Moving Files With FTP
Telnet is a great way to access remote computers or let Internet users access yours (you will need it very often in your business practice), but it doesn’t help disseminate files, documents, press releases, or software. That’s where file transfer protocol (FTP) comes in.
There are two basic ways of working with FTP. For confidential information distribution, files can be deposited in a specific account with a secret password. If the information is intended for the general public, you can make it available through a service known as anonymous FTP, in which users don’t need an account to connect, search available files, or download them to their computers.
Many computer companies, including Digital, Apple, Sun Microsystems, and Silicon Graphics, use FTP to enable their customers to download software fixes, press releases, and other informational files.
Unfortunately, the FTP program that is available through most dialup Internet access providers is very primitive and remains one of the most difficult Internet tools to use. Thankfully, a number of attractive graphical interfaces are now available for DOS, Windows, and Macintosh systems, and many are available for free or little cost. In this section, we’ll demonstrate how to work with the UNIX-based FTP program because that’s what your dialup account will probably require you to use. We’ll also show how the same collection of files would appear within the Mac Fetch and a Windows-based FTP program.
To transfer a file using UNIX FTP, you need to connect to the remote computer, enter the word anonymous or FTP as an account and, by tradition, your e-mail address as password. Then you need to change to the directory where the desired file is stored and use the get command to download that file to your local account. By default, all files are transmitted as if they are text, which usually works.
If the file you want to download is a program file or another type of file that mustn’t be altered in transmission, you can switch into binary mode by using the binary command. By contrast, if you’re sure what you seek is text-a document, for example- you might use the ascii command. ASCII is the set of characters used by most Internet computers; it stands for American Standard for Computer Information Interchange.
Suppose that while reading a recent article in a technology-oriented business magazine, you notice a note at the end of the story that says, “The text of the intellectual property portion of the North American Free Trade Agreement is available via FTP fromwiretap.spies.com as file NAFTA/17.intellect.” Based on that description, it’s a pretty safe bet that NAFTA/17. intellect is a text file.