User`s guide

C:\Downloads whenever you connect to Asimov. If you want downloads to go into
D:\TempStuff, you can pick this destination. Another situation in which you may
wish to change the local folder is when uploading files to a site.
Practically all programs and compressed disks will be in .SHK, .SDK, .DSK,
or some other "binary" form. In fact, "Binary" should nearly always be your
download/upload mode setting, even when downloading (or uploading) Text files.
About the only exception would be when dealing with a binscii archive site which
can not handle binary.
In general, when downloading an Apple II .SHK, .ZIP, etc. file, it is best
to avoid letting any "helper" applications process the file during download.
Usually, it is best to unZIP .zip and .gz files on the PC but, still, after you
have completed the download. Your Apple II can take care of un-Shrinking and
most other kinds of processing which may be required after the file is
downloaded and transferred from the PC (or Mac).
To download one or more files you click-highlight each file you want. Then,
you click some button-- such as an arrow symbol pointing to your C:\Downloads
folder-- to start the download.
Usually everything will go smoothly and the files will appear on hard disk
in your target folder (e.g. C:\Downloads). If you use a dedicated ftp utility
you will, usually, be able to see the exact length of a file on the site's file
list. One good check for a successful download is to compare file lengths
displayed in your target folder with those shown in the FTP site's file list. If
you do straight downloads with no processing, there should be no differences for
binary transfers. (Text file transfe
rs in Text mode often result in small length changes.)
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002- Some of my downloads are bad; what's wrong?
If the exact length of a downloaded file is different than its exact length
on the download site (e.g. as shown via your FTP client program), the download
is probably corrupted. (Text files are something of an exception-- i.e. the
download length may be different and the file may have characters added; but,
usually, the "corruption" has no damaging impact.)
A common reason for getting a bad download is that a binary file-- e.g. a
.shk, .dsk, etc. file-- was downloaded in Text mode. (See discussion about this
in Q&A 001 above.) An FTP program should be set to "Binary" before doing most
downloads from ftp sites. If using a browser, pick one which defaults to binary
mode for unrecognized file types (e.g. a current version of Internet Explorer).
Some files may seem to be corrupted-- i.e. 'not work right'-- even if a
length check shows that the download size is identical to the file's size on an
ftp site. One possibility is that the file was corrupted somewhere in the upload
process. This is fairly rare for files made available for download.
A few Apple II files still include a Binary II prefix. This may cause the
file to appear corrupted to some utility you try to use on a PC; but, it will
work fine once transferred to your Apple II. (Normally, a modern Apple II
telecom program such as Spectrum or ProTERM will be set to automatically strip