This HTML verison of the Mac FTP list was made possible by the work of Tim Jones, reichh45@potsdam.edu, and Robert C. Best III (author of the excellent HTML editors, HTML SuperText and HTML Web Weaver). HTML Web Weaver is available at any good info-mac mirror in the /text/html/ directory.
From: BruceG6069@aol.com (Bruce Grubb)
This is a update (Feb 1,1996) 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 little blurbs on how to use anonymous ftp and find files.
Format Chart
List of Mac FTP sites
WWW Section
Notes on Mac FTP sites
Note to World Wide Web users: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.
The advantage of this set-up is not only is it easier for me update and edit but people can go directly to the ftp-list section without slugging through the rest of the document.
Changes: Format chart updated; Conflict between text and html format corrected; associate.com updated;
Added sites: http://www.apple.ca/; http://www.apple.co.nz/; http://www.euro.apple.com/; http://www.xmission.com/~morrison/MFS; http://www.icsi.net/; http://chrp.apple.com/; http://macenroe.cs.wits.ac.za/; mac.uio.no; ftp.scruz.net; http://www.DDG.com/; http://macenroe.cs.wits.ac.za/; http://www.areacom.it/html/arte_cultura/annabella/sniffer-ingl.html
Defunct sites: None;
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.misc.
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 1996 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 or bgrubb@acca.nmsu.edu
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. Because of this fact the html version of this sheet uses IP numbers rather than the site names.
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 to use to decompress it.
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@acca.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." 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 somewhat obsolete.
Almost all Mac shareware compression utilities can be found at an Info-Mac mirror in the info-mac/cmp directory.
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
ImageMaster*^ D D D D D D D D D
MacCompress X
MacGzip D X
ShrinkWrap 1.4.2*^ 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 1.3.5 D D X
Other unix gzip .uu/
computers .cpt .sit .hqx .bin .zip .arc .tar .Z .gz/.z .uue
binhex.exe X
binhex-pc-13 X
extrac.exe D
macutil (unix)
hexbin D D
macunpack D D/U D D
mcvert (unix) X X
PKZIP X
SITEX10.EXE (win) D D D D D D D
unsitins.exe D
xferp110 (win) X X
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 3.5.1 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.
If you need further information please check out 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.
List of Mac FTP sites
Notes on Mac FTP sites