AMERICA ONLINE Internet Connection Answerman: Thursday, May 16, 1996 9 P.M. EDT Topic: Downloading with FileGrabber Host: Kevin Savetz, "Netanswers" Online Host: Copyright 1996 America Online, Inc. CJ Purple: Good evening everyone and welcome to AnswerMan! Your host tonight is Kevin Savetz, aka Netanswers, aka AOL's AnswerMan. And I'm CJ Purple, member of the Internet Connection staff. Good evening Kevin! :-) What's on tap for tonight? Netanswers: Hi Purple, hi all. Tonight we'll be talking about FileGrabber. FileGrabber is a part of America Online's Usenet newsreader. It automatically extracts "binary" files (like encoded pictures and sounds) and downloads them to your computer. This is much easier than downloading multiple file parts, and piecing them together yourself - AOL does this work for you. Netanswers: Most of the messages in newsgroups are text - but there is a LOT of non-text (binary) information too - pictures, Quicktime movies, sounds and programs. FileGrabber helps decode those. Most newsgroup postings contain plain text. However, those newsgroups that contain binary files require that they be encoded as plain text and then they are posted as regular messages. This is because such files contain special, non-text characters that cannot be reliably transmitted through some USENET computers. The translation process most commonly used is called UUENCODING, also called binary encoding. Netanswers: Encoding a binary file makes it larger, so it's often necessary to break the encoded file into a series of smaller, more manageable parts. In the past, this has frustrated people who wanted to retrieve the encoded file, because they had to save each encoded chunk separately, combine them into one file, and then decode the file. America Online's FileGrabber feature eliminates this frustrating, error-prone process. When you read a newsgroup posting which contains uuencoded data, a window pops up alerting you to that fact. You then have three options: to download the decoded file (Download File), to download only that encoded chunk as a text file (Download Article), or to quit (Cancel). If you choose Download File, FileGrabber will determine if the encoded file has been posted in several parts. If so, it will search the newsgroup for the remaining pieces, join them together, decode the file and then ask you where you want the decoded file to be downloaded. Netanswers: Unfortunately, this process isn't foolproof. FileGrabber cannot decode files where one or more parts are missing, mislabeled or garbled If this happens, you'll be alerted to the reason. You can then either manually download and decode the posting, or check back later to see if the problem was fixed through the posting of missing or corrected pieces of the file. Once it's on your hard disk in one piece, you NEED to decode the file before using it. So you will need to get a UUdecoder: go to AOL's file library and search for UUdecode to get one. After using the decoder to translate the file, you can virus check it (just to be safe) and view, use, and see it. Uuencoded files usually end with the extension .uu or .uue. The first line of a uuencoded document starts with something similar to the following. Here's an example from a picture I FileGrabbed earlier today: Netanswers: BEGIN -- Cut Here -- cut here begin 644 kittycat1.jpg M_]C_X``02D9)1@`!`0$"6`)8``#_VP!#``L'"`D(!PL)"0D,"PL-$!H1$`\/M$"`7&!,:)B(H*"8B)20 J,#TS*BTY+B0E-4@U.3]!1$5$*3-+4$I"3SU#1$'_M$"`7&!,:)B(H*"8B)20 J,#TS*BTY+B0E-4@U.3]!1$5$*3-+4$I"3SU#1$'_ Netanswers: What a mess. You can see why it needs to be decoded :) Netanswers: There are a lot of newsgroups with good stuff to grab. Those that tend to have a lot of good stuff are newsgroups with "pictures" or "binaries" in the name. For better or worse, some stuff available in the pictures groups are, shall we say, intended for mature audiences. So by default, the ability to filegrab is off. You'll have to change the parental controls to turn it on before using it the first time. Pick PARENTAL CONTROLS from your MEMBERS menu. Netanswers: A question, Purple? CJ Purple: Kevin, DEatmon33 asks: Does this work with the ARC files? Netanswers: Filegrabber works with UUencodod files. Now, it's certainly possible to have an ARC or ZIP or SIT or other compressed file uuencoded on Usenet. But once you FileGrab and uudecode the file, you'll have to uncompress it (un-ARC it, for example), using an uncompression utility. You can get those an AOL... Just go to Keyword: FILE SEARCH and search for "compression". Netanswers: Some newsgroups with good material for FileGrabbage (is that a word? :->): alt.binaries.pictures.sports, alt.binaries.pictures.supermodels, alt.fractals.pictures, alt.pictures.fuzzy.animals, alt.binaries.pictures, alt.binaries.pictures.anime, alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons, alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.digitized, alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.graphics, alt.binaries.pictures.misc (lots of random stuff in here). CJ Purple: Kevin...we have a question from JD hick JD who wants to know: How come FileGrabber is so slow on his or her 286? Netanswers: Uuencoded files are often very large - a 200K picture is not atypical - so it can take a while to download the whole thing. The speed of your modem and the size of the file matter a lot, the speed of your computer matters, too, but not as much. CJ Purple: Kevin, once a picture is decoded and decompressed, is there any other special software the folks might need to view that picture? Netanswers: You'll need a graphics viewing program to see it...I use a freeware program on the Mac called JPEGVIEW to see graphics. On Windows, there's a great program called Paint Shop Pro (shareware) You can get both of these at Keyword: VIEWERS. CJ Purple: Kevin, JD asks about his or her 1200 baud modem and wants to know if that is better than a 28.8 one. Netanswers: A 28.8 BPS modem is 224 times FASTER than a 1200 BPS one, which explains why JD's downloads take so long :) 'Scuze me: 24 times faster. CJ Purple: I was wondering. Netanswers: To clarify something: you do not need to download FileGrabber, it is part of AOL's newsgroup reader, which you can access at keyword NEWSGROUPS. When you try to read a UUencoded file, FileGrabber will wake up and let you know. Netanswers: Usenet postings are an odd animal - they do not always arrive in order, or intact, due to the nature of how Usenet works. So, occasionally FileGrabber will tell you that you can't get the file. You might try again in a day, after the rest of the UUencoded file may have arrived at AOL, but otherwise, there is not much you can do about this problem. CJ Purple: Kevin, you talked about special viewing programs. How about if the binary file is a sound file...what do we need then? Netanswers: Like with graphics viewers, if you download a sound file, you'll need a utility to play it. On the Mac, I use a program called SoundMachine to play almost all the files I download from Internet. On Windows, geez, I can't remember the name of the utility :). It's built-in to Windows 95. Same thing for video files - you'll need a QuickTime player to see Quicktime movies, MPEG for MPEG movies, etc. You can get those utilities at Keyword: VIEWERS. Movie files end to be huge and can take a really long time to download. CJ Purple: Kevin, looks like we're about out of time. Thanks for a very enlightening session. I know I learned a few things, and I'm sure the audience did too! :-) Netanswers: Thanks, everyone, for coming. If you have questions about the Internet, go to Keyword: ANSWERMAN and see what's there. Leave your question on the message board or read the FAQs in ACCESSING THE INTERNET VIA AOL. :) CJ Purple: I must apologize to all those people who sent in questions or comments for which we just didn't have time. You can post any questions you have about the Internet or the World Wide Web on the AnswerMan Message Boards, Keyword: AnswerMan. Netanswers: Thanks, Purple. Good night everyone! CJ Purple: Good night Kevin! And good night all! :-) OnlineHost: Copyright 1996 America Online, Inc.