How to Download files from MFM's FTP site, MFM Communication Software, Inc.

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How to Download files from MFM's FTP Site

Quick Contents

[How to Recognize an ftp URL] [How ftp URLs Appear on MFM's Web Site] [How to Download a File with Netscape Communicator] [How to Download a File with Internet Explorer] [How to Download a File with the Standard Windows/DOS ftp Client Program] [Related Information]

How to Recognize an ftp URL

"URL" is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web.
Ftp is an abbreviation of File Transfer Protocol, the protocol used on the Internet for sending files.
An ftp URL begins with: ftp://
This is different from other kinds of URLs, which begin with different prefixes. For example:
- Web pages: http://
- E-mail addresses: mailto:
- (Rarely used) telnet addresses: telnet://

Before you left-click on a hyperlink to browse to it, you should be aware of how your browser will behave. For example, you cannot view the contents of ftp://ftp.mfm.com/PCAWin/modemwiz.exe because this URL directs you to the modemwiz.exe file which is a binary file. If you were to left-click on the above URL, your browser would begin to download the modemwiz.exe file. However, you can view the contents of ftp://ftp.mfm.com/PCAWin/. This URL directs you to the PCAWin directory on MFM's ftp site.

How ftp URLs Appear on MFM's Web Site

MFM uses two methods to display ftp URLs on our Web site.

As hyperlinks on Web pages.
- For example, you may see a hyperlink like:
  ftp://ftp.mfm.com/PCAWin/bld151p.exe.
  This hyperlink directs you to the location of a specific file on MFM's ftp site. In this example, you would download bld151p.exe from the PCAWin directory on ftp://ftp.mfm.com.
- You may see also see a hyperlink like:
  Download the Build 151 Update Patch.
  Both examples direct you to the same place on MFM's ftp site.
As directory entries when you browse to an ftp directory.
(e.g.: ftp://ftp.mfm.com) When you left-click on ftp://ftp.mfm.com/ , your browser will display the contents of MFM's ftp site. You can left-click on any of the folders and view the contents of that folder.

How to Download a File with Netscape Communicator

To download a file using Netscape Communicator:

Click on the file or URL to the file you want to download.
The file will begin to download when the Netscape Smart Download window appears.
The Netscape Smart Download window saves the file to the directory shown in the To: field. Click the Advanced button to change the directory Netscape Smart Download saves the file to.
When the download is complete, the Download successful window may appear. Click Close to close the Download successful window.
Click Close again to close the Netscape Smart Download window.

Note: Netscape Communicator may try to open or install the file after the download is complete. Netscape Communicator cannot open or install most of the files on MFM's ftp site this way. If you experience difficulty with the above method, you can force Netscape to save the file rather than opening or installing it. Follow the instructions below to force Netscape to save the file.

Right-click the ftp URL and select Save Link As...
Note the folder or location you see next to the Look in field in the Save As... dialog box. This is the location that Netscape will save the file you are downloading. To change the location next to the Look in field, click on the drop-down menu next to the Look in field.
When you have selected a location on your hard drive to save the file to, click Save.

How to Download a File with Internet Explorer

Click on the file or URL to the file you want to download.
On the File Download window, choose Save this program to disk, click OK.
In the Save As dialog box, select a directory on your hard drive to save the file to. When you have selected a directory click Save.
When the download is complete, click OK at the Download Complete prompt.

How to Download a File with the Standard Windows/DOS ftp Client Program

The steps below will guide you through downloading a file with the standard Windows/DOS ftp client program. In the example below, you will download the MFM.FON file from the /pub/windows/pcaccess directory on MFM's ftp site. The commands shown in bold, are responses you would type to commands on the screen.

Click Start | Programs | MS-DOS Prompt.

In your MS-DOS Prompt window type the following:

C:\WINDOWS> CD\
C:\>ftp ftp.mfm.com
Connected to rigel.mfm.com.
220 FTP server (Version wu-2.4(22) Fri Oct 24 13:04:55 EDT 1997) ready.
User (rigel.mfm.com:(none)): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.

Type in your e-mail address. For example username@domain
Note: As you type your e-mail address in the password field, it will not display on the screen.

Password:
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.

Change directories to pub/windows/pcaccess

ftp> cd /pub/windows/pcaccess
250 CWD command successful.

You can verify the directory you are currently in with the pwd command.

ftp> pwd
257 "/pub/windows/pcaccess" is current directory
ftp> dir

Below is a sample of the files and directories that are in the pub/windows/pcaccess directory on MFM's ftp site.


200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for /bin/ls.
total 18
-rw-rw-r--  1 143   mfm      1660 Oct 13  1997 autoupdt.scr
-rw-rw-r--  1 143   mfm    309165 May 12 11:55 bld132p.exe
-rw-rw-r--  1 143   mfm    556157 Apr 20 09:59 bld151p.exe
-rw-rw-r--  1 143   mfm   1267635 Jun  1 10:41 fu132-1.exe
-rw-rw-r--  1 143   mfm   1468683 Jun  1 10:41 fu132-2.exe
-rw-rw-r--  1 143   mfm   1000356 Jun  1 10:41 fu132-3.exe
-rw-r--r--  1 143   mfm    926426 Aug 21  1998 help120.exe
drwxr-xr-x  2 143   mfm       512 Apr 29 08:55 images124
drwxr-xr-x  2 143   mfm       512 Feb  5 17:53 images147
drwxr-xr-x  2 143   mfm       512 May  7 16:50 images151
-rw-rw-r--  1 143   mfm    186368 Sep 29  1997 mfm.fon
226 Transfer complete.
435 bytes received in 0.31 seconds (1.39 Kbytes/sec)

The file you want to download is MFM.FON.

ftp> bin
200 Type set to I.
ftp> has
Hash mark printing On (2048 bytes/hash mark).

Change to a directory on your hard drive to save the MFM.FON. file to. The example below uses C:\TEMP.

ftp> lcd c:\temp
Local directory now C:\temp

The following command will download MFM.FON. to the C:\TEMP directory on your hard drive.

ftp> get mfm.fon
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for mfm.fon (186368 bytes).
####################################################################################
#######
226 Transfer complete.
186368 bytes received in 10.91 seconds (17.09 Kbytes/sec)
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.

Type EXIT to close the MS-DOS Prompt window and return to Windows.

C:\>EXIT

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