Setup and Basic Use Instructions for Fetch FTP Software on a Macintosh

Fetch is FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software for the Macintosh. Use Fetch on your Macintosh to transfer files reliably between your computer and a remote host or server on the Internet. With Fetch you can get free software from FTP servers on the Internet (called downloading); do work on your computer and then copy it to another networked computer, such as a Unix system (called uploading); or back up files on another networked computer.

Contents

Setting up Fetch

  1. To start the program, double-click the Fetch icon. (If this is your first time using Fetch, the New Connection... dialog box opens. Click Cancel to close it.)
  2. Pull down the Customize menu at the top of your computer monitor screen and click New Shortcut...
  3. Fill in the Bookmark Editor dialog box as follows:

    Name: type a name to identify your connection (e.g., your department name for a departmental connection)
    Type: leave as is
    Host: type the Internet host name or IP address for the computer to which you want to connect (e.g., sun.science.wayne.edu for a College of Science connection)
    User ID: type your user ID on the host computer you typed above
    Password: for security, leave blank. Fetch will prompt you for your password when you go to connect
    Directory: leave blank

  4. Click OK to save these settings.

Using Fetch

About the File transfer buttons

Put File—click when copying a file from your Macintosh to a remote FTP system.

Get File—click when copying a file from a remote FTP system to your Macintosh.

Automatic, Text, Binary—use as follows:

Click Automatic for most files.

Only click Text for files that are plain text. Do not click Text for files that have formatting (e.g., special fonts, underlining, bold, italics, or programming codes).

Click Binary for files that have special coding in them and need to be handled in a special way to ensure that they transfer correctly (e.g., MS Word, Excel, or programming files). In addition to special file transfer procedures, these files must be opened in the software program used to format them.

Making the file transfer

  1. Establish an Internet connection via Remote Access (or PPP) Control Panel; or, if you have a campus Ethernet connection, you're ready to go.
  2. Double-click the Fetch icon to start the program.
  3. Pull down the File menu at the top of your computer monitor screen, point to Open Shortcut, and then click the name you gave your connection.
  4. If prompted, type the password for your user ID.
  5. Click OK.
  6. A transfer window for the connection opens.
  7. Make the file transfer as follows:
    • To copy a file from your Mac to the remote system
      1. Click Put File...
      2. Find the file you want to copy and highlight it.
      3. Click Open.
      4. If you want to rename the file, type a new name.
      5. Click OK to copy the file.

    • To copy a file from a remote system to your Mac
      1. Highlight the name of the file on the remote system.
      2. Click Get File...
      3. Locate the folder on your Mac where you want to put the file.
      4. If you want to rename the file, type a new name.
      5. Click Save.
  8. To close the FTP session, pull down the File menu and click Close.
  9. To quit the Fetch program, pull down the File menu and click Quit.

Setting up an anonymous FTP connection

  1. Establish an Internet connection via Remote Access (or PPP) Control Panel; or, if you have a campus Ethernet connection, you're ready to go.
  2. To start the program, double-click the Fetch icon.
  3. Pull down the File menu at the top of your computer monitor screen and click New Connection.
  4. Fill in the boxes as follows:

    Host: type Internet host name or IP address for the computer to which you want to connect
    User ID: type anonymous
    Password: type your e-mail address (e.g., xy6789@wayne.edu)

  5. Click OK.