LYNX and FTP

From: Curtis Chong (Chong99@cris.com)
Date: Sat Sep 07 1996 - 10:53:41 PDT


Greetings:

Here is an exchange of correspondence that some of you LYNX users
may find technically speaking. Frankly, I never knew that you culd
access a web site with an FTP connection directly, so what this
represents is actually somewhat technically newsworthy to me. For
some of you Unix hackers, this is probably nothing new; but I pass
this along for others of you who may profit from this.

Regards,

Curtis Chong
chong99@cris.com

===========================================================================

Subject: Problem Accessing NFB Web Site

Hello Curtis:
     thank You for trying to help me in solving my NFB web site
problem which may be caused by my computer illiteracy in the
first place.
     I'll now briefly describe what happens:

I. Original Situation (somewhere before April 1996):

     A. I could connect to the NFB site from LYNX by typing
          either http://www.nfb.org or ftp://www.nfb.org or just
          ftp://nfb.org.

          1. The http command has been working the same way all
               the time. The problem is that one does not get all
               NFB publications, and those that one gets can be
               downloaded rather clumsily (using "print to
               screen" command or a communication program capture
               file into which you get them page by page); no
               binary (e.g. .ZIP) files can be downloaded.

          2. The ftp command generated a root directory with
               numbered subdirectories and you could work your
               way through them by using the "follow the link"
               command; thus, one could reach large binary files
               with publications of interest; their download was
               easy.

II. Present Situation:

     A. After issuing the ftp command from LYNX, the following
          screen appears:

Getting ftp//nfb.org/
Look up cache.cuni.cz:3128.
Making HTTP connection to cache.cuni.cz:3128.
Sending HTP request.
HTTP requestsnt; waiting for response.
Read25 bytes of dat.
R536 bytes of data.671
Datatransfer cmplee
FTP Directory: ftp://nfb.org/

FTP Directory: ftp://nfb.org/

05-15-96 03:29PM

   . 05-15-96 03:29PM

     .. 06-24-96 03:51PM
ADVOCATE 06-07-96 07:52PM 146
CACHE.GFR 03-14-96 10:33AM
NFB 06-24-96 04:42AM
TIMES 06-24-96
02:48AMT
_________________________________________
Generated Monday, 24-Jun-96 21:14:08 GMT,
byftpget/1.0.0@bo.cache.nlanr.net
     Note: My capture file does not preserve the step-like
               layout.
     B. From such a screen, you cannot choose anything. I tried
          the "showcursor" option with the same result.

III. Direct FTP connection from my UNIX server works, but is
     rather cumbersome; and, frankly speaking, I should like to
     avoid learning all those UNIX commands for getting and
     sending files.

IV. Possible causes of my LYNX NFB access problem:

     A. The NFB has changed something.

     B. I have inadvertently reconfigured my LYNX in an
          improper way.

     I hope this description will be sufficient for finding a
satisfactory solution.

     By the way: As everywhere, even in my country we are
struggling to get over the GUI difficulty: There are many
windows-access solutions on the market and the right choosing
depends on superficial qualities rather than on qualified
decisions. Could You possibly recommend a comprehensive
publication (or publications) and/or an information internet site
which would deal with this issue?

     Thank You in advance for all the trouble You may be taking
in assisting me.

With best regards,
Rudolf Volejnik

===========================================================================

Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 18:54:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Curtis Chong <Chong99@cris.com>
To: Rudolf Volejnik <volejnik@dec59.ruk.cuni.cz>
Subject: Re: Access to the NFB www site via ftp

Hello Rudolf:

I have played around a bit with the LYNX FTP connection to NFB.ORG.
Here is what I have found.

Most of the information is under the NFB subdirectory, which is
under the FTP subdirectory. You can jump immediately to the
ftp/nfb subdirectory by connecting to ftp://nfb.org/ftp/nfb.

>From there, I think everything is available as it used to be. It
would appear that we have added a directory level called ftp.

Now, mind you, if this isn't the answer to your problem, please do
let me know, and I will pursue it further. All I know is that when
I entered this command:

     lynx -show_cursor ftp://nfb.org/ftp/nfb

I received the following screen:

                                                   /ftp/nfb
directory (p1 of 2)

Current directory is /ftp/nfb

   ../

Mar 4 15:13 Directory ABOUT
May 9 1995 text/plain ABOUTNFB.TXT 11Kb
May 7 1995 Directory BOOKS
Mar 4 14:41 Directory BRAILLE
Aug 28 08:54 Directory BRALMONS
Jul 29 18:22 text/plain CACHE.GFR 798 bytes
Jul 22 09:18 Directory CONVENS
Mar 22 14:52 Directory DIABETES
May 7 1995 Directory FUTREF
Jul 31 09:04 Directory LEGSLATN
Jul 14 1995 Directory LITFRM
Jul 18 17:10 Directory NEWSLINE
Dec 21 1995 Directory NFBCS
Sep 3 24:28 Directory NFBDIV
May 9 1995 Directory RESEARCH
-- press space for next page --
  Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to
go back.
 H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search
[delete]=history list

It would appear that if you jump to the ftp subdirectory, one level
up, the directories shown on the screen are not accessible.

Again, if this does not solve your problem, please write back to me
immediately.

Regards,

Curtis Chong
chong99@cris.com

===========================================================================

Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 18:52:32 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Rudolf Volejnik <volejnik@dec59.ruk.cuni.cz>
To: chong99@cris.com
Subject: NFB Access

Hi Curtis, I am happy to report that You have solved my problem: The page
layout is clear, numbered links are displayed - everything works as it
used to. Thank You. Best wishes from R. Volejnik



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