Connecting To A Remote Machine

To open a connection to a remote machine, click on Server on the Menu Bar at the top of the FTP window, then click on the Open option. This will produce a window titled Connect To Server.

Then you need to specify a remote machine. To do this, type in its DNS address in the box labelled Server (eg iris2.cryst.bbk.ac.uk). For a departmental machine you don't have to type out the whole DNS address but need only specify the machine name eg iris2. DO NOT click on the Connect button yet.

When you connect to a remote machine, you will always be asked for a user ID and password. In PC-NFS FTP, you specify a remote machine in the box labelled Server, then you key in your User ID and Password in the appropriate boxes (your password will be hidden).

Before you click on the Connect button, check that you have specified the correct operating system for the remote machine via the Server Type button. Most servers are UNIX machines.

Now click on the Connect button in the Connect To Server window. On successful connection, this should produce some information into the remote server's area on the right side of the FTP window.

Anonymous FTP

There are many remote machines on the Internet which allow public access for file transfer purposes. You will be able to retrieve files from these FTP servers, which are almost always UNIX machines.

To do this, click on Server on the Menu Bar at the top of the FTP window, then click on the Open option in order to again produce the window titled Connect To Server.

Specify the Server, check the Server Type, and click in the box marked User Anonymous Login. Finally, click on the Connect button in the Connect To Server window.

In general, the first course of action for public users will be to move into the public directory of the server, but sometimes you will be defaulted to that directory when logging in.

An Anonymous FTP Site

The ExPASy Molecular Biology server (University of Geneva) allows public FTP access from which we can retrieve pictures of molecules. The DNS address for the server is expasy.hcuge.ch

The image files are in the /pub/Graphics/IMAGES/GIF directory. The files in this directory have the .gif extension (or suffix) to convey that they are in the GIF image format. You can try retrieveing one of these files if you like.

NB1: Go through the retrieval procedure as efficiently as possible in order to avoid congestion for the server that you access.

NB2: The Mosaic browser is able to display files in GIF format (denoted by filename extension or suffix '.gif') by invoking the image viewer software called LVIEW (which can also display files in JPEG format, whose extension might be '.jpg' for example). If you want to view the image you have retrieved, click on File on Mosaic's menu bar, then choose the Open Local File option. Specify your file (don't forget the drive) and click on OK.

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