How to find files on the Net

Many millions of files are available over the Net via 'FTP'. 'FTP' stands for 'File Transfer Protocol'. Files containing information and software (free and shareware) are to be found on the many thousands of 'anonymous FTP' computers around the world (called 'anonymous' because that's the password that you use when logging in to them).

Don't use the resources on this page if you are looking for software - click here for software resources. And if you are looking for MP3 files, most of the leading search engines listed here allow you to find these.

One of the most useful tools for finding files (if you know the name of the file, or part of the name) used to be "Archie", a system which depends on FTP system administrators registering their sites with Archie computers all over the world. You can use one of two methods to access Archie (although this technology is rapidly getting out of date):

Via the Web: for the nearest Archie server to you, see the list at http://archie.emnet.co.uk/

Using an Archie piece of software. Our recommendation is the freeware program WSArchie (for Windows). This can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/win3/winsock/
apps/wsarchie/.

These are now appearing on the Web, and are even easier to use than Archie servers. Here are a few that we've found:

Further help on this topic...

You'll find further help on this topic, or closely related issues, in the side columns on this page..

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