FAQ's - Macintosh File-Transfers

What is the difference between a commmunication and an Internet connection? 

A commmunication connection was the original way home computers remotely connected to other computers. It basicly consisted of a direct connection between the personal computer to the computer on the other end of the phone line.

 

Originally each communication program had its own method and interface but then Apple created the Communications Toolbox (CTB) as a standard interface for programmers writing communications programs. In addition, specific "tools" that interfaced with modems, provided terminal emulation, or handled file transferring could be implemented as external add-on features to CTB-aware programs.

 

The protocals most commonally associated with commmunications software are (in order of preferance): Zmodem, YModem, Xmodem, and finally Kermit. However because it was a direct connection you could only do one thing at a time and the interface tended to be text only or even Command Line Interace.

 

By contrast Internet connections grew out of the development of personal computers. Originally Internet computers were directly connected to each other providing information to the user via dumb termanals. With the development of personal computers a need to allow dial in connections developed with SLIP and PPP being the result. These additional protocals allowed personal computer users to use such Internet protocals as FTP, Gopher, and SMTP.

 

Most importantly via PPP Internet connections allowed multiple connections through one modem allowing the user to perform several tasks at once. Due to this multifuction ability continued development of communication programs has fallen off in favor of the more robust Internet programs though they are still the best way to connect to a local BBS.

 

Since support for Internet connections was rolled into the MacOS beginning with System 7.5 it has become the defacto way to link a personal Mac to the outside world.

 

What communication programs are available?

This is a short list of shareware/freeware and commercial communication programs from the orginal list that are still available. As a matter of practicality only those programs that have been written or updated since 1993, support at least three of the standard protocols (Kermit, Xmodem, YModem, and Zmodem), and either are available or have web pages are listed.

BN: Black Knight 1.0.7, $30 shareware, Raine Storm softworks

CL: Communicate Lite, $50 SRP, Mark/Space Softworks

MT: MacToPic Plus, $195, site licenses available, Carnation Software

VT: VersaTerm and VersaTerm Pro 5.0.6, $145 and $195 respectively Synergy Software

ZT: ZTerm 1.0.1, $30 shareware, $40 with disk, Dave Alverson

Shareware/freeware communications programs can be found in the /info-mac/comm/term directory of any Info-mac mirror.

Table 3.1.1 summarizes file transfer capabilities of various Macintosh telecommunications programs.

What Internet programs are available?

The desire to get on the Internet has produced dozens of such programs many of which are listed at The Mac Orchard web page. To help the fledgling Internet user I am listing the most commonly used programs below:

E-mail

Eudora <http://www.eudora.com/> is perhaps the best written and most popular e-mail program available for the Macintosh. Eudora is a complete and versatile e-mail package which can send e-mail via SMTP (see [5.4]) and receive e-mail via a POP server. It can even be used with UUPC 3.0 (as a mail reader and message generator, not a transport agent). Eudora can also be used to transfer arbitrary Macintosh files between computers through its BinHex 4.0 attachment features.

 

Eudora Lite 3.1.4 (free)

System 7+; extensive feature set Eudora Pro 4.0 (pay) --- commercial version; even more features

FTP clients

The two most popular MacOS FTP clients are Anarchie and Fetch. "is free to users affiliated with an educational institution or charitable non-profit organization; all other users may purchase a license."

 

News

All Mac newsreaders make use of NNTP. Newswatcher (2.2.1) by John Norstad and its close sister Multi-Threaded NewsWatcher (currently Version 2.4.4) by Simon Fraser are likely the most popular online Newsreaders. A reference page to these programs can be found at http://wmj.ese.ogi.edu/pub/network/newswatcher/

 

Browsers

The two most popular browsers are Netscape and MicroSoft Internet Explorer both of which support frames and other Internet goodies.

What is Telnet, and what MacOS Telnet Programs are there?

Telnet is a high speed terminal connection protocol designed with TCP/IP in mind. A Telnet program allows you to connect to computers that accept Telnet sessions (such as UNIX boxes) with interactive full-screen console input and output capabilities.

There are several Telnet programs for the Macintosh.

NCSA Telnet and BetterTelnet

The most widely known and used is the freeware NCSA Telnet for which developement stopped January 1, 1996. The last 'offical' version was 2.6 though there is a 2.7b4 available. The freeware successor is Sassy Software's BetterTelnet which uses the 2.7b5 code and provides many bug fixes, an improved interface, and additional features. Both of these programs support TEK 4105 graphics, provide both an FTP server *and* client, and can do session logging. About the only drawback is that these programs use Classic rather than Open Transport networking.

 

dataComet

dataComet is both the oldest (1986 as Cornell TN) and longest supported MacOS Telnet application. This shareware application supports PC-ANSI, VT220, & TN3270 terminal emulation, as well as serial connections and communications protocols (including ZModem) and there is a PPC native version in the works.

 

Nifty Telnet

Nifty Telnet is a freeware Telnet program that supports Kerberous encrypting (US version only), has a clean inteface, and is Open Transport native.

 

tn3270

If you need to telnet to an IBM mainframe this program at version 2.5b5 this makes tn3270 more enjoyable.

  

What's the best compression program to use when uploading files to an archive or BBS? Are there any other guidelines I should follow?

Best Compression:

The shareware program DropStuff with Extension Expander (and its commercial sibling, StuffIt Deluxe) is generally regarded as providing the best compression performance of the many Macintosh compression utilities. StuffIt Deluxe has a fancy user-interface while DSEE has a very simple interface.

 

StuffIt Expander (free) with DSEE ($30 shareware) seems to be the most comprehensive shareware package currently available for decompressing files.

 

The closest rival to the Stuffit programs was Compact Pro but it has two problems: 1) it has not been updated since April 1995 and 2) it cannot decompress the Deluxe .sit formats. As a result StuffIt has.