoded by all present
StuffIt programs.
.sea - Mac format, decompresses itself and needs no external programs.
.shar - Unix shell archive. Decoded by Unshar.
.taz - another name for .tar.Z
.tgz - another name for .tar.z and .tar.gz {do not confuse with .tar.Z}.
.txt - ASCII text file.
.z - Early {~1993} suffix for Gzip files. Due to confusion with the UNIX
'compress' suffix {.Z} it was abandoned in favor of the .gz suffix.
.zoo - old {~1989} PC/Amiga format, replaced by .arc. Decoded by MacZoo
and MacBooz.
CAUTION: While Gzip is aimed at replacing the .Z format, they are _different_ unix compression formats, and the suffixes are NOT inchangable. Many sites now support on-the-fly translation of these formats; just type in the file name minus the .Z or .gz suffix.
WARNING: .hqx, .txt, and .uu files are the ONLY files that can be downloaded in ASCII mode; all others must be downloaded in BINARY {IMAGE} mode for the file to decompress properly. This is especially true of ".bin" and "unpacked" files. Otherwise you will get errors like "unreadable file" or "file is corrupt" when you try to decompress them.
These sites have many mac files, and are still getting new ones:
Note: "If you're on the Internet, you can "telnet [site name]" and login in as
"archie", at which point you'll get basic directions and pointers to other
Archie machines." (TidBITS#130; Gateways 1: Internet) You may be able to use
archie directly if you have an unix shell account, just type archie <filename> at the prompt. Remember that archie is a database and not all the information may be up-to-date.
