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22.2. FTPFTP sites (file transfer protocol) store pieces of software that can be accessed from the Internet. If you've heard of FTP at all, it was probably under one of two circumstances ”either you've downloaded software from an Internet FTP site, or you've created and maintained your own Web site. 22.2.1. Uploading and Downloading from FTP SitesHooking into an FTP site generally requires an FTP client program that runs on the kind of computer you use (Mac, Windows, or whatever). On Mac OS X, popular FTP client programs include the shareware programs Fetch, Interarchy, and Captain FTP, and the free RBrowser Lite (which is available from the "Missing CD" page at www.missingmanuals.com). Using these programs, Web designers, for example, can view a list of all the text and graphics documents, sitting there on an Internet-connected computer somewhere, that make up their Web pages. When they want to update one of those pages, they add it to this list; to delete a Web page, they remove it from this list. 22.2.2. Just Downloading from FTP SitesIf you're just going to look at and download files (but not upload or delete any), you don't even need a special FTP program like Fetch. You can get to the files much more directly using one of these two methods :
22.2.3. Becoming an FTP ServerThanks to Mac OS X and its Wonder Unix, you can also turn your own Mac into an FTP site. Once again, the key is the Sharing pane of System Preferences; this time, just turn on the FTP Access checkbox. Once again, the key to your own Mac is its IP address, as shown at the bottom of the System Preferences pane. At this point, you, or other people you trust, can connect to your FTP server by running an FTP program like RBrowser (see Figure 22-3) or just typing ftp://111.222.33.4 into their Web browsers. |
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