This chapter provides a concise overview of the most common elements of Get-It. After reading this chapter, you will have a fundamental understanding of how to perform simple file transfers using Get-It. Later chapters provide a much more detailed discussion of Get-It's robust feature set.
The most common use for a file transfer program like Get-It is to transfer files and directories between different machines on a network. These machines can live locally within the same room or building, or they can be oceans apart. The one requirement is that each machine has a unique name and IP (Internet Protocol) address. For more information on setting up networking on the BeOS, please see the BeOS User's Guide.
Only a few key pieces of information are required to make a connection to another machine on the network. These are the:
In fact, many host machines maintain guest accounts for you to use, making the the Host Name the only truly mandatory piece of information.
The first step in using Get-It to transfer files over the network is to connect to a host machine. This is done through the "Establishing a connection" panel in the main Get-It window. In this panel, we need to enter values into each field of the "Connect to" section.
For the purposes of this exercise, we are going to connect to Be's FTP site and download a game. To do this, fill in the blanks as follows:
Field You Enter Host name: ftp.be.com User name: anonymous Password: your_name@your_isp.com
The User name of anonymous and the Password of your_name@your_isp.com (you should enter your actual e-mail address here) are both values accepted by most hosts with guest accounts, including Be's FTP server. For the truly typing lazy, there is also an "Anonymous" push button in the Miscellaneous section. This button will fill in the User name and Password fields for you!
Once this information has been entered, simply push the Connect button at the very bottom of the panel and Get-It will create a live connection with the host machine. Several seconds may go by before the connection is established (you are probably using this on the internet, after all!). During this time, you will see a small progress window that describes where you are in the connection process. This window will be replaced by the file transfer window as soon as a viable connection has been established.
The file transfer window is where all of the real action is in Get-It. From this window, you have a live link to another computer. All of the functions available in this window are described in great detail in the chapter entitled The File Transfer Window.
Visually, the file transfer window divides vertically into two halves right between the columns of push buttons. The left side of the window pertains to your local or client computer (where you are running Get-It). The right side of the window provides pertains to the host or server machine (ftp.be.com).
On each half of the window there are two scrollable data fields, plus numerous push buttons. The scrollable data field in the top portion of each side displays the directories that are currently available on each machine. The field in the bottom portion of each column displays the files that are currenly available on each machine.
By default, you are placed in the /boot/home directory of your local machine. You can change directories by double-clicking on any of the folders in your local directory listing. This will generate a new list of available sub-directories as well as a new list of currently available files. The files and folders listed are exactly the same as those that you see when you double-click on a folder in the BeOS Tracker.
On the host side, we need to do the same thing. The only challenge is that you may not know exactly where to find a file. Not to worry. Get-It is made to poke around in file systems. As with your local machine, you can double-click on directories to open them and examine their contents. If you find you want to back up a level, simply double-click on the ".." directory or press the "Up" button.
If you haven't already located them, you can find the games in the /pub/contrib/games directory. If you have ever been to BeWare and downloaded games, this is where they came from. To transfer your game of choice, first highlight the game in the list, then click the "<" button under the Files heading of your local machine (local machine because that is the destination for the file). This will begin the file transfer. Depending on the speed of your network connection and the file you chose, the file transfer may take anywhere from a few seconds to hours.
You now know how to transfer individual files from ftp.be.com to your local machine. You can also transfer all the files in a given directory at the same time by pressing the "All" button followed by the "<" button, or entire directories using the "<All" button in the Directory section. The rest of the buttons are covered in more detail later in this document.
Happy transferring!
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