Archive-name: apple2/faq/part21
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 2008/06/01
URL:
http://home.swbell.net/rubywand/A2FAQs1START.html The comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs originate from
the Ground Apple II archive, 1997-2008. Administrator: Steve Nelson
Csa2 FAQs-on-Ground ref: Csa2T2TCOM.txt rev123 June 2008
Telecom-2: Downloading & Uploading
001- What's the easiest way to download files from Apple II sites?
002- Some of my downloads are bad; what's wrong?
003- Are there download files I should process on the PC (or Mac)?
004- How do I upload files?
005- What kinds of files should I upload to which sites?
006- How can I read & send email and newsgroup msgs with my A2?
007- With a fast modem, how can the IIe connect to the internet?
008- I'm running the Lynx web browser. Where do I put the URL?
009- How do I download an .SHK file through Lynx?
010- Can I send and receive FAXes using my Apple II?
011- What is a "Binary II" header?
012- Should I add a Binary II header to files I upload?
013- How can I use my Apple II on the internet?
From: Rubywand
001- What is the easiest way to download files from Apple II sites?
Modern PC internet browsers like netscape and Internet Explorer have spoiled much of the challenge of connecting to sites on the net. For example, entering
http://www.apple2.org.za/mirrors/ground.icaen.uiowa.edu/apple16/Games/
in IE's "Address" box gets you to Ground's IIgs games folder ready to download with just a mouse click.
Downloading via a Browser
Some major Apple II sites are FTP sites-- places you get to via an ftp:// URL. FTP connections tend have a pretty raw look-- instead of colorful backgrounds, pictures, fancy buttons, etc., what you see is mainly text showing folder and file names. You may get folder icons and, perhaps, some simple icon next to each file name.
Today, many Apple II sites are web sites with pages you get to via an http:// URL. Often, web download sites will offer a relatively fancy display listing titles with descriptions and, by each title, a button to click to do the download. Other web sites may do without html pages and not be much fancier than an FTP site.
Whether FTP or HTTP, you usually just click a button or file name to start the download process. An exception might be when the file is a Text file you wish to download; for Text file downloads you may need to right-click or SHIFT-click on the item to get some sort of 'Save file' dialogue.
If the file is some binary type (like .shk, .dsk, .zip, etc.), just clicking on the download link or button should bring up a Save dialogue-- like an alert asking if you wish to Save the file-- or take you immediately to a Save window.
When regular (left) clicking gets you to a Save dialogue or window, it indicates that the download page's server knows that the item is not Text or that your browser is one which defaults to binary mode when the filetype is not recognized. Either way, the odds favor getting a good download.
Many Apple II sites are on servers which have no difficulty recognizing PC filetypes like .zip and .bin but do not recognize popular Apple II filetype designations such as .shk, .sdk, and .dsk If a regular click on a download link or button for a shk, or other binary file results in a dump of garbage text to your screen, it means your browser thinks it is supposed to download some kind of Text file.
Right-clicking or SHIFT-clicking should allow you to avoid the garbage and get a Save dialogue and download the file. However, since the browser thinks it's Text, the resulting file will probably have the linefeed character code ($0A) added after every $0D in the file which is not followed by an $0A. So, almost certainly, the download will be corrupted.
One try at a workaround if you are on an http:// site is to try the place's ftp:// URL if it has one. If that doesn't help, contacting the FTP site via an FTP program will almost certainly work.
If you are using an older browser, going to a newer version of IE or Netscape could get the job done.
If you have not defined the particular Apple II filetype in Windows and/or your browser, that may help. (See Geoff Weiss's page which talks about making web browsers aware of Apple II file types for ftp connections at http://www.gwlink.net/geoff/IIdownload.html .)
If the item is available from another place, you may find that going there for your download solves the problem.
Another pretty good alternative is to go ahead and download the .shk, etc. file and use a PC utility named "Uncook" to try producing a copy with the corruption removed.
Uncook was 'discovered' by GS Ed (manager of the ACN Florida archive); and tests indicate that it usually succeeds when the file is corrupted. If the file is not corrupted, Uncook may produce a messed up copy! Fortunately, it is pretty easy to tell when the latter occurs.
If the result of Uncook is a file just 2-4 or so bytes smaller, the original is probably good and the Uncook is bad. If the new (Uncooked) file is known to be the correct size (like it's a 143,360-byte .dsk file) or if it is many bytes smaller, or if the site is known to deliver corrupted files, then the Uncooked file is probably good. And, if there is any doubt, you can always try using both files-- e.g. the .sdk file which gets you a "bad data" error during unshrinking is the bad one.
Uncook.zip is available from GS WorldView's "Download Help" page at http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/DownloadHelp.htm . To get Uncook, click on "Download" near the bottom of the page.
Downloading via an FTP Program
A slightly different approach is to use a good FTP program (often called an "FTP client"), such as WS_FTP or Cute FTP. It is easier to download (or upload) multiple files, speed is usually a bit better, and, since you can force binary mode, direct FTP is not much bothered with file type recognition.
To connect to an FTP site you can run a dial-up program to establish contact with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and start your FTP program. If you are on the net under Netscape, 'Explorer, etc., then you are already connected to your ISP and can start your FTP program as a new task.
After starting your FTP program, you can select the FTP site you want from a list you've created. The list, also called a "profile list", contains ...
o- the site's internet name-- such as "ftp.apple.asimov.net" (Note: there are no "/" folder separators in this entry.)
o- the particular folder or directory you want to begin with-- such as "/images"
o- and the folder on your computer for downloads-- such as "C:\Downloads".
Other information, such as the kind of connection (usually "Unix standard") and the password you send to the site-- usually you will log-in as "anonymous" and use your email address as the password-- are entered more or less automatically when you first create a site's profile entry. (To create a new entry you will usually just click "New", "Create New", etc. instead of picking a site to contact.)
When the connection is made, you will see a list of files and folders in the folder you have entered. If you open one of the folders, you will get a new listing of files and folders contained in the selected folder.
You can, also, change the the drive and folder on your hard disk to which you wish to download. For example, the default "local" folder may be C:\Downloads whenever you connect to Asimov. If you want downloads to go into D:\TempStuff, you can pick this destination. Another situation in which you may wish to change the local folder is when uploading files to a site.
Practically all programs and compressed disks will be in .SHK, .SDK, .DSK, or some other "binary" form. In fact, "Binary" should nearly always be your download/upload mode setting, even when downloading (or uploading) Text files. About the only exception would be when dealing with a binscii archive site which can not handle binary.
In general, when downloading an Apple II .SHK, .ZIP, etc. file, it is best to avoid letting any "helper" applications process the file during download. Usually, it is best to unZIP .zip and .gz files on the PC but, still, after you have completed the download. Your Apple II can take care of un-Shrinking and most other kinds of processing which may be required after the file is downloaded and transferred from the PC (or Mac).
To download one or more files you click-highlight each file you want. Then, you click some button-- such as an arrow symbol pointing to your C:\Downloads folder-- to start the download.
Usually everything will go smoothly and the files will appear on hard disk in your target folder (e.g. C:\Downloads). If you use a dedicated ftp utility you will, usually, be able to see the exact length of a file on the site's file list. One good check for a successful download is to compare file lengths displayed in your target folder with those shown in the FTP site's file list. If you do straight downloads with no processing, there should be no differences for binary transfers. (Text file transfe
rs in Text mode often result in small length changes.)
----------------------------
002- Some of my downloads are bad; what's wrong?
If the exact length of a downloaded file is different than its exact length on the download site (e.g. as shown via your FTP client program), the download is probably corrupted. (Text files are something of an exception-- i.e. the download length may be different and the file may have characters added; but, usually, the "corruption" has no damaging impact.)
A common reason for getting a bad download is that a binary file-- e.g. a .shk, .dsk, etc. file-- was downloaded in Text mode. (See discussion about this in Q&A 001 above.) An FTP program should be set to "Binary" before doing most downloads from ftp sites. If using a
...
read more »
