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<H1></H1>



<UL>

	<LI><A HREF="#Heading1">- Appendix A -</A>

	<UL>

		<LI><A HREF="#Heading2">FTP Sites and Newsgroups</A>

		<UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading3">FTP Sites</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading4">What Is FTP?</A>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading5">Connecting and Downloading Files with FTP</A>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading6">Using ftpmail</A>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading7">Linux FTP Archive Sites</A>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading8">Bulletin Boards</A>

			<UL>

				<LI><A HREF="#Heading9">Linux-Related BBSs</A>

			</UL>

			<LI><A HREF="#Heading10">Usenet Newsgroups</A>

		</UL>

	</UL>

</UL>



<P>

<HR SIZE="4">



<H2 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading1<FONT COLOR="#000077">- Appendix A -</FONT></H2>

<H2 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading2<FONT COLOR="#000077">FTP Sites and Newsgroups</FONT></H2>

<P>IN THIS APPENDIX</P>



<UL>

	<LI>FTP Sites 

	<P>

	<LI>Bulletin Boards 

	<P>

	<LI>Usenet Newsgroups 

</UL>



<P>If you have access to the Internet, either directly or through an online service

provider such as CompuServe, Delphi, or America Online, you can access additional

sources of Linux software and information. Two popular sources of Linux software

and help are available, one through FTP and the other through Linux-specific Usenet

newsgroups.</P>



<P>If you don't have access to the Internet, you might still be able to get some

of the information available through other sources, such as bulletin board systems

(BBSs) and CD-ROMs published by companies specializing in redistributing public domain

material.

<H3 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading3<FONT COLOR="#000077">FTP Sites</FONT></H3>

<P>FTP is a method of accessing remote systems and downloading files. It is easy

to use, and it provides users with Internet access and a fast method for updating

their list of binaries.</P>

<P>For those without FTP access, but who can use electronic mail through the Internet,

the utility ftpmail can provide access to these FTP sites.

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading4<FONT COLOR="#000077">What Is FTP?</FONT></H4>

<P>File transfer protocol (FTP) is one protocol in the TCP/IP family of protocols.

TCP/IP is used extensively as the communications protocol of the Internet, as well

as in many local area networks (LANs). UNIX systems almost always use TCP/IP as their

protocol.</P>

<P>FTP is used to transfer files between machines running TCP/IP. FTP-like programs

are also available for some other protocols.</P>

<P>To use FTP, both ends of a connection must be running a program that provides

FTP services. To download a file from a remote system, you must start your FTP software

and instruct it to connect to the FTP software running on the remote machine.</P>

<P>The Internet has many FTP archive sites. These are machines that are set up to

allow anyone to connect to them and download software. In some cases, FTP archive

sites mirror each other. A mirror site is one that maintains exactly the same software

as another site, so you simply connect to the one that is easiest for you to access,

and you have the same software available for downloading as if you had connected

to the other site.</P>

<P>Usually, when you connect to a remote system, you must log in. This means you

must be a valid user, with a username and password for that remote machine. Because

it is impossible to provide logins for everyone who wants to access a public archive,

many systems use anonymous FTP. Anonymous FTP enables anyone to log into the system

with the login name of guest or anonymous and either no password or the login name

for the user's local system (used for auditing purposes only).

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading5<FONT COLOR="#000077">Connecting and Downloading

Files with FTP</FONT></H4>

<P>Using FTP to connect to a remote site is easy. Assuming that you have access to

the Internet either directly or through a service provider, you must start FTP and

provide the name of the remote system to which you want to connect. If you are directly

connected to the Internet, the process is simple: You enter the <TT>ftp</TT> command

with the name of the remote site:<FONT COLOR="#0066FF"></FONT>

<PRE><FONT COLOR="#0066FF">ftp sunsite.unc.edu

</FONT></PRE>

<P>If you are using an online service, such as Delphi, you must access its Internet

services menu and invoke FTP from that. Some online services allow you to enter the

name of any FTP site at a prompt, whereas others have menus that list all available

sites. You might have to hunt through the online documentation for your service provider

to find the correct procedure.</P>

<P>After you issue the <TT>ftp</TT> command, your system attempts to connect to the

remote machine. When it does (and assuming that the remote system allows FTP logins),

the remote prompts you for a user ID. If anonymous FTP is supported on the system,

a message usually tells you that. The following login is shown for the Linux FTP

archive site <TT>sunsite.unc.edu</TT>:<FONT COLOR="#0066FF"></FONT>

<PRE><FONT COLOR="#0066FF">ftp sunsite.unc.edu

331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.

Enter username (default: anonymous): anonymous

Enter password [[e-mail]]:

|FTP| Open

230-             WELCOME to UNC and SUN's anonymous ftp server

230-                       University of North Carolina

230-                     Office FOR Information Technology

230-                             SunSITE.unc.edu

230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.

FTP&gt;

</FONT></PRE>

<P>After the login process is completed, you see the prompt <TT>FTP&gt;</TT>, indicating

that the system is ready to accept commands. When you log into some systems, you

see a short message that might contain instructions for downloading files, any restrictions

that are placed on you as an anonymous FTP user, or information about the location

of useful files. For example, you might see messages like this:<FONT COLOR="#0066FF"></FONT>

<PRE><FONT COLOR="#0066FF">To get a binary file, type:  BINARY and then: GET &quot;File.Name&quot; newfilename

To get a text file, type:    ASCII  and then: GET &quot;File.Name&quot; newfilename

Names MUST match upper, lower case exactly. Use the &quot;quotes&quot; as shown.

To get a directory, type: DIR. To change directory, type: CD &quot;Dir.Name&quot;

To read a short text file, type: GET &quot;File.Name&quot; TT

For more, type HELP or see FAQ in gopher.

To quit, type EXIT or Control-Z.

230-  If you email to [e-mail] you will be sent help information

230-  about how to use the different services sunsite provides.

230-  We use the Wuarchive experimental ftpd. if you &quot;get&quot; &lt;directory&gt;.tar.Z

230-  or &lt;file&gt;.Z it will compress and/or tar it on the fly. Using &quot;.gz&quot; instead

230-  of &quot;.Z&quot; will use the GNU zip (/pub/gnu/gzip*) instead, a superior

230-  compression method.

</FONT></PRE>

<P>After you are connected to the remote system, you can use familiar Linux commands

to display file contents and move around the directories. To display the contents

of a directory, for example, use the command <TT>ls</TT> or the DOS equivalent <TT>dir</TT>.

To change to a subdirectory, use the <TT>cd</TT> command. To return to the parent

directory (the one above the current directory), use the <TT>cdup</TT> or <TT>cd

..</TT> command. No keyboard shortcuts are available with FTP, so you must type the

name of files or directories in their entirety.</P>

<P>When you have moved through the directories and have found a file you want to

move back to your home system, use the <TT>get</TT> command:<FONT COLOR="#0066FF"></FONT>

<PRE><FONT COLOR="#0066FF">get &quot;file1.txt&quot;

</FONT></PRE>

<P>The commands <TT>get</TT> (download) and <TT>put</TT> (upload) are relative to

your home machine. You are telling your system to get a file from the remote location

and put it on your local machine, or to put a file from your local machine onto the

remote machine. This is the opposite of another commonly used TCP/IP protocol, telnet,

which has everything relative to the remote machine. It is important to remember

which command moves in which direction, or you could overwrite files accidentally.</P>

<P>The quotation marks around the filename are optional for most versions of FTP.

But because they do provide specific characters to the remote version (preventing

shell expansion), the quotation marks should be used to avoid mistakes. FTP provides

two modes of file transfer: ASCII and binary. Some systems automatically switch between

the two, but it is a good idea to manually set the mode to ensure that you don't

waste time. To set FTP in binary transfer mode (for any executable file), type the

following command:<FONT COLOR="#0066FF"></FONT>

<PRE><FONT COLOR="#0066FF">binary

</FONT></PRE>

<P>You can toggle back to ASCII mode with the command <TT>ASCII</TT>. Because you

will most likely be checking remote sites for new binaries or libraries of source

code, it is a good idea to use binary mode for most transfers. If you transfer a

binary file in ASCII mode, it will not be executable (or understandable) on your

system. ASCII mode includes only the valid ASCII characters and not the Ctrl-key

sequences used within binaries. Transferring an ASCII file in binary mode does not

affect the contents, although spurious noise might cause a problem in rare instances.</P>

<P>When you issue a <TT>get</TT> command, the remote system transfers data to your

local machine and displays a status message when it is finished. You'll see no indication

of progress when a large file is being transferred, so be patient. The following

sample transcript shows a typical <TT>get</TT> request. As you can see, you don't

usually see any indication of the progress of the file transfer, except for a message

when the process is complete.<FONT COLOR="#0066FF"></FONT>

<PRE><FONT COLOR="#0066FF">FTP&gt; get &quot;file1.txt&quot;

200 PORT command successful.

150 BINARY data connection for FILE1.TXT (27534 bytes)

226 BINARY Transfer complete.

27534 bytes received in 2.35 seconds (12 Kbytes/s).

</FONT></PRE>

<P>To quit FTP, type the command <TT>quit</TT> or <TT>exit</TT>. Either command closes

your session on the remote machine, then terminates FTP on your local machine.

<H4 ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="Heading6<FONT COLOR="#000077">Using ftpmail</FONT></H4>

<P>If you don't have access to a remote site through FTP, all is not lost. If you

have electronic mail, you can still get files transferred to you. Some online systems

allow Internet mail to be sent and received but do not allow direct access to FTP.