Transferring Files

3. Macintosh with Fetch

These instructions apply to the old Static-Page Front Door server. They do not apply to the new Static-Page Front Door server that will be installed in August, 2008. These instructions will be updated to include using both the old and the new servers.

Installation and Configuration

If you don't have Fetch installed, you can get the installer through:

• http://www.ohio.edu/software/Fetch.cfm

If the available installer is for a version prior to version 5.3, after you install it, you can use Fetch's "Check for Update" feature, in the "Fetch" menu, to upgrade.

With Version 5.0.4 and later, Fetch may not display the version numbers of files on the VMS Front Door server. This will not interfere with file uploading, but will prevent you from being able to use it to delete files, and will make it more difficult to select which file you want to download. You can tell Fetch to display VMS version numbers by quitting Fetch, running Terminal (in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder on your startup disk), and typing (or pasting) all on one line:

defaults write com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch ShowVMSVersionNumbers -bool true

and then pressing the "return" key.

After Fetch is launched, before you make your first connection, or at a later time, you should check the Preferences:

• Choose "Preferences" from the Fetch menu.

• In the "General" tab, have a check in the box for "Show New Connection dialog at startup; do not have a check in the box for "Use passive mode transfers (PASV)."

• In the "Upload" tab, have checks in the boxes for BinHex files and MacBinary files, but do not have a check in the boxes for Text files or for Other files.

• In the "Proxy" tab, if you are working on campus, set a Proxy type of "None."

Transferring Files

Once you have Fetch installed and configured with the correct preferences settings, you can use it to transfer files:

1. Start Fetch; if already started, with Version 2, click on "Open Connection", with version 3, 4, or 5, select "New Connection" from the File menu.

   In the resulting dialog box:

   • specify host "WWW.OHIOU.EDU" (do not specify the host as "WWW.OHIO.EDU": that is a different machine, the CommonSpot server);

   • the appropriate username;

   • connect using FTP (choose SFTP only for OAK); and

   • the appropriate password.

   Leave the "initial folder" and "port" fields blank, if the extra choices are displayed.

2. Click on "Connect" to make the connection.

3. When the connection is made, you will see a list of server files and directories (folders) in the main portion of the Fetch window. For CSCWWW, double-click with the mouse on the folder labeled "[.www]" (for OAK, the corresponding folder is labeled "public_html").

4. Continue to navigate in your directories on the server in the main portion of the Fetch window, with the usual Macintosh techniques, until you are looking at the files that are already in the directory where you want to place the new file.

   You can go to recently visited folders using the "Recent" button on the tool bar across the top of the Fetch window. You can go to "outer" folders in the current path by using the "Path" button on the tool bar.

5. Decide whether the file should be transferred in text or binary mode. If the file has a conventional name for its type, then the "automatic" mode is likely to choose correctly between text and binary operation.

6. Click on the "Put" button on the tool bar to initiate the file transfer. Navigate on your Mac's disk drive until you have selected the file you want to transfer. Observe that the lower portion of the dialog includes a "Format" pop-up, which defaults to "Automatic"; if you need to, you can force a text mode transfer by selecting "text," or a binary mode transfer by selecting "Raw data."

7. Verify that no semicolon (";") is included within the filename. If there is a semicolon, cancel, rename the file on the hard drive, and then go back to Fetch and click on the "Put" button again.

8. Double-click on that file or single-click on the file and then single-click on the "Put" button at the lower right to perform the upload. Wiggle the mouse and observe the pointer displayed as a running dog. Wait for the transfer to complete.

9. If you need to change the name of a file after uploading it, click on the "Refresh" button on the tool bar, then click on the file whose name you want to modify, then click on the "Get Info" button on the toolbar.

10. When done transferring files, click on "Close Connection" with version 2; or choose "Quit" from the File menu in version 3 or 4; or choose "Quit" from the Fetch menu in version 5.

Return to Chapter III Table of Contents

    

Dick Piccard revised this file (http://www.ohiou.edu/pagemasters/memo85/fetchsteps.html) on July 30, 2008.

Please E-Mail comments or suggestions to "webteam@ohio.edu".