Using Arachne FTP

Arachne can access both anonymous and password protected FTP sites. It can download files, get directory listings or upload files. The last option is very important because FTP upload is the easiest way for publishing your web pages on the internet.

To open an anonyous FTP session, just enter the URL formated as:
ftp://server.name/.
The root directory of the server will be displayed. You can control the eMail address sent during login by an ARACHNE.CFG variable called FakeFTPeMail - by default, your real eMail is sent.

To open an authorized FTP session, you have to enter the following URL:
ftp://username@server.name/home/directory/
You will be asked to enter your password. On most servers, the "/home/directory/" pathname is not identical to the pathname used in the HTTP protocol (e.g., on Unix servers, document http://server/~username/ is usually also accessible as ftp://username@server/home/username/public_html/index.html).

An alternative way to access ftp is to use URLs like:
ftp://username:password@server.name/home/directory/
The problem is that the passwords will be stored as part of the URL in history, cache, etc.

Uploading of HTML pages and files to your FTP server is as easy as can be: just press F2 on any displayed HTML page or image, or click on the icon of the file you want to upload in the local directory listing. That's all. A page with "Save as...", "Send by eMail" and "FTP upload" dialogue boxes will appear. Just fill in four required fields in the "FTP upload" dialogue box (the field called "Target" specifies a full filename on server, for example "/home/yourusername/index.html") and click the "Upload" button.

Note: FTP directory services (creating and removing directories, removing files) are not yet implemented; you have to use an external FTP client to do this.

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