Domination 04 ch12 In The Net
INTERNET - How to do it (1) by Mason/Motiv8
Welcome to another series in the world of internet. Many people could use the old series, but there were still lot of stuff to learn. So I hope this series will be useful for you as the old one.
Well! Let's start with some information about what we will look at in the next issues:
Usenet News - There is 1000 of newsgroups around in the world and we will tell you something about how it works and how you can use it. If you wanna look closer by yourself then you should check comp.sys.cbm
Mail - How to mail on the internet. How can you send mail from fidonet -> internet and from internet -> fidonet.
FTP - One of the most interest areas on the internet. We gotta teach you how to FTP when you have left your session.
WWW - we gotta look at one of the newest hits on internet. World-Wide-Web: looks like FTP, but you are in a graphical world.
Adv. Mail - Hmm! What's Advanced Mailing will you ask and all I can say is that you also can get file info via mail.
Archie - How to look for files on the net.
Gopher - The Worldwide search system for news.
List servers - How you can get newsletters from the big world.
IRC - About my second home :) The big place to chat.
Telnet - You can connect to net-games & other nice information.
FSP - Something like FTP. Another way to get or send files.
Setting up - How to provide internet services to the internet.
A long list of "dirty" words we look at. This time we will start with the FTP-program. Before I start I will give the contact address you can get me at: t44@XXXXXX.XXXXXX.dk
This time we gotta look at the FTP-program and how it works: FTP is the acronym of File Transfer Protocol. It's the normal way to get/send files on the internet. The FTP is supported by FTP-clients. Here you can use several programs. I will first talk about them and then how to use them:
1. Standard UNIX FTP-client: The normal FTP-client for UNIX is the most used client. When you work in the Unix-world you are in a totally different world from all other computer types, because you can multi-task all the processes & put them in foreground and in the background. This can't go into all directories, but sometimes you have to move the key-functions around your keyboard.
2. NCFTP-client : The NCFTP client is also used in UNIX, but this program has some extras & these functions can be very useful. One of functions is that you can keep your most used sites in a config file, even the dir will be remembered. This also does an auto login to the sites.
3. AFTP: This program is known as the pirates FTP-client and that's because it used for secret dirs. If you ever have been on a pirate site for warez you have seen directories with ctrl-codes, space and other funny chars. This program can be set in to snoop and then give the directories again #-codes. The program can change dir with the #-codes.
4. Win-FTP: This is the only program I know that doesn't run in UNIX. This program can't multi-task, but you it's a nice program for people without UNIX. There's only ONE BIG PROBLEM: if you wanna enter a dir with spaces, you can't do it. It means you can't enter the dir for the demo called : "Maximum Overload" (example). This is the most used FTP-clients. Personally I use the programs from 1-3. #2 is very good, because a function I didn't mention were the lookup function. The idea about the lookup function is that you can get a servers name if you only have the number & and the number if you only have the server-name. But things are very good as some server names can be very long. For the last comment about the program I can say that you can find more FTP-clients around in the world, but this is the most used programs.
How to use them:
The FTP-client can do 2 things about files: receive or send them. The rest functions in the program are dir- functions or client functions. When you start an FTP-session you do like this:
1. You start the FTP-client and you will get a prompt with FTP.
2. Now you wrote open <server address>. Example: open FTP.funet.fi
3. The program will now try to connect to the server. If you get a connected message in return you are in or else the line is lagged, line is broken or the server is closed down. If you one of them you must try to connect again later.
4. Now you get a prompt where you must write username. As you are using anonymous FTP you write FTP or anonymous.
Then you get asked for an ident or your mail-address. For mail you often only have to type in your userid and @, the rest the program will send. Now the FTP-server will check the user data and let you in if they are correct and if there aren't too many anonymous users. On some servers they have numbered user-logins. If you get thrown out because too many anonymous users you just connect again. Most of the times one user has left the site. When you get through these 4 things to do you should be connected to the site. If not - please redo the 4 things!!!!!!! Now we have to learn some commands you can use in the FTP-program (here we work after the commands in the standard FTP-program) and what the commands is doing. The 2 most used commands are PUT and GET. This is the only commands that have some specific about the file. The rest is settings in the FTP-program. Except the cd command that I will explain later.
Get - With the get command you will download the file. Here you must remember if you are downloading a binary file you must set the file type to binary mode. Most of the time you will get the file to your drive, but sometimes (if you get pirate software) you don't have the read permissions to read the files and therefore you can't download. Example: get prop14.lha
Put - This command upload the file on the FTP-site. Remember to set the file type to binary if you are uploading binary files. You can only upload files in directories you have write permission. On some FTP several sites you are able to upload files in all directories, but on these places they are sleeping or don't care about the server or you have to send e-mail to the FTP-administrator and tell him/her that you have uploaded and what it belongs to. There's commands that to the same as PUT and GET. We are here talking about multiply PUT and GET. When you are doing multiply PUT and GET you use the commands MPUT and MGET. They works in the same was as PUT and GET, but you get all the files that match the filename (This can be many files you use wildcards). It works like this: Every time the program is going to upload / down- load it will ask you about transferring the file. Now it's time for other commands for the FTP-program.
The first command is the CD command. All the command does is changing the dir. There's not much to say about this command, but you must remember that it works like the directory structure on UNIX. As the dir-structure is a totally difference from the C64 dir-structure. In a UNIX dir you can have more than one dir! These directories are called sub-directories and have their start in the /-dir.
The /-dir is the main-dir and here's the sub-directories connected to. Each dir contains 2 filenames: . and ..
. This dot is a directory too. This is the dir that the upper directory connects to so you can cd into the dir.
.. The .. is also a directory but this is the sub-directories link to the upper dir. This is the reason why you have to write cd .. to get back to the upper dir. With this short description you should understand how it works. If not send me a mail and I will explain it to you. If too many need to get it explained I will make a chapter about Unix and how Unix is built.
hash - This commands turn on/off the hash marking when you are transferring files. Very good to use - it shows how much you have transferred.
bin - Enable/Disable the binary mode on the file transfer. There are 2 transfer modes on the net.
1. the 7 bit transfer and 1 control bit.
2. the full 8 bit transfer without control bit.
The FTP-program is normal set to 7 bit transfer and 1 control bit. If you forget to enable the 8 bit mode the program will flush the 8th bit, because it's doesn't store the control bit. There's no problem is sending 7 bits transfer in 8 bit mode, so do yourself a favour and write bin as the first command when you have connected to the site.
prompt - when you do a MGET or MPUT you can disable the line where the program waits for your accept. Here you use the prompt command.
verbose - disable/enable all the outputs from the commands you send the FTP-program. If this command is disabled you get lines like: 250 CMD command successful.
quit - leaves the FTP-program.
user - let you enter user and pass (or ident) when you already have connected to the site.
pwd - prints the actually dir you are standing in on your screen.
That was all for this time.
Next we will look at advanced FTP. With this method you can download/upload when you logged off the Unix. Any questions to me and you can mail me at the address on one of the first pages..
'til the next issue!
Mason/MOTIV8
