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What is FTP ? FTP is a standard to transfer files. On the Internet everything is about getting files from one computer to the other. To this purpose a number of standards have been setup, one of which is FTP: File Transfer Protocol. It is this widely used standard that is in use in alt.2600.warez to download the files you want from their computer to yours. Their computer is called the server - and you are the "client" of that server. What is anonymous FTP ? Many computersystems throughout the Internet offer files through anonymous FTP. This means that you can access a machine without having to have an account on that machine (i.e. you don't have to be an official user of the system). These anonymous FTP servers contain software, documents of various sorts, files for configuring networks, graphic images, songlyrics and all sorts of other information. An enormous amount of information is stored on these machines and is ready for anyone who's seeking it. Note that all this is subject to change, it is a privilege and the person responsible for the machine can shut it down at any time without you being able to do anything about it. What software do I need to use FTP ? Internet browsers like the Internet Explorer, that comes with Windows, or Netscape can get files using FTP and for general purposes they do it well. But to access the servers that you can find in alt.2600.warez they're no good. You will need a real FTP program - also called an FTP client. Some of the most widely used FTP programs are; BulletProof FTP,CuteFTP,Leech FTP (freeware),eLeet FTP (freeware). What would be the best program to use ? As with many things, it's a matter of personal preference. Try as many as you can find and decide for yourself CuteFTP and BulletProofFTP both are widely used. Why wouldn't I use my web browser ? Although most web browsers today can navigate FTP sites using them for warez related FTP sites is no good. Their lack of configurable options, such as retry, makes them less to hardly useful for warez related FTP sites. How do I connect to a FTP server? To connect to a FTP server you need to give your FTP program five pieces of information: 1.The address of the server. This is either a so-called IP number or a name, pretty much like websites can have names. The address of a server relates to us humans as your street name and house number. 2.On what port from the server should your FTP program knock to get in. A port relates to us humans more or less as an appartment number. There are 65535 doors (ports) at the address you're going and only behind one of them is the FTP server! 3.The login. The login tells the server who is knocking at its door. Often at first you will not have a unique login but one that belongs to a whole category. Anonymous, for instance. 4.The password. The password confirms that you're really the person that you claim to be, based on your login. Again, at first the password you will use will be one that you share with other people in your category. (NOTE: some site operators ask you to enter a valid email address as password. At the very least this means not the email address that your FTP program already has in its settings once you installed it. bpftp@bpftp.com, that comes with BulletProof FTP, is therefor not a valid email address. Funny entries like eyem@yourserver.com don't count either. you@hotmail.com does count. Don't forget that some site operators use special programs to validate email addresses. Don't take the chance to get thrown out of a server - use a real email address, even if you never ever plan to check or send mail via it). 5.The retry rate. FTP programs can keep retrying to connect to a server if at first they don't succeed. Or when you were connected to the server but lost the connection they can be set to keep trying until reconnected. The time in between two retries is called the retry rate. In alt.2600.warez the standard minimum retry rate is 60 seconds. Anything less is considered hammering, often compared to knocking continually on someone's front door, trying to get in when the house is full. The reasons site operators dislike hammering so much is that it takes up both bandwith and computer time for nothing - you steal this bandwith and computer time from the people who are logged on to the server, therefor slowing them down which means it will take you even longer to connect.... Server address & Port number There are several ways a site's address can be displayed. A complete address consists of an IP number and a port number. An IP number is a set of four numbers, between 0 and 255, separated by periods. It can also be represented by a domain name, exactly the same as a domain in an HTTP URL. The port number is a number between 0 and 65535, the default for FTP is 21, so if a port is not specified, its safe to assume that it is 21. When a port is specified, it is sometimes added to the end of the IP number, separated from it by a colon. The address may also look like a URL except with ftp at the start instead of http. In this case you may also have information about the directory and file name. So you may find addresses represented as follows: 123.45.67.8 Address is 123.45.67.8, port is probably 21. kingpin.dynip.com Address is kingpin.dynip.com, port is probably 21. 123.45.67.8:2345 Address is 123.45.67.8, port is 2345. kingpin.dynip.com:2345 Address is kingpin.dynip.com, port is 2345. ftp://123.45.67.8/apps/app.zip Address is 123.45.67.8, port is probably 21, directory is apps, file name is app.zip. ftp://kingpin.dynip.com/apps/app.zip Address is kingpin.dynip.com, port is probably 21, directory is apps, file name is app.zip. ftp://123.45.67.8:2345/apps/app.zip Address is 123.45.67.8, port is 2345, directory is apps, file name is app.zip. ftp://kingpin.dynip.com:2345/apps/app.zip Address is kingpin.dynip.com, port is 2345, directory is apps, file name is app.zip. Login & Password Logins and their passwords identify to the server an account for either a group of people or an individual. Many severs have the following group accounts: Anonymous (for everybody who wants to login), Look (you cannot download anything when you're using a Look account but you can look around to see if the server has something you would like), Upload (for those who know they don't want to download anything from the server but rather wish to upload a program to the server). Logins and passwords are often case sensitive: "password" and "PassWord" are not the same. To not make any errors you might want to copy and paste the login and password into your FTP program. Anonymous accounts are often posted as "login: anon". This can mean that the login is "anon" but more often than not it is "anonymous". No other way then to try and see what happens. When a site operator posts in his message that to gain access to the FTP server you have to use a valid email address as password, do so. A valid e-mail address is one at which you can be contacted, either your ISP assigned address or a "throw away" address from one of the many free e-mail servers. I would recommend not using your ISP assigned address if you want to retain a little anonymity. Many site operators will ask you for a valid e-mail address as a password so they can contact you if the need arises. A few of these reasons are: If the site operator discovers a virus or other problem with an application (s)he can check the server logs and contact anyone who has downloaded it. If you upload an application that contains a virus or has some other problem, the site operator can contact you and let you know. The site operator may want to offer you an account to make it easier for you to log in for a future session to complete an unfinished download or upload. The site operator may want to offer you sole access to the site to complete a large download or upload in a reasonable time. Error Messages During connection attempts or while connected your FTP program may display error messages. These messages do not mean that there is something wrong with the program. Instead they inform you of how it is going with your attempt to connect to the server. Some error messages are more information about the server you're trying to connect to then anything else. For some error messages and their explanations please see the following questions. 421 Anonymous access not allowed The site operator has disabled anonymous access. This means that the site is accessible to account holders only. 421 No more anonymous logins allowed The site has a limit on the number of simultaneous logins on the anonymous account and the limit has been reached. Try to log in again later. 421 Password not accepted This can mean one of two things, neither of which has anything to do with an incorrect password. First, you may have entered your user name incorrectly, check your spelling. If the post in the newsgroup said user anon, this usually means the user name is anonymous, not anon. Second, you may have been banned from the site for an infraction of the site rules. If this is the case, read "I've been banned from a site, what can I do about it?". Note that this error message is different from "530 Password not accepted". 421 System is currently closed The site is online but closed to all logins except the system administrator. This usually means the site operator is busy testing his system or the site is about to close and the site operator is allowing those already logged in to finish transferring their current file. 421 No more users allowed on your IP Most site operators will impose a limit of one connection for each user. If you, or you client through its settings, try to make a second connection, it will be refused. You will also occasionally get this error if you have been connected to a site and lose your connection without logging out (for example, if your ISP drops your connection), then try to log in again before the idle time out causes your previous login to be dropped. If this happens, just wait a while for the idle time out. If you continue to get this error, contact the site operator, he or she may not have a maximum idle time set. 421 Idletime of # minutes expired You were connected to the site for too long without transferring anything. Site operators will often set an idle time limit of 3 or more minutes to avoid having a slot occupied by a user who is not keeping an eye on their client, and doing nothing. Occasionally, you will get this error if a transfer stalls for the length of the idle time limit due to a slow node somewhere in the connection path, or heavy traffic on the net. 530 Password not accepted Your password is invalid. Check the spelling of your password. If you're logging in to the site as an anonymous user, you will usually be required to enter a valid e-mail address as a password. In this case the FTP server software will usually check the format of the password to make sure it conforms to something like xxx@yyy.zzz (Don't use xxx@yyy.zzz as a password, you will surely be banned. See "What is a "valid" e-mail address, and why should I use one?"). Note that this error message is different from "421 Password not accepted" above. How do I set up my FTP client so I won't be banned ? By connecting to the right port, using a valid email address when one is aked for; by setting your retry rate at at least 60 seconds, and usually by not trying to download from the upload folder. To configure your specific FTP client so you won't be banned, please refer to the corresponding FAQ. I've been banned from a site, what can I do about it ? Your best course of action is to get in touch with the site operator and find out why you have been banned. If you haven't made any serious breech of protocol, the site operator will usually remove the ban if you convince him or her that you will behave in future. What is the procedure for uploading ? The first thing you need to do is make sure your intended upload is ready before even logging in to a site. Check all the files with at least one up-to-date virus scanner, then use WinRAR to compress the files into archives. The current transfer "standard" is volumes of 2.88MB, though slower dialup sites may prefer 1.44MB volumes. Use the best compression setting and test the archive set when you've finished. If possible, go through the process of unpacking and installing the application on your own system to make sure everything runs smoothly. If any special instructions are required for installation or operation, or the application has any special system requirements, put this information in a text file with a NFO extension, and include it in your upload. Now that your package is ready to go, log into the FTP site and make sure the application isn't already available. Check the site list file if one exists, if not, check the folders on the site. It is also a good idea to check any folders in the upload area to make sure someone else isn't already in the process of uploading the same application. If the upload is large, it's a good idea to contact the site operator first and ask if the application is wanted, and if there is enough room on the system to receive it. Look for an upload folder and change to it. If you can't find an upload folder, contact the site operator and ask if (s)he is accepting uploads, and if so, where. Create a directory in the upload area. If you have a nick that you use in the newsgroup and can be recognised by or if you have an account on the site, use that as a name for the directory, otherwise use the first part of your e-mail address. For example, if you logged into the site as anonymous with joebloggs@host.com for a password, use joebloggs for a directory name so the site operator knows who to thank or contact if there is any problem with the upload. With most clients, creating a directory is as simple as right-clicking in the site window, selecting "Create directory" from the menu, and typing in a name. Once this directory has been created, change to it. In your new directory, create another directory with the same name as the application you want to upload, then change to that directory. Now all you have to do is select the files you want to upload, and start the process. This will be similar to the download process, in most cases just a matter of queuing the files and starting the transfer.