Introduction
To The Internet
Session 4
File transfer Making Web Pages Bells
and Whistles
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File transfer
(downloading and Uploading)
Files (programs, pictures, etc.), are normally sent using FTP
(File Transfer Protocol). The main use of FTP is to obtain copies
of freeware, shareware and demoware from thousands of software
suppliers. It is possible to execute a transfer by simply
clicking a hypertext or FTP entry on a web page, nominate where
the file will be stored, and initiate the transfer. It is now
rare that you are forced to use dedicated FTP software for
downloads. But "uploads" - for making your own Web
pages for example, will often require an FTP program. A good (and
simple) tutorial on the steps for downloading and installing
software can be found with others on the Sydney Morning Herald's ICON
site at http://www.smh.com.au/icon/
. The downloading tutorial is included here for reference.
Dedicated software is desirable to support FTP software
archives that are not "Web based" and sometimes for
maximum download speed. Two well known programs are "WS_FTP"
and "Cuteftp". These programs allow you to connect to a
particular folder or sub-folder on a distant computer, display
the files there, select the one(s) you want, define where to
store them on your computer, then start and monitor the download
transfer. Sometimes you are required to identify yourself to the
distant computer, but usually anonymous transfer is acceptable.
You then (usually) give your login name as "anonymous"
and your E-mail address as the password.
Sites for popular files are often replicated around the world.
For example BHP replicates part of Microsoft. Such sites are
referred to as "mirrors". You should normally try and
find a local mirror site for your own and other
people's benefits. Files should download quicker and easier - but
this is not always the case.
Having said all the above, dedicated FTP software is becoming
obsolescent for most downloads.
One other skill you need to work with transferred files is to
be able to manipulate ".zip" (compressed) and self
extracting ".exe" files. This is no different to
handling other shareware on discs or CDROM, but new users to the
Net may not have met this before. You will need one of the
extracting (un-compressing) programs (e.g. Winzip at http://www.winzip.com ) and some
familiarity and confidence in manipulating files and folders. But
if you are stuck - you can use the Pkunzip program included with
these notes. Instructions for using Pkunzip are included here. Also a program such as Quarterdeck's
"Cleansweep" is very desirable to be able to "cleanly"
remove a program - Windows is notorious for leaving remnants of
programs in the registry and various folders.
Viruses can be a risk when working with the net, but I have no
first hand experience of this happening. However the latest anti-virus
software is always available on the net, so the net is probably
the best place to obtain it! A recent welcome change is free
antivirus software called InoculateIT (formerly VET) with free
regular updates - this can be found at http://www.cai.com/
One of the best software archives with thousands of programs
to download is TUCOWS which also has the possible advantage of a
mirror site here in Canberra at http://tucows.interact.net.au.
Most software on Tucows is "Shareware" (try before you
buy - often has a limited lifetime, say 30 days - unless you buy).
But there is lots of "freeware" around which can be
equal to many commercial offerings, and is published for various
reasons (vanity, philanthopy, etc.). Try http://freewarehome.pns.com.au/index.html
for a good selection.
Making your
own Web pages
This is the subject of many evening and other courses, but
here are some brief pointers and links. First of all Why do it?
Perhaps you want to set up a Web based business, and sell to
customers world-wide. Perhaps you want to to publicise your
favourite local cause or club. Or maybe (like many personal pages)
it is mostly an "ego trip" - or because it is possible!
There are at least six stages involved:
- Decide what you want to say
and rough out an initial map of the concept. Establish
how much space your ISP will provide. 5 to 10 Mbytes of
"free" space is common, more for a fee. But
over 10 Mbytes is getting towards a very large site
unless many large graphics are used (an undesirable
feature due to long download times).
- Generate the pages on your
own computer in HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the
language used for Web pages. There are a large number of
programs that make it easy to generate Web pages -
commercial, shareware and freeware. Many do not require
much (or any) knowledge of HTML code, but at least some
knowledge is highly desirable. Have a look at the
extracts from Barebones guide
and the HTML Primer for more
info. Microsoft Front Page Express (free with MSIE4/5
or Windows98) can be used almost like a word processor to
generate quite complex pages. Check that your pages will
not exceed your ISP's size quota - providing image files
are kept small - 10Mb can store 100 or more pages.
- Upload your pages to your
Web directory on your ISP's Web server. This can be done
from inside Front Page Express if your ISP is set up for
this. However often FTP client software is required to
upload your pages. A good description of the process can
be found at http://www.shoal.net.au/webs/upload.html
but that procedure is only applicable to that and similar
ISPs. If in doubt - check with your ISP.
- Check your pages! Check that
they work! Use a variety of browsers (and a variety of
screen resolutions) if possible. There are several Web
sites which will validate your site for correct HTML
code, checkout all the links, and several other functions
such as optimising the size of your graphics. Results can
be supplied via results Web page/s or via Email. These
services are currently free to non-commercial sites. A
good service is at http://www.netmechanic.com/
- Submit your pages to
multiple search engines and Publicise (if required).
Again there are free services for these processes. http://www.addme.com/
"submits your site to 34 popular search engines 100%
free". There are also various techniques to ensure
that your pages are easily found by various search
engines. The whole process is detailed in a 616 Kb free
"E-Book" that can be downloaded from http://www.foreverweb.com/library
the book even gives details of software that can
periodically check your site's "ranking" on
multiple search engines.
- Maintain your site! This
means keeping it up to date, adding or changing content,
and periodically checking that links to other sites are
still valid (see 4. above).
Note: If your ISP does not include space for web pages, or the
space provided is less than 5Mb - you could consider one of the
free web space providers in the USA. http://www.geocities.com
provides 11Mb free, and simple composition and uploading tools.
And http://www.xoom.com offers
10Mb with minimal advertising.
Bells and Whistles
There are many novel applications of the Internet coming along
all the time. Here are brief descriptions of some of them.
Music. If you have a multimedia computer it
should be configured to play MIDI (Musical Instrument
Digital Interface) files. There are many WWW sites that
distribute (good and bad) MIDI files for playing and saving for
various uses. Dave Carroll at http://www.dave-gipson.com/carroll/carroll.htm
has thousands available. Here is an example of quite a good MIDI
file.
The latest sensation in Internet music is a compression format
called MP3. It is said that "MP3" recently overtook
"Sex" as the most used search engine word! Portable
players like "walkmans" with no moving parts are
starting to be sold. MP3 is nowhere near as compact as MIDI but
it provides CD quality from actual recordings. A typical song/track
would be 1.5 to 2 Mb and so would take 5 to 10 minutes to
download. The format has the recording/distribution companies
extremely worried! Try http://www.mp3.com
for a large selection. There are also specialised multimedia
search engines to find your favourite tracks. For multimedia try http://www.arribavista.com
or for MP3 try http://mp3.lycos.com
Audio. A number of programs supply real time (or
streaming) audio, such as Real Audio at http://www.real.com For example
the NRMA has an audio summary of their news. Numerous
radio stations and others "broadcast" in Real Audio
format on the net. MSIE Version 5 has support for Real Audio
built in and a special tool bar just for radio and TV stations
that regularly broadcast on the net. Timecast at http://www.timecast.com has a
good selection of radio sources.. You can even listen to things
like the Dallas Fort Worth airport Air Traffic Control in real-time
at http://www.audio.net/simuflite
. Lots of stuff out there.
Video. In a similar vein are video applications.
The most you can get (with a 33.6kb or 56kb modem) are small,
slow images but they are certainly indicative of developments to
come. One application is VDO which provides simultaneous
video and audio of NASA's Space Shuttle missions at ftp://shuttle.nasa.gov .
Time Sync. One interesting
application of the Internet is time sychronisation. It is
possible to connect to a precision time standard via the net and
then correct the clock in your computer to this standard. Two
programs that do this are Tardis and D4Time.
There is another whole world on the Internet
called Internet Relay Chat or IRC. These are real-time
keyboard conversations by any number of people on any number of
subjects. It is a little like Amateur Radio where people seem to
chat on esoteric subjects almost for the sake of it, but most
Amateur Radio experts would take exception to this parallel.
Click Here for another SMH tutorial.
Another "world" on the net is still reasonably
"cutting edge". That is real-time voice and video
communications. If your computer has a sound card, then (with
the addition of a microphone - better yet a headset) it is
possible to carry out voice conversations around the world using
the Internet. It could be likened to a world wide CB radio, but
instead of using different channels or frequencies, the
conversations are divided by topics. Personal conversations with
friends or relatives can also be made. Talk is usually one to
one, but conferences are starting to be available. Even closer to
the "bleeding edge" are live video conversations. Bear
in mind that the TCP/IP protocol was not designed for continuous
speech or video, and poor quality and long (multi second) round
trip delays can often occur. MS Netmeeting is one program
used for voice and video communications and comes free with MSIE.
More and more Internet sites are now using a language called Java,
and an allied language Javascript. Some pages down load a
small program into your computer and cause it to be executed
there. Needless to say, many people are fearful of the security
implications of such programs, but the modern browsers supposedly
have bullet proof protection (recent events have proved that to
be incorrect). Take a look at the Australian Stock Exchange site http://www.asx.com.au for
examples of Java scripting
Very occasionally you may need to make a connection to the
Internet at the "character" level - an old style
communications connection. You need a program like Telnet
to carry out this function. A version is supplied as part of
Windows 95 and 98.
Some traditional Unix tools are used on the Internet. These
are programs such as Finger, Whois, Archie and Ping. Old
hands will insist that you cannot possibly work on the Internet
without detailed familiarity with such programs, and they could
well be right. However most people could manage well without them!
One interesting development on the web is Entrypoint at http://www.entrypoint.com
This is a means of providing news information, but only in those
categories of interest to the customer. A list of interests is
filled out, and then news is fed at regular intervals in those
areas. There is no charge to the customer, but smart integrated
advertising pays for it. The system can be set up as a screen
saver, and the stories read off line. This technique is called
"Push Technology" - another example of this is
the MSIE "Channels" software which is built into
MSIE4/5. Any Web page provider can arrange the data into a
special format so that MSIE4/5 users can "subscribe" to
that page and receive automatic (or manual) updates of topics of
interest.
A recent arrival is a system of programs and server
computers called ICQ found at http://www.icq.com
. Short for "I seek you". This software allows
registered users (currently free) to be assigned UINs (Universal
Internet Numbers), which they then pass on to their friends,
building up lists of contacts. After logging onto the Net, an
automatic message is sent to the ICQ sever, which then notifies
your contacts (via a small contacts window) that you are on-line.
Users can then initiate IRC style chat, send small messages,
files, URLs, etc., or even invoke voice/video software for
telephone style communications. Check out http://www.icq.com web site for
staggering statistics about it's popularity.
Shopping and Auctions. You can buy just about anything on the
Net these days - from books to cars and MUCH more! Try Amazon
the world's largest bookseller at http://www.amazon.com
. Auctions have become huge - Ebay is the
largest at http://www.ebay.com
currently holding over 2.5 million separate auctions, and more
than 1.5 BILLION page views per month. Credit card information is
probably more secure via the Net than most other forms of
transaction, but it is worth trying to deal with large and
reliable suppliers.
There are many books and magazines available on all aspects of
the Internet, but the best and cheapest are usually on the
Internet itself. The Search Engines allow you to look for
information on literally any subject. However it is generally
worthwhile buying the occasional magazine to keep you in touch
with the printed world. There are many editions which give lists
of thousands of pages to visit.
Above all....... HAVE FUN!
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March 2000