The Mac-FTP-list lists over 200 mac anonymous ftp sites (some with notes), over 65 Mac web pages, and contains some instructions on how to use anonymous ftp and find files as well a format chart showing which programs decompress and decode which files. Also there is a section on how to use certain files.
Credits:
To Mike Gleason for the original Mac-FTP-list and giving me permission to continue it.
To Tim Jones, reichh45@potsdam.edu, and Robert C. Best III (author of the excellent HTML editors, HTML SuperText and HTML Web Weaver) for the work that the HTML verison of the Mac FTP list possible. HTML Web Weaver is available at any good info-mac mirror in the /comm/html/ directory.
World Wide Web providers take note: The html version of the mac-ftp-list is
composed of four crosslinked files which CANNOT be renamed:
mac-ftp-list.html, ftp-list.html, www-section.html, and site-notes.html.
Changes: mathsource.wri.com is now mathsource.wolfram.com; http://www.riken.go.jp/archives/info-mac/ is now http://www.rarf.riken.go.jp/archives/info-mac/; ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca and archie.univ-rennes1.fr changed;
The first column of stuff in the data below is the site name. Usually
you can either type in the URL ftp://sitename/file/pathway/ on a Web
browser or run ftp from a unix shell account 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 either method with the IP number and it doesn't bite, it isn't gonna work.
Because of this fact the html version of this sheet used IP numbers rather than the site names. For example the wuarchive.wustl.edu URL is ftp://128.252.135.4/systems/mac/ rather than ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/mac/. Recent IP# changes and 'dymatic addressing' have changed this practice so some sites have both: the sitename and the IP#.
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 Stuffit Expander to decode and expand them, reguardless of whether they are Stuffit (.sit) or Compact Pro (.cpt). This is much better than in the old days when you had to download a file to your mac, use Compact Pro or Stuffit to decode them, and THEN, figure which program you needed use to decompress it.
On a unix shell account, ftp will prompts 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.
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/}.
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." Doing the reverse is more complicated. You must reverse the address and use the in-addr.arpa domain with the lookup type set to "ANY" (otherwise it just verifies the address as valid). So 130.43.2.3 is typed in as "nslookup 3.2.43.130.in-addr.arpa" and would print out "ftp.apple.com".
Most files you'll get off ftp are in binhex (.hqx) format. Since almost all present modems support V.42bis and MNP5 compression (4:1 and 2:1 respectivly) it has actually become faster to download them to your machine and THEN decode them. The reason is simple; text files like .hqx, .uu, and .txt can be compressed allowing the modem to increase throughput for these files by 50% to 100%. Already compressed files like .bin, .sit, and .pit receive little if any benefit from V.42bis and MNP5. This results in .hqx files being downloaded as fast or faster than .bin files. This combined with background decoding/decompression (like StuffIt Expander) and Web browsers has rendered downloading to an unix box and decoding .hqx on the unix box almost obsolete.
Here's a handy chart to keep track which programs unmangle which formats:
Disk Doubler {Mac} format. Decoded by DDExpand and DiskDoubler.
.exe
DOS/Windows executable file (program); also used to create
self-extracting archives. An .exe file used as a self-extracting
archive can usually be decompressed with Stuffit Expander w/ DSEE.
.html (.htm)
WWW document. Used by WWW browsers such as Netscape and lynx.
.image
Mac disk image. Decoded and/or mounted by DiskCopy, MountImage,
Drop*Disk, ImageMaster, and ShrinkWrap.
.img/.ima
Microsoft Disk Image Utility and Winimage formats, respectivly. Decoded
and/or mounted by ShrinkWrap. Note that .img is also used as an graphic
file extension and needs Graphic Converter to view.
.lzh
old PC/Amiga format, replaced by .arc and .zip; decoded by MacLHA,
French KISS 2.1.0, and macunpack.
.pit
old {~1989} Mac compression format created by PackIt programs, replaced
by .sit. In general, a program that handles .sit files can decode .pit
files as well.
.pkg
AppleLink package format, replaced by .sit. Decoded by all present Mac
StuffIt programs.
.sea
Mac format, decompresses itself and needs no external programs.
.shar
Unix shell archive. Decoded by Unshar.
.taz
another name for .tar.Z
.tgz
another name for .tar.z and .tar.gz {do not confuse with .tar.Z}.
.txt
ASCII text file. Other suffixes include .abs and .doc.
.z
Early {~1993} suffix for Gzip files. Due to confusion with the UNIX
'compress' suffix {.Z} it was abandoned in favor of the .gz suffix.
.zoo
old {~1989} PC/Amiga format, replaced by .arc. Decoded by MacZoo and
MacBooz.
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 "unstuffed" files. Otherwise you will get errors like "unreadable file" or "file is corrupt" when you try to decompress them.
If you need further information please check out the comp.compression FAQ <http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/compression-faq/top.html> or David Lemson's compression chart at ftp://ftp.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/doc/pcnet/compression.
If you are looking for a specific mac file or program you will want to use one
or more of the many databases or search engines available some of which are listed below. Since I only keep track of sites I have no idea where individual files are located, which is why I have included lists of archie sites and Web search engines. Please note that database information is not always up-to-date and files and sites listed may no longer exist.
Here are some tips if you have downloaded a file and are not sure how to open it. First, do NOT ask people what program opens the file. Odds are that no one will know how to deal with the file.
The reason is that DOS's three letter extension allows 26^3 or 17,576 possible file formats. The Mac is even more of a nightmare with -two- four letter tags each one allowing 255^4 or 4,228,250,625 different possible combinations. So, on the Mac not only does one have over -4 billion- possible formats to choose from but also 4 billion possible -programs- to choose from. Compounding the problem is the fact that certain three letter extensions can really be any one of several different formats and in DOS people create their own three letter extensions.
The best thing to do is to try and see if there is any way to figure out what -broad- type of file it is: Word Processor, picture, sound, or movie.
Word Processor
Quill 2.2 (/info-mac/text/) will will read most of these out there.
Pictures
Graphic Converter (Shareware, $30, /info-mac/gst/grf/) is one of the
most powerful shareware graphic programs for the Mac, able to view,
create, and edit over 77 different graphic formats including .gif,
.png, and .jpeg. But even it cannot view Photoshop, Canvas, Pixel
Paint, or .cel formats.
Sound files
Sound App 2.0 (Freeware, /info-mac/gst/snd/) will play most sound
format out there including .mod, .wav, .au, and .aiff.
Movie files
Sparkle 2.4.5 (/info-mac/gst/mov/) for QT and .mov formats; add Video
for Windows 1.1 (/info-mac/gst/mov/) to convert .avi format.
Other files
Hopefully there is a document file that tells you what is needed
otherwise it is pretty much a lost cause.
These sites have many mac files, and are still getting new ones:
