Transferring Files

TeleFinder/User's file transfer capabilities are powerful and easy to use.

Receiving Files
To receive a file you simply drag the file to wish to receive to your hard drive icon.   To receive a file in an area other than the root level of your hard drive, open the hard drive icon first and maneuver to the folder you wish to place the file, and drag the file directly to that folder.

Sending files
You can send files to the BBS or to another user.  

Shown here are the BBS Upload and the drop-box icon for guest mail. 

 

Drag a file’s icon to the Upload icon on your screen.  That is all that is necessary to begin a file transfer using TeleFinder.  After the transfer is complete, there will be an exact copy of the file on the BBS’s hard disk.  The person who sets up the BBS decides which folder stores the file.

TeleFinder uses drop-box icons to send files to the mailboxes of other users.  Select the “Get the Drop-box of…” command from the Mail menu.  Then enter the user’s name and click in the OK button.  Then the BBS sends the user’s drop-box icon to your desktop.  Drag the icon of the file that you want to send to the user’s drop-box.  TeleFinder transfers a copy of the file to the user’s Mailbox.

The “Locate a User” function is also useful to get a drop-box icon.  Select the “Locate a User” command from the Mail menu and enter a small portion of another user’s name.   TeleFinder then presents a list of users in the Users List window shown above.  Select the correct name from the list.  Then click in the Mailbox button of the user list window.  Click in the Save button to save his name in the address book.  You can then use the address book to address mail or get the drop-box icon.

File transfer protocols
TeleFinder supports ZMODEM , XMODEM-CRC, and  XMODEM-1K  file transfers.  Select the file transfer protocol you wish to use from TeleFinder’s Special Menu.

ZMODEM file transfers have the advantage of 32-bit error checking and file recovery.  If a ZMODEM file transfer fails to complete, TeleFinder saves the part of the file already received.  You can complete the transfer either on another call, or during the same call.  Just drag the file to the same location to continue the transfer where it left off.  Use ZMODEM (windowed) when you cannot provide proper flow control.  Use ZMODEM (streaming) for faster transfers when you are using hardware handshaking.

The XMODEM file transfer protocol does not require flow control and has less overhead than ZMODEM.  Use XMODEM when you have small files to transfer, or when you have problems with flow control.  XMODEM does not support file recovery.

Flow control
Flow control regulates the speed of data transfer between two computers.  Flow control is very important with high speed modems and they require a hardware handshake modem cable to work properly.

If you are using a high speed modem with the cable that came with the modem, it probably is a hardware handshake cable.  Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing, simply by looking at the cable , which type you have.  Both the standard and “HH” cables have the same physical appearance.  You can try the "HH" settings first, and if you are unsuccessful in connecting to your BBS switch to the non "HH" settings.  You can purchase this cable from Spider Island Software if you don’t already have one.