Re: ftp using Netscape 4.7

[Shimpei Yamashita <shimpei@example.com>]

On Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 12:43:20AM +0200, Fredric Fredricson wrote:
> B0Ti wrote:
> > 
> > Glenn Evanish wrote:
> > 
> > > Whenever I try to ftpsomething down using Netscape, it fills the screen with
> > > characters.  How do I get it to save as a file?  I know you can save the
> > > screens of characters, but I'm wanting to do a distro from linuxiso.org -
> > > pretty big for that.
> > 
> > right mouse click->save link as...
> > But you should rather use a better ftp client.
> > 
> Funny... I have used netscape to ftp download lots of cool stuff over 
> the last 2-3 years. Usin right click an all.
> Do you mean that the stuff would have been even better with another 
> ftp client? Do the e-mails get better to?

Hopefully, the files you successfully download are the same regardless of your
choice of FTP client. Real FTP Clients can offer the following advantages,
though:

1) Batch download, by using wildcards, recursive GETs or just specifying a
whole bunch of files at once. When I'm trying to download 10 files from a
single FTP site, a Real FTP Client will let me specify those 10 files at the
start and not bother me until they are all done. With Netscape (or IE, if you
like Windows), you get to right click on each one--*and* time the right clicks
so that you don't saturate your modem line, the FTP server's login limit, or
both.

2) Resume downloads. Some Real FTP Clients let you resume downloads after
you get cut off. I can't think of any reason why Netscape can't let you do
this, but it doesn't; and this feature isn't a luxury when you have to
download a 600MB ISO image over a modem line and you get cut off after 595MB.

3) Uploads. If Netscape does let you upload files over FTP, I never did figure
out how. Ditto for various FTP commands other than GET. This means that
Netscape is, at best, half an FTP client. The more commonly used half,
true, but half nonetheless.

Those are *fundamental* features for FTP programs. I haven't even started
talking about nice gadgets like filename completion, date-sensitive downloads,
connection retries, scripting, etc., etc. I do use Netscape when a web page
contains an ftp:/// URL, but even then, it's often easier to paste the URL
onto a term window and browse through the FTP site using Real FTP Clients
like ncftp.

-- 
Shimpei Yamashita                               http://www.shimpei.org/