Q: Why does RFtp PRO look like a "Property Sheet" or "Tabbed Dialog"?
A: The idea is to allow you to focus on the current task, i.e., connecting to a host OR working with a remote directory OR setting options etc.
Q: What about "Year 2000" compliance?
A: The "Year 2000" issues revolve around the fact that some computer software (and records kept on computers) only allow 2 digits for the year number - implicitly assuming that the other 2 digits, or century number, are "19". The flaw in this approach is expected to cause some amount of trouble as the calendar advances from the last day of 1999 to the first day of the year 2000.
The short answer is that RFtp PRO does not suffer from these problems, and is therefore "Y2K compliant".
A more detailed explanation:
RFtp PRO is internally compliant as regards these "Y2K" issues, in that all dates stored by the program in its own data structures are not subject to the "2 digit" restriction. Additionally, any dates displayed employ a full 4 digit year representation.
On the other hand, RFtp PRO may be subject to the "Y2K" failings of external software, mainly FTP servers, and to a lesser extent, its host operating system (Windows). In the first case, the output date formats from some FTP servers on some operating systems only use 2 digit years in their dates. In the second, since RFtp PRO relies on the underlying system for some of its date translation services, some exposure here cannot be avoided. Happily, Microsoft has committed to bringing all necessary components of Windows into compliance - before the year 2000.
Q: I'm downloading a huge file, and the unthinkable happens: my connection goes bad, someone kicked my power cord, etc. What do I do now?
A: The really short answer is, "you're out of luck!" Unless you are running RFtp PRO, in which case you just press the Restart button that will appear on the front (Host) page, and your download will pick up right where it left off!
Q: What do the Enter key and double-clicking (in the Remote page) do? What about multi-selections?
A: Well, RFtp PRO tries to do the "right thing" for all cases (but settles for "most right"). Complicating things is the fact that RFtp PRO doesn't know what a "symbolic link" actually points to (i.e., whether a given "symbolic link" should be treated like a folder and opened or like a file and downloaded!).
For the single-selection case, we have:
| Action taken on Enter or double-click (Single-Selection) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Folder | "Symbolic link" | File |
| Open | Open | Download |
Note that "symbolic links" are assumed to refer to folders; this is so that they can be opened easily (if they do point to folders).
For the multi-selection case (remember that double-click isn't really possible here), we have (for each item):
| Action taken on Enter (Multi-Selection) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Folder | "Symbolic link" | File |
| - | Download | Download |
Note that downloading of folders is not supported at this time, and that "symbolic links" are here assumed to be pointing to files rather than folders.
Q: While we're on the subject of keys that are recognized in the Remote window, what others should I know about?
A: Check out the following table:
| Keystroke | Action taken |
|---|---|
| Escape | Abort current transfer*, flush queued commands |
| F5 | Refresh current directory's contents |
| Delete | Schedule selected entries for deletion |
* - this specifically will not result in a Restartable transfer!
Q: One of the Host page toolbar buttons is "grayed out"... why?
This indicates that the Create [RFtp] shortcut function is not currently available. You may not have noticed the discussion of this in the Install notes. Take a look at them now.
Q: The Ping button on the Host page is "grayed out"... why?
RFtp PRO was unable to locate the file "ICMP.DLL" which is needed to actually perform the Ping operation. Assuming that this file is present on your system, this means that it isn't installed in any of its "normal" places. Locate it and move it to your system directory (something like c:\windows\system or c:\windows\system32, depending on which OS you're running).
Q: What is Ping and why do I care?
A: Ping sends a series of Internet "tell-me-you-got-there" messages to a host and reports (for each) how long it took to get the response OR "****", which means either that the message took a long time or there was no response. Useful for determining whether an IP address is "good" currently (or at all!), and roughly, the expected "performance".
A: URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator (an "address" to most of us). A URL represents a standardized (RFC 1738) way of describing the type and location (anywhere on the Internet!) of a "resource". A resource can be virtually anything, from a Web page (this page's URL is http://www.rftp.com/Help/RFtpPROFAQ.html), to a USENET newsgroup (e.g., news:alt.binaries.pictures.misc), to the kind that RFtp likes: a directory on an FTP server (e.g., ftp://ftp.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/images). Note that RFtp will assume the "ftp://" if you don't supply it.
Q: How do I get a bogus or no longer useful site entry out of my URL list?
A: See "Why is there a Remove button?" below.
Q: Why is there a Remove button?
A: Sometimes a URL changes, becomes "invalid", or you just don't want to go there anymore. Select the URL in the URL drop-down list, press Remove, and poof, it's gone! Look here for details on removing host entries.