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Technical Support Frequently Asked Questions
This area under constant construction as new questions come up
If you don't see your question here, please send technical support feedback or questions using our on-line form and get your question answered directly.
- FAQ's about ftp for Unix
- What is FTP ?
- Connecting to the site ?
- Finding files ?
- Getting Files ?
- Online help ?
- Closing a connection ?
- Exiting ftp ?
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- A. FTP is a way of
transferring files from one computer to another over the Internet. It is also
the name of a UNIX program for FTP.
-
- A.
- To start the program type "ftp" and press Return. The prompt change to "ftp>"
- To connect to a site as an anonymous user, type "open sitename".
For example, to connect to Microsoft's anonymous FTP server, type "open ftp.microsoft.com".
- To connect to a site where you have a login, type "open -u sitename" and press return.
For example, to connect to Access's FTP server as a
Access subscriber, type "open -u ftp.accesscom.com" and login as usual.
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- A. Once you are connected to the site you need to find the file you want. The commands are mostly the same as those you use in Access's UNIX shell. If you do not know how to use these commands, see the help file. (For example, if you do not understand what "cd" does, see the "cd" help file.)
- cd directory - Opens a directory inside the directory you are in.
- cd pathname - Opens a directory with the given path.
- cd .. - Goes up a directory level. Note: this is "cd" followed by a space, then two periods. The space is important.
- dir - Displays the contents of the current directory. Note: we suggest dir instead of ls because ls and ls -l may or may not work at other sites. dir always works.
- pwd - Shows the path for the current directory.
- Descriptions of the files at a site are sometimes stored in a file called "00-INDEX.TXT".
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- A. Once you have found what you want there are two parts to getting files. First you have to set the transfer type to binary or ascii, then you can give the command to transfer the file.
- All files are either text (ascii) files or binary files. Binary files are non-text files - this means files that contain programs, graphics, spreadsheets, sounds, and so on. A compressed text file is considered a binary file. Binary files and text files are transferred differently, so you need to tell the computer what kind of file it is moving.
- To set the transfer mode for text, type "type ascii". Use this for ".txt" files and other text-only files.
- To set the transfer mode for binary, type "type
binary". Use this for ".zip" files, ".tar.z" files and other binary files.
- Next, get the file or files:
- get filename - Transfers the file to your directory on Access. The filename must be exact.
- For example, "get beethoven" transfers the file named "beethoven".
- mget filena* - Transfers a file using a "wildcard" with the filename. This is useful if you do not know the exact filename.
- For example, "mget beeth*" transfers the "beethoven" file.
- mget filename1 filename2 - Transfers more than one file.
- For example, "mget beethoven vivaldi haydn" gets the files named "beethoven", "vivaldi", and "haydn". You can get many files at once this way.
- When you transfer more than one file at a time, you are prompted for each file you want to transfer. This can get annoying. Use the command "prompt" to toggle this on and off.
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- A. Type "help" for a list of commands. Type "help command" for information about a command. For example, for information about the "mget" command type "help mget".
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- A. To close a connection to a site without leaving ftp, type "close".
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- A. To exit ftp, type "exit".
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