How do you make a gopher transfer using a gopher client program?
Details vary depending on the program, but most gopher client
programs for Windows or Macintosh offer the same command functions. You
open up the program, select a server, pick the files you want to transfer
from a scrolling list, and then transfer your files with the click of a
button.
If you're going to make extensive you of gopher you may be better off using
one of the programs listed in the FAQ, rather than your Web
browser.Most dedicated gopher clients take less memory, run faster, and
offer some customized command functions, such as setting a default starting
gopher different from your normal Web home page.
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How do you locate the files you want to transfer?
If you know the name of the gopher server, but not the exact path or
file name from there, you can navigate and explore step by step. First, you
open the server, putting gopher// and the server name in the URL
address box, issuing the gopher command from a Unix shell
account, or using the Open Gopher server function in a desktop
client program.
Then, you work your way down the directory tree to the appropriate file or
follow a trail of menu links to other gopher servers. While many sites have
created special gopher menus, sites that simply import their directory
structure usually follow the standard Unix convention of putting files that
are available for transfer in subdirectories of the pub (public) directory.
If you know the name of the file as it would be listed on the computer
directory, but you don't know the server, you can search for the file using
an Internet service called Veronica.
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What is Veronica?
The Veronica service allows you to search the list of items available
through all gophers known to the Mother Gopher at the University of
Minnesota. If you access gopher directly, you should find a Veronica server
on your topmost gopher menu.
If you're accessing gopherspace through the Web, you can jump directly to
the main Veronica site.
Just about all Veronica servers include in their menus a list of the other
publicly available Veronica servers.
Publicly accessible Veronica servers are often quite busy, and you may get
a network- or server-busy error message in most of your attempts. Many
gopher servers have a menu item that tries all available public Veronica
sites in turn, but you may still have to repeat a request to get through.
Making a search on a Veronica server is much like making a Web
search using a character-oriented browser. Typically, you start up
your gopher program, and then pick your default Veronica server from a list
of perhaps a dozen starting gopher selections. You select the kind of
search--usually menus only, versus all entries--and enter the word or words
you want to search for in a on-screen box. Then you wait for the results.
Incidentally, Veronica ostensibly stands for Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives.
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