| About the Class | The World Wide Web | Using Eudora E-mail |   | What is the Internet? | FTP-Telnet-News-Etc. | More Information |

This section briefly discusses some of the other resources available on the Internet, and the software we will use to access them.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

FTP allows you to download files (transfer a copy of the file to your Mac) from other computers on the Internet. You can get new versions of system software for your computer, obtain updates of your favorite application programs from a company, obtain pictures, sounds, & movie clips, or snag a cool game or demo program to try out.

You can also use FTP to transfer files from your Mac to another machine. You will use this function to place your web page files onto UNM-LA's web server computer, if you decide to do the optional project of making a web page.

We will do FTP with two programs:

Netscape: Some of the links you click on within a web page will initiate an FTP transfer of some file to your Mac. Very easy.

Fetch: A huge web browser is often overkill for doing FTP. Fetch is a small program (free for educational instutions and students) which makes navigating ftp sites and transferring files very similar to using the standard Open or Save dialogs on the Mac. Fetch is also great for uploading files to other computers (it can even create directories, set permissions, and remove files -- so you can avoid having to deal with the UNIX operating system on those other machines.

Useful Links to Files. Here are some links to web sites that allow you to download useful and fun software:

INFO-MAC HyperArchive	Great site for Mac files of all kinds. Search Engine and Directory.
Apple's Support Area	Apple Computer's FTP site for Macintosh System software and related files.
Internet Starter Kit for Mac	Links to a variety of Mac sites, and the latest versions of the Internet software discussed in Adam C. Engst's book Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh.
Happy Puppy GAMES	This site has download links to tons of games for your Mac. Some are free, some are shareware, some are demo versions of commercial products.
FILEZ Search Engine	This is a general-purpose search engine for finding any kind of file on the Internet.

File Formats, Compression, and Encoding: Files stored on Internet server computers are usually compressed and/or encoded to facilitate storage and transfer of the file. This means that you must have the proper software installed on your Mac to un-compress and decode the file -- we will primarily use a free program called Stuffit Expander to do this (and much of this is done automatically).

We will discuss file formats and how to identify the type of file from the suffix appended to the filename. Here are some important filename suffixes and what they mean:

.sit	File compressed in Stuffit format, a Mac compression format.	.cpt	File compressed in Compactor format, a Mac compression format.
.zip	A compression format for IBM PC's -- PC data files can often be used on the Mac.	.exe	This file is a program for PC's -- It won't work on your Mac.
.hqx	File encoded in BinHex format -- Used for storing Mac files on other computers.	.uu	UNIX uuencode format -- OK for data files.
.sea	This is a "Self Extracting Archive" (a compressed file that uncompresses itself).	.au	An audio file. Contains sound or music.
.gif	A picture, in graphic interchange format.	.jpeg	Another picture formt (also ".jpg").
.moov	Quicktime movie file format (also ".mov").	.mpeg	A video format (also ".mpg").
.html	HyperText Markup Language (text file for web page).	.txt	A plain text file.

TELNET

The Telnet protocol allows you to connect to another computer and log-on (if you have an account on that machine). Some machines on the Internet allow anyone to log-on, even if they don't have an account, to access information. The card catalog computer at UNM Main Campus (libros.unm.edu) is such a machine, and we will show you how to access it.

The program have on the Mac to do Telnet is called NCSA Telnet. You could use it to connect to your UNIX account on Chicoma (which you will have as part of this class) but we won't have much use to do that.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be aware that NCSA Telnet does not automatically open a window when you start-up the program (this confuses many beginning Mac users). You must choose "Open Connection" from the "File" menu to open a connection window. Similarly, even though the connection window disappears when you log-off from the other computer, NCSA Telnet does not quit -- you must remember to select "Quit" from the "File" menu.

USENET Newsgroups

USENET News allows users to post messages in newsgroups that any other users connected to the Internet can read (assuming they have access). Where e-mail is for person-to-person communication, USENET News is for public discussion for any and all others to read and participate in.

The are Newsgroups dedicated to literally thousands of topics, so you can get the postings on whatever topics interest you and ignore the rest. USENET is a great forum for getting help or information from your fellow users -- ask a question today, and have a dozen answers tomorrow. USENET is also great for holding discussions with people who have similar interests, no matter how strange or unusual they are. (I mean the interests, not the people... Well, truth be told, it can apply both ways. )

The program we will use to access newsgroups is NewsWatcher, a fine free program which, like all good newsreaders, allows you specify the newsgroups that interest you, lets you easily follow "threads" of messages, and facilitates posting replys or new messages.

Another easy way to access newsgroups (for you, anyway, since you already know how to use a web browser) is through the DejaNews Newsgroup Search Engine. DejaNews (and similar search engines) let you search for news postings on an topic of interest without having to hunt through newsgroups to find them.

Gopher

Gopher is an older Internet service which is being eclipsed by the World Wide Web -- but there is still a lot of useful information to be had in gopherspace. Gopher uses a structure of linked directories, displayed as text menus. Most of the information indexed in gopherspace is in the form of text. Graphics and other file types can be accessed, but such files must be downloaded to your computer and displayed with "helper" applications -- gopher does not have the mixed page display of text and graphics, or the versatile linking, that characterizes the World Wide Web.

You can access gopher site using both Netscape, or using a program called TurboGopher.

| About the Class | The World Wide Web | Using Eudora E-mail | 
| What is the Internet? | FTP-Telnet-News-Etc. | More Information | 
| UNM-LA Home Page | Tom Beach's Home Page | 

Created using Macintosh (and it was fun!)
Copyright © 1997 by Thomas E. Beach