THIS IS A HISTORICAL FILE DATED ABOUT MARCH 1993
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			FTP QUICK GUIDE
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		       NETSIVI BEN-AMOTS



FTP IS FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL.  IT CAN TRANSFER BINARY FILES AND/OR VERY LARGE

FILES BETWEEN REMOTE COMPUTERS, AS WELL AS BETWEEN TWO USERS ON THE SAME

COMPUTERS.  An outstanding application is writing a paper with co-author in 

other countries, using word processor.  FOR SMALL ASCII FILES, MAIL IS ALSO 

GOOD.


YOU MUST KNOW THE PASSWORD OF THE REMOTE USER, IN ADDITION TO HIS USERNAME OR

LOGINNAME.  IT IS AVAILABLE ON MOST MAINFRAME COMPUTERS IN THE WORLD,

INCLUDING OUR BIOMED AND MAXC COMPUTERS.


PC CONNECTED TO ETHERNET, HAS OR MAY HAVE COMMUNICATION SOFTWARE, THAT

SUPPORTS FTP.  MANY PC'S IN OUR BUILDING CAN DO IT.  THUS YOU MAY BRING YOUR

FILE ON DISQUETTE AND TRANSFER IT TO THE SYSTEM, OR TRANSFER A FILE FROM THE

SYSTEM TO A PC.  IT IS VERY USEFUL THESE DAYS, WHEN OCCASIONALLY THE PRINTER

YOU WANT STOPS WORKING:  WITH FTP, SWITCH TO ANOTHER PRINTER...  EVEN ONE

WORKING PRINTER IS SUFFICIENT, WHEN NO OTHER HELP FOR THE PRINTERS IS

AVAILABLE VERY LATE OR ON FRIDAY.  BUT, HOW TO WORK WITH IT?  HERE ARE THE

MOST ESSENTIAL COMMANDS.  IT IS ALSO USEFUL WHEN YOU SPOILED YOUR LOGIN FILE

(LOGIN.COM IN MAXC, AND .LOGIN AND .CSHRC IN BIOMED.) BUT DO NOT COUNT ON

THIS.



FROM MAINFRAME:
---------------

ftp computername

computername may be biomed or maxc or biomed.technion.ac.il or full name of a

computer abroad.

you are asked to login.

type: login

after prompt, type: usernanme

this is the user login name on the remote computer.

after prompt, type the password of the remote user.



On some computers, you may type the user: anonymous, and give then your

username on your mainframe computer, instead password.	Then you have access

to some files called public files.  The public files contains many goodies,

such as new free softwares, like antivirus, etc.  Discus is the Technion

computer that is intentionally full of goodies for the use of the Technion

users.



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DO NOT USE CTRL-Z!!!  DO NOT USE CTRL-Z!!!  DO NOT USE CTRL-Z!!!

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While in ftp, you may use the commands dir and cd (Change Directory) to find

the file(s) you need on the REMOTE computer.  If you want to change directory

on YOUR computer, use the command lcd (Local Change Directory.) You must know

the rules of the computer.  In VMS, examples are:

cd [.subdirname]     or lcd [.subdirname]

cd [-]	 or lcd [-]		to go up one step in hierarchy of directories

In UNIX or DOS, examples are:

cd subdirname	or    lcd subdirname

cd ..	   or lcd ..		to go up one step in hierarchy of directories

before transferring, if the files are not ASCII, type the command:

bin

To get one file from the remote computer to your computer, type:

get only_one_filename

To send one file from your computer to the remote computer, type:

put only_one_filename

The commands put and get do not support *

To transfer few files together with *, use according the following examples:

mget *many*

mput *many*

Before mput, good practice is to: mkdir newname, and then: cd newname.  This

way you will not override old files, and see what you transfer with: dir

When finished, REMEMBER TO CLOSE ftp SESSION WITH quit.



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DO NOT USE CTRL-Z!!!  DO NOT USE CTRL-Z!!!  DO NOT USE CTRL-Z!!!

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IF YOU ARE WORKING IN A PC:
---------------------------

IF YOU ARE IN A COMPUTER THAT HAS APPROPRIATE COMMUNICATION (ETHERNET), THEN:

IF THE COMMUNICATION COMMANDS ARE IN THE PATH, USE ftp (OR telnet) AS IN A

MAINFRAME.  IF YOU TYPE ftp computername BUT NOTHING HAPPENS, OR YOU ARE

PROMPTED: bad command..., TRY THE COMMAND:

wd

AND THEN ftp OR telnet AGAIN.  IF NOT SUCCESSFUL AGAIN, SEARCH FOR THE

DIRECTORY NCSA, AND TRY AGAIN wd AND ftp (OR telnet).

NO NCSA DIRECTORY - MEANS NO ftp NOR telnet COMMUNICATION.  KERMIT

COMMUNICATION DOES NOT SUPPORT ftp (BUT DOES SUPPORT connect, WHICH IS SIMILAR

TO telnet FOR CLOSE MAINFRAME COMPUTERS.)



THE COMPUTER NEAR THE CANON LASERPRINTER IN ROOM 361 HAS NEITHER KERMIT NOR

ftp NOR telnet.  YOU BRING YOUR FILE IN THIS COMPUTER WITH DISQUETTE ONLY.

ALSO REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR COUNTER FOR THIS LASERPRINTER ONLY.


BEHATSLAHA	     GOOD LUCK				UDACHI		 Netsivi