PRIMER: Overview Netiquette E-mail/Chat Mailing Lists Newsgroups FTP File Transfer Telnet Gopher Websites/Web Search Cite Sources Make A Bookmark Page Create A Home Page

Genealogical Society of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Inc. The Genealogist's Internet Primer, by Sharon L. Brevoort FTP File Transfer One of the first tools available on the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) gives us access to file libraries stored on remote computers. Files you can download include software, images, sounds, indexes, research guides, historical documents, bibliographies, GEDCOM files, and Everton's catalog. Both the Library of Congress and the National Archives maintain FTP sites. The Genealogy Online FTP Archive includes GEDCOM and PAF libraries, the Roots Surname List, surname archives, and genealogy vendors. (Make sure you run a virus scanning program before you install downloaded software; text files do not need to be scanned.) FTP is also the method used to upload web pages to your web server. When using ftp, it is courteous to connect only during off hours (after 6 pm and before 6 am in the host's time zone) since the host computer has other work to do during business hours. Only a few ftp sites are available 24 hours a day. Use the ftp program from your service provider to connect to the computer containing the file archive. Use the logon command for that location. Type the user name and password given by the organization. Many ftp sites allow free access to their public files: log on with the user id "anonymous", and give your e-mail address as the password. Your service provider's ftp interface may perform the anonymous logon automatically, and may also provide you with a list of popular ftp sites. To search for a keyword in ftp filenames, you can check the online Archie database provided by Rutgers, Net Electric Design, University College Cork or use telnet to log on to archie.ans.net, archie.mcgill.ca, archie.rutgers.edu, archie.sura.net, or archie.unl.edu, giving the logon id "archie". Then type the command "prog filename" where filename is the first part of the filename you are looking for. AOL: select "Internet", "Internet Extras", "FTP". Click "Go to FTP" to get a list of AOL's nine favorites. Click "Search for FTP Sites" to search by keyword. Lists of FTP Sites Gen. Resources on the Internet John Fuller's FTP Sites NGS NetGuide (section I.3.) http://members.aol.com/johnf14246/ gen_ftp.html http://www.genealogy.org/~ngs/netguide/ Search Archie on the Web from Rutgers from Net Electric from Sandiego.com from University College Cork http://archie.rutgers.edu/archie.html http://www.nedesign.com/SITES/ http://www.thegroup.net/AA.html http://www.ucc.ie/cgi-bin/archie/ Some Specific FTP Sites Library of Congress Genealogy Programs & Files: Genealogy Online FTP Archives: ...GEDCOM library ...Roots Surname List ...surname archives USGenWeb Archive RootsWeb Archive ftp://ftp.loc.gov/ ftp://ftp.cac.psu.edu/pub/ genealogy/ ftp://ftp.genealogy.org/pub/genealogy ftp://ftp.genealogy.org/pub/genealogy/ GEDCOM ftp://ftp.genealogy.org/pub/genealogy/RSL ftp://ftp.genealogy.org/pub/genealogy/ surnames ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/ usgenweb/ ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/

The Genealogist's Internet Primer: Overview | Netiquette | E-mail/Chat | Mailing Lists | Newsgroups | FTP | Telnet Gopher | Websites | Cite Sources | Bookmark Page | Create Home Page Copyright © 1998-2007, Sharon L. Brevoort. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Permission to print a single copy for personal use is granted. http://www.hvcn.org/info/gswc/primer/ftp.htm Revised 15 October 2007. Send comments or changes to Sharon at wwwgswc@aol.com. Images © Corel Corporation.