4.

Using Telnet and Ftp at Sheffield

4.1 On the networked PCs 40
On the open-access PCs telnet and ftp can be used by typing in the command at the U:\
prompt, and using them in the manner described in Sections 2 and 3. You may have to
provide the terminal type for some telnet calls, for this type of telnet it is vt220. Telnet and
ftp can also be used in Windows. Double-click on the Network Services group; Host
Presenter provides telnet and Rapid Filer provides ftp. Help is available within these
applications.
4.2 On the networked Macintoshes University of Sheffield
On the networked Macintoshes telnet and ftp are found in the MacApplics folder. The Academic Computing Services
Fetch system provides ftp facilities. Double click on the icon to start up the application.
Use the pull-down menus for the options within telnet and Fetch, and for help. A useful
facility in Fetch is that if you transfer a Macintosh file that has been encoded and
compressed (using Binhex and Stuffit), Fetch will UnBinhex and UnStuffit during the
45
transfer. It will also allow you to view text files on the remote computer.
Using Telnet and Ftp QN-Comms1
4.3 On Unix machines
You have to have a username on one of our computers running the Unix operating system, Author: Verity Brack Quick Note: QN-Comms1, August 1994
e.g. SunC, silver, stoat. Login and then type telnet or ftp. Archie (see Section 3.2) is
also available on SunC; just type archie
50 to start it up. Contents
4.4 From a PAD terminal 1. Introduction
If you only have access to a PAD terminal and you do not have a username on any of our 2. Remote Login: the Telnet Command
Unix machines then you can still use both telnet and ftp. However, you will have to use 3. File Transfer: the Ftp Command
our Telnet to X.29 gateway or the guest services available for JANET users. Both these 4. Using Telnet and Ftp at Sheffield
55 Application Note AP-Comms7 'Remote Login
services are documented in the forthcoming 5. Further Information
and File Transfer'. 6. Useful Addresses

5. Further Information Academic Computing Services, University of Sheffield

This Quick Note gives a brief summary of the telnet and ftp systems for remote login and
file transfer over the Internet. More details
60 of the facilities available, including anonymous 1. Introduction
ftp and Archie, can be found in the documents listed below. The help and Info systems on This Quick Note describes the telnet and ftp commands that are used for interactive access
all our machines also give you information on using telnet and ftp. to remote computers and for transferring files to and from other computers. These two
AP-Comms3 Network Services Available Over JANET. systems cannot always be used for login and file transfer as it depends on what you are
AP-Comms7 Remote Login and File Transfer. accessing and where. However, telnet and ftp are the recommended methods for remote
6. Useful Addresses 65 access and file transfer for both local (University of Sheffield) and remote sites.
niss.ac.uk NISS gateway: networked information services What you first need to understand is that telnet and ftp use TCP/IP communication
archi.doc.ic.ac.uk anonymousftpcatalogueservice(loginasarchie) protocols, which are what the world-wide Internet network is based on. JANET, the UK
monolith.cc.ic.ac.uk emaildirectoryservice(loginasnetfind) academic network, was originally an X.25-based network, so direct communication
micros.hensa.ac.uk publicdomainsoftwareformicrocomputers between the two was not possible. However, since 1992 JANET has provided the JANET IP
unix.hensa.ac.uk 70
publicdomainsoftwareforUnixsystems Service which carries Internet protocol traffic over the existing X.25 network. So it is now
possible to connect directly to the Internet. Unfortunately, since this is a relatively new
service, not all sites on JANET have IP connections yet, so you will not be able to use telnet
or ftp for some places; you can use our telnet to X.29 gateway instead for remote access,
and the JANET FT-RELAY service for file transfer.
We have telnet and ftp on all our networked computers
at Sheffield, though the version differs according to
which type of machine it is on (see Section 4).
2. Remote Login: the Telnet Command where hostname is the address of the machine you
The telnet command lets you login to computers wish to access. You will then be connected and asked
50
connected to the Internet and use the facilities available to login.
on them. You will, of course, have to obtain a
username and password for the particular machine or
system you wish to use, unless it is a public facility
available to everyone.
If you are logged in to a machine where telnet is
available, for example SunC, then all you do is type:
telnet hostname
where hostname is the address of the machine you
wish to access. You will then be connected and asked
to login.
NOTE: you must specify the machine address in the
correct order, that is the reverse order in which you
used to specify a JANET address, e.g.
mailbase.ac.uk this is
Internet order
uk.ac.mailbase this is old
JANET order

As with JANET addresses, it is also possible to use a

numerical address as well as the actual name. A
numerical Internet address looks like this:
128.240.2.118
You can use telnet in an interactive manner; just type
telnet
and you will see a telnet prompt appear (e.g.
telnet>; TNVT220>). Typing open brings up the
prompt (to) and you can type in the Internet address
you want to connect to.
Typing ? at the telnet prompt gives you a list of
available options and a short description of each. To
leave telnet you should type
quit
If you get stuck in a telnet session when connected to a
remote host (machine) then pressing Ctrl and ]
simultaneously should get you out of trouble.
3. File Transfer: the Ftp Command
The ftp command lets you transfer files between
computers connected to the Internet. You will have to
have a username and password for the particular
machine or system you wish to transfer from or to,
unless it is a public facility available to everyone (see
Section 3.2).
If you are logged in to a machine where ftp is available,
for example, SunC, then all you do is type:
ftp hostname
NOTE: you must specify the machine address in the The Archie cataloguing system monitors the contents of
correct order, that is the reverse order in which you many of the anonymous ftp sites around the world.
would specify a JANET address (see Section 2). You can connect to an Archie site and conduct a search
You can use ftp in an interactive manner; just type to find out what is available and where. The nearest
55 Archie site to Sheffield is at Imperial College, London
ftp (see Section 6); you can access this either by telnet, or
and you will see the ftp> prompt appear. Typing via the NISS gateway, or by using Archie 'client'
open brings up the prompt (to) and you can type in software on your own computer (see Sections 4 and 6).
the Internet address you want to connect to.
Typing ? at the ftp> prompt gives you a list of
available options and a short description of each. To
leave ftp you should type
quit
3.1 Useful ftp commands
The ftp system allows you to look through directories
on a remote system and to perform multiple file
transfers using the wildcard symbol. Below are some
of the more useful commands:
dir (or ls) lists the current
directory
cd dirname changes to the
named subdirectory
cd .. changes up to the
parent directory
ascii sets file type to
ascii for subsequent transfers
binary sets file type to
binary for subsequent transfers
get filename brings the named
file back to your own machine
put filename sends the named
file to the remote machine
mget wildcard brings multiple
named files back to your own machine
mput wildcard sends multiple
named files to the remote machine
3.2 Anonymous ftp
Many sites on the Internet have vast archives of data,
programs and information that is freely available to
anyone who can connect to them. These files can be
down-loaded to your own machine by using
'anonymous ftp'. Use ftp in the manner described
above, and give anonymous as the username and
either your own e-mail name and address or guest as
the password on the remote machine (it should tell you
which one to use).
We have our own anonymous ftp server here at
Sheffield, its name is ftp.shef.ac.uk; the
directory /pub/sheffield contains information
provided by University departments.
3.3 Archie