This HTML verison of the Mac FTP list was made possible by the work of Tim Jones, reichh45@potsdam.edu, and an earlier version (HTML SuperText) of Robert C. Best III's excelent HTML editor HTML Web Weaver. It is available at any good info-mac mirror in the /text/html/ directory.
From: BruceG6069@aol.com (Bruce Grubb)
This is a update (July 1,1995) to Mike Gleason's ftp list {He gave me permission to continue it}. It lists a good number of mac anonymous ftp sites with notes on some and a little blurb on how to use anonymous ftp.
List of Mac FTP sites
Notes on Mac FTP sites
The html version of the mac-ftp-list is now composed of three crosslinked files: mac-ftp-list.html, ftp-list.html, and site-notes.html. Since the files are crosslinked they CANNOT be renamed. The first file will retain the name 'mac-ftp-list.html' so that links to the old list will still work.
The reason for the split was because the one file set-up was rapidly becoming too unwieldly to update, edit, and read on-line. The advantage with the new set-up is that people can go directly to the ftp-list section without slugging through the rest of the document.
Changes: Split .html version into three parts; format structure of html version reworked; ftp.pth.com and archie.au IP addresses fixed; stewart.pnet.msen.com domain name now associate.com;
Added sites: ftp-2.amug.org;
Defunct sites: tau.sm.luth.se;
Note: Mike Gleason no longer supports this list and has given me his kind permision to continue it.
Revisions posted monthly to the USENET newsgroups comp.sys.mac.comm, comp.sys.mac.misc, comp.sys.mac.apps, and comp.sys.mac.games.
The fixed font must be in a monospaced font such as Monaco 9pt, Courier 10pt, or PC equivalent for this page to be readable.
Copyright 1995 by Bruce Grubb with document concept and portions of its text Copyright 1991 by Mike Gleason. May be freely distributed and archived.
Please send newly discovered macintosh sites (with IP numbers and
directories to check if possible), bug fixes, and comments to:
Internet: BruceG6069@aol.com
AOL: BruceG6069
{AOL can only handle <27K e-mail so keep messages short}
The first column of stuff in the data below is the site name. Usually you can just run ftp and type open and then the site name. But some computers don't like the names (or don't have all of them) and prefer the next column of
stuff, the IP addresses. If you try the open command with the IP number and
it doesn't bite, it isn't gonna work. Most mac ftp sites have encoded their
files with BinHex 4.0 which end in the suffix ".hqx". To decode these files,
you can just download them to your mac, and use Compact Pro or Stuffit to
decode them. THEN, you will need to decompress them. Stuffit files end in
".sit" while Compact Pro files end in ".cpt" but you will probably only want
to use Stuffit as it can decompress both formats.
On a unix shell account, ftp will prompt you for a username and password; you send "anonymous" as the username, and your email address as the password. For Mike Gleason it would be mgleason@cse.unl.edu and for me it would be bgrubb@scf.nmsu.edu. Here's a sample ftp session:
% ftp ftp> open wuarchive.wustl.edu Connected to wuarchive.wustl.edu. 220 wuarchive.wustl.edu FTP server (...) ready. Name (wuarchive.wustl.edu:bgrubb): anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password. Password (wuarchive.wustl.edu:anonymous): bgrubb@scf.nmsu.edu 230- If your FTP client crashes or hangs shortly after login please try 230- using a dash (-) as the first character of your password. This will 230- turn off the informational messages that may be confusing your FTP 230- client. 230- 230- You are user number 221 out of a possible 225. 230- 230- All transfers to and from wuarchive are logged. If you don't like 230- this then disconnect now! 230- ftp> cd systems/mac/ ftp> get ./info-mac/help/recent-files.txt Info-MacRecentFiles ftp> get ./umich.edu/mac/00help/newfiles.txt umichRecentFiles ftp> get ./info-mac/game/cumulonimbus.hqx cn.hqx ftp> quit % sz cn.hqx
Please note that there are other ways to connect to ftp sites then through a unix box. There are commercial services such as CompuServe and AOL as well as a whole host of Telnet and FTP programs for the Macintosh. A list of such programs can be found in David L. Oppenheimer's (davido@Princeton.EDU) excellent _FAQ list for comp.sys.mac.comm_ {/info-mac/comm/info/}. Web users should be familiar with URLs, which are in the form ftp://sitename{or IP address}/filepathway. For the example above, the URL would be ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/ or ftp://128.252.135.4/systems/mac/.
Keep in mind that some sites may disenable the anonymous login for a while: during certain hours of the day, for maintainance reasons, or because of too much heavy traffic. Most will tell you the reason for refusing anonymous login, but a few will say nothing more than 'User anonymous unknown' or 'connection refused'. Keep this in mind when a site on this list results in either of these responses.
If you want to read a file on a remote site, but don't want download it, and are not using a WWW browser, quit ftp, page the file, then restart ftp, try "get myfile.txt -" and ftp will dump the file to your terminal. Also exploit ftp's pipe and shell abilities, like "get myfile.txt |more" will do the same as above, except using "more" to page the file. On the other hand, Web browsers can read these files on-line without all this hand waving.
If you need to know the IP address of an ftp site, a common unix program called "nslookup" can help. With some versions, "nslookup ftp.apple.com" would spit out "130.43.2.3." The reverse is also true, "nslookup 130.43.2.3" would print out "ftp.apple.com." Normally nslookup on an IP address just verifies the address as valid and to do a reverse lookup you must reverse the address and use the in-addr.arpa domain with the lookup type set to "ANY."
Most files you'll get off ftp are in that pain in the butt format, binhex. Mike Gleason usually downloaded to his unix box, and then used an immensely useful utility called "mcvert" to de-binhex them there. Not only is this faster, but it doesn't tie up your own CPU. Stop over to one of the Info-Mac mirrors {info-mac/cmp directory} and grab it. After mcvert'ing files, they'll turn into files with ".bin" suffix on them, meaning they are in MacBinary format, and ready to download in BINARY mode {see Warning in the format chart section}.
Here's a handy chart to keep track which programs unmangle which formats:
unix gzip .uu/
Macintosh .cpt .sit .hqx .bin .zip .arc .tar .Z .gz/.z .uue
Stuffit Expander* D D D D
w/ DSEE* D X X X D D D D D
StuffIt Lite** D X X X {see note below}
StuffIt Deluxe** D X X X D D X X D X
SITcomm D X X X D D X X X
ArcMac X
BinHex 4.0 X
BinHex 5.0 D X
Compact Pro 1.5.1 X D/N X
Extractor 1.2.1 D D/N D
HQXer 1.1 X
MacCompress X
MacGzip D X
ShrinkWrap 1.3.2*^ D D D D D D D D D
SunTar 2.0.4 X X X D
Tar 4.0b X
UnZip D
UU Lite X
uucd 2.3 X
UUTool X
uuUndo D
ZipIt 1.3.2b1 D D X
Other unix gzip .uu/
computers .cpt .sit .hqx .bin .zip .arc .tar .Z .gz/.z .uue
extrac.exe D
macutil (unix)
hexbin D D
macunpack D D/U D D
mcvert (unix) X X
PKZIP X
unsitins.exe D
N = Cannot decode .sit dlx {Type SITD} files
D = Decode only
X = Encode and decode
U = Uncertain or Unknown
.sit refers to both 1.5 and dlx. Otherwise a '/' is used {1.5/dlx}.
Note: Almost every Mac communications program can decode .bin files.
* DropStuff with Expander Enhancer is an $30 shareware addon for Stuffit
Expander. DSEE is also used by other programs {marked with a *^}
to expand files. Current versions are 3.5.2 as of this writing.
** Stuffit Deluxe translators can be used with Stuffit Lite. Current
versions are 3.5.0 as of this writing.
CAUTION: While Gzip is aimed at replacing the .Z format, they are _different_ unix compression formats, and the suffixes are NOT inchangable. Many sites now support on-the-fly translation of these formats; just type in the file name minus the .Z or .gz suffix.
WARNING: .hqx, .txt, and .uu files are the ONLY files that can be downloaded in ASCII mode; all others must be downloaded in BINARY {IMAGE} mode for the file to decompress properly. This is especially true of ".bin" and "unpacked" files. Otherwise you will get errors like "unreadable file" or "file is corrupt" when you try to decompress them.
List of Mac FTP sites
Notes on Mac FTP sites