Archie and File Transfer Protocol

Background

There are a great many ways to retrieve information from the Internet but an extremely powerful method is the use of FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP is a tool designed to move one file from one computer to another and this can be done over the Internet. Therefore files can be moved a great distance with FTP. The information obtainable with FTP can be of various forms, including text and binary files. Therefore the problems of creating encoded files to send non-text files through electronic mail systems is not necessary if FTP is used.

Of course there are security constraints as to which files individuals can obtain from the remote computer or server. This constraint is in the form of a logon/password type system, however most FTP servers have what is called an anonymous logon system. This system gives the public the ability to log into an FTP server under the user name "anonymous". The anonymous user will only be able to obtain files designated for the anonymous user. Some sites may give full access to an anonymous user, while other sites can restrict the anonymous user to varying levels of ability (can download files only, can upload files only, can only browse files, etc.). There are thousands of anonymous logon sites and a few as seen in the Charm Net's Pointers to Monster FTP .

Since there are such a large number of anonymous servers to obtain files from, a way to search for a particular file is an impossible task. Archie is a tool that enables users to search anonymous servers for a particular topic. Several Archie servers have been set up to allow people to register files on there anonymous FTP site. A user then can search the entire database looking for a particular item, and the Archie server will be able to point the user to the proper FTP server, the proper directory for the file, a nd even a little synopsis of what the file may be. However, since Archie machines aren't necessarily dedicated for this function, there is some "netiquette" about using Archie. It is preferred if most searche s are done on off-hours, using specific search queries and using the Archie server closest to your location.

There are other means of finding files and FTP servers. In newsgroups, many people list the name of files and the appropriate servers that they can be located on. Over the World Wide Web, there are pages with links directly to these anonymous servers, and with the WWW browsers (such as Netscape) people can even download files. And of course, people can send the names of the server and the files names through e-mail systems and list servers.

Using FTP/ARCHIE For Researching Visual Programming

Researching a topic using Archie and then downloading the information with FTP is a fairly easy process. Since Archie is a "search" tool on its own, this makes researching a fairly easy process. Archie can be accessed through electronic mail, through a command line or through a Graphical User Interface version of Archie (such as xArchie).

For searching the topic Visual Programming, the on-line version of Archie running on the UNIX server was used. The procedure to use Archie is to type: ARCHIE [-Parameters] 'String'. The different parameters that can be used by Archie can be listed by type ARCHIE alone, so the entire list will not be shown here. However, in the search for Visual Programming information, I used the -o parameter which places the search result into a file (which is named after the -o parameter). To see an example of what a search result will look like when: Archie -o search visual entered: click here. This search string alone brought up a tremendous number of possible sites, and the information in this also gave more sites as well. Other search strings were tried such as 'Visual Programming' (which actually just brought up the same list), and Programming. From these result, one can visit the hosts listed with an FTP program and see if any of the information located there has any important information. For searching the Visual Programming topic, a PC-version of FTP was used. The typical procedure to use FTP is to type: FTP , which will connect to the requested server. The server will prompt you for username (which will be anonymous) and password (which will be your e-mail address). The PC-version of FTP allows users to click from directory to directory on either computer (remote or local), like most typical file manager type programs. If a file is located on the remote system, a simple click on the retrieve button (an arrow pointing which way to move the file) is pressed and the file is then downloaded.

From the list of servers listed from my single Archie search, I located several files from several differen t hosts about Visual Programming. On the server ftp.seas.gwu.edu I located an Frequently Asked Question sheet with information about Web sites, FTP sites, News Groups, Conferences, listing of books, and journals. On the server vivaldi.belnet.be, ftp.std.com and relay.cs.toronto.edu I located several different "manuals" and actual complete programs to various different Visual Programming Languages. So it can be seen that FTP and Archie are very powerful tools, even from such a simple search as on the word "visual". Each server has vast information, and possibly have more information with the links that they can provide whether it is to other FTP servers or to any other Internet service.