FTP and FETCH

How To Download Files From the Web

File Transfer Protocol (FTP, and its MacIntosh counterpart, Fetch) has been in use for a number of years. These are both a program that allows you to "fetch" a file from another computer, and a protocol that assures uniformity between computers. There are many FTP sites (i.e., sources of accessible files) throughout the world. The University of Michigan has an exemplary site that supplies files concerning science, medicine, and even games. FTP allows you to request from the University of Michigan (or other distant) computer a specific file, and then gives you the ability to retrieve that file. Most of the newer WEB browsers, such as Netscape, have FTP capabilities. Although many sites will routinely check their files for computer viruses, one has to beware that some of these files m ay be infected.

If you choose to download a file, please choose a SMALL file, otherwise the download could consume alot of time during our internet connection. You can search for files to download using one of the search engines mentioned in the previous page (search under the topic of shareware, for instance). Alternatively, you may browse a site such as The Comprehensive List of Shareware Sites to browse a compiled list of shareware si tes, organized by operating system (Mac versus Windows vs DOS).