Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet

ONS O

ision, you can find it on the Net. Copies of historical documents, from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence are also yours for the asking, along with a translation of a telegram from Lenin ordering the execution of rebellious peasants. You can also find song lyrics, poems, even summaries of every "Lost in Space" episode ever made. You can also find extensive files detailing everything you could ever possibly want to know about the Net

site

their business hours (generally 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time). This is because transferring files across the network takes up considerable computing power, which during the day is likely to be nee

R FRIEN

they did something about it. They created a database system, called archie, that would periodically call up file libraries and basically find out what they had available. In turn, anybody could dial into archie, type in a file name, and see where on the Net it was available. Archie currently catalogs close to 1,000 file libraries around the world. Today, there are three ways to ask archie to find a

ch

ect, the key command is prog

fil

couldn't find anything by that name. One thing to keep in mind is that a file is not necessarily the same as a program - it could also be a document. This means you can use archie to search for, say, everything online related to the Beetles, as well as computer programs and graphics files. A number of Net sites now have th

-s fi

ter. The -s tells the program to ignore case in a file name and lets you

-s file

a file on your computer with your text-logging function. The third way, for people without access to either of the above

fil

can ask archie to look up several programs by put

le1 fil

archie will write ba

riate

if there is a system

onse that looks s

x-aim.sta

: /info-

58256 Feb 15 17

: /info-

Sep 12 1991 zterm-s

ocation" tells you which directory to look in when you connect to that system. Ignore the funny-looking collections of r's and hyphe

TING TH

nt to get

te does have ftp, you

o telnet,

x-aim.st

want to reach). Hit enter. If the

FTP server (Version 4.196 Mon Jan 13 13:52:23 PST

it control-C to return to your host system

nym

at your name is. The reason is that these sites are set up so that anybody can gain access to certain public files, while letting people with accounts on the

ons apply. Remote system type is UNIX. U

w

u'll see somethin

command s

mode data connec

al

4444 Mar 3 11:3

0 1 512 Nov

0 11030960 Ap

1 512 Nov

13 22 512 Mar

016 31 512 Apr

0 31 1024 Ap

0 20 1024 Ma

077 20 512 Feb

nsfer c

t

"l", it's a directory. Otherwise, it's a file. The rest of that weird set of letters and dashes consist of "flags" that tell the ftp site who can look at, change or delete the file. You can safely ignore it. You can also ignore the rest of the line until you get to the second number, the one just before the date. This tells you how large the file is, in bytes. If the line is for a directory, the number gives you a rough indication of how many items are in that directory -

RE

ferent from Unix sites in general: they are c

ta connection for README (4444 bytes). 226 Transfer com

o your own computer. The simple "get" command is the key to transferring a file from an archive site to your host syste

t *

asked if you're sure you want it. Despite this, mget could still save you considerable time - you won't have to type

om

turn off the prompt, and all the files wil

mmand to keep in mind

computer p

i

i.e., a program. Most ftp sites now use binary format as a default, but it's a good idea to

recto

the directory you want to

g for that particular directory. To

d

d and the first period) and

d

st. Alternately, if you already know the directory path of the file you

ry/subdirec

ut it actually stands for "binary" and is simply a place for the system administrator to store the programs that run the ftp system. Lost+found is another directory that looks interesting but actually never has anything of public interest in them. Be

7-color-icons

called, simply, zterm.hqx. Those last three letters bring up something else: Many program files are compressed to save

RS - DECODING

ne to three letters at the end of a file. Here are some of the more common ones and what you'll need to

s means the file is a docum

language). You can print this file on any PostScript capable

mmon "extension" for do

nless it is

Unix compression m

y

ess fil

line. If the file is a compressed text fil

ename.tx

file and uncompress it on your own computer. The Macintosh equi

S compression program, known as PKZIP (use archie to find PKZIP204.EXE). Man

ion of ZIP. To

filen

t system's

S compression format. Use a p

compression format. Requ

x format. Use unshar

t Unix systems will have a program called tar for "un-tarring" such files. Often, a "tarred" fi

sh format that require

, which requires the use o

S format; requires

ds could take more than an hour or two to download to your computer if you're using a 2400-baud modem. Your host system may also have limits on the amount of bytes you can store online at any one time. Also

KEYBOA

built. These files can be found on many ftp sites, but always in a form such as RFC101.TXT, RFC102.TXT and so on, with no clue whatsoever as to what information they contain. Fortunately, almost all ftp sites have a "Rosetta Stone" to help you decipher these names. Most will have a file named README (or some variant) that gives basic information about the system. Then, most directories will either have a similar README file or will have an index that does give brief descriptions of each file. These are usually the first file in a directory and often are in the form 00INDEX.TXT. Use the ftp command to get this file. You can then scan it online or download it to see which files you might be interested in. Another file you will frequently see is called ls-lR.Z. This contains a listing of every file on the system, but without any descriptions (th

Thi

If there are several files that start that way, you might have to answer 'n' a few

NTERESTING

r, this list barely scratches the surface of what is available. Liberal use of archie will help you find specific files. The

M

programs in the sys

ble 24

u. Look in the pub

ble 24

T

u Find almost all the

the atari

. - 7

O

ey may scroll off the end of your screen if you are using an MS-DOS or certain other computers. Even if you want just one of the files, it probably makes more sense to use mget than get. This way, you will be asked on each fil