Chuck Bramlet developed a great Internet Scouting handout for his University of Scouting. I've exerpted a few snippets of very basic information for those of you who are just beginning to think about shareware for the first time.
This is an extraction of what is in the full document. It was created
by Chuck Bramlet specificly as a handout for the 1997 University of
Scouting, held Feb. 22 at the Heard Scouting Pueblo, Grand Canyon Council,
Phoenix, Az. Anyone who finds this information useful is encouraged to
obtain the entire text from the MacScouter or Scouts-L archives.
1.0 The Basics
There are a variety of free and shareware applications available to
support both Macintosh and Wintel platforms. Some of them are listed
below. To obtain these, you will usually need to use an ftp client of
some sort.
1.1 Macintosh Basics
For those of you who are using a Macintosh, there are several free
or shareware applications that will make life easier, if your ISP
supports them.
An excellent resource for Macintosh applications is the Info-Mac Hyper-
Archive Root. There is an excellent search engine there to help you find
what you are looking for. Most items available have an abstract. You can
choose to download items you select. You will need a de-binhex helper and
an unstuffit helper. Stuffit Expander works best for both functions.
Terminal Emulators:
The Telnet terminal emulator and ftp client is available at:
ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mac/Telnet .
The current version is Telnet 2.7.
Electronic Mail Clients:
Eudora is a very nice offline mail client. It requires a POP3 mail server
running on a UNIX computer. Eudora automatically logs onto the host, at
predetermined intervals, and copies all pending mail to your computer.
Eudora comes in two flavors, a freeware version, and a commercial version
($60/copy), from Qualcomm. If you are interested in the commercial version,
which does provide many enhanced functions, either contact Qualcomm or check
out your favorite computer software catalog. The freeware version of Eudora
may be obtained via anonymous ftp at: ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/quest/eudora/mac/ .
If you find PC files in .zip archive format, you can unzip them using
the Unzip utility, which can also be found at:
ftp://grind.isca.uiowa.edu//3/mac/infomac/cmp
Encoding and Decoding Applications:
Many encoding and decoding functions are built into Mac applications.
As an example, AppleSingle, AppleDouble and Binhex are built into Eudora.
Fetch has BinHex, AppleSingle, and MacBinary II built in.
The BinHex 4.0, and BinHex 5.0 applications are available via anonymous
ftp at any Info-Mac archive site, such as:
ftp://grind.isca.uiowa.edu//3/mac/infomac/cmp
When you run across files that need to be either uuencoded or uudecoded,
you can use either UUundo 1.0 or UUTool, available at the same site. I am
partial to UUTool -- it seems more robust and able to handle exceptions
easier.
1.2 Wintel PC Basics
The following was updated by Steve Bushore, bushore@best.com.
The best site today is www.tucows.com for all your Microsoft Windows
3.1x and 95 network software needs. As an alternative, most PC programs can
be obtained at any of the major Internet archives, including but not limited
to wuarchive.wustl.edu (fsp, gopher), ftp.cica.indiana.edu (ftp, fsp,
gopher), oak.oakland.edu (ftp) and their mirror sites.
Terminal Emulators:
Most available Telnet clients will perform well, but EWAN is probably
the easiest to use for normal internet telnet operatons. If your telnet
requirements include logging into PC bulletin boards via internet, you will
need the PC ANSI support that NetTerm (16 or 32 bit) or ComNet (Win 95 only)
provide. Both of these shareware programs support PC ANSI and normal telnet
terminal modes.
Electronic Mail Clients:
Eudora is a very nice offline mail client. It requires a POP mail
server running on a UNIX computer. Eudora automatically logs onto the host,
at predetermined intervals, and copies all pending mail to your computer.
Eudora comes in two flavors, a freeware version, and a commercial version
($50/copy), from Qualcomm. If you are interested in the commercial version,
which does provide many enhanced functions, either contact Qualcomm or check
out your favorite computer software catalog. The freeware version of Eudora
may be obtained via anonymous ftp at:
ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com//quest/eudora/windows .
Encoding and Decoding Applications:
For DOS, the best choice is UDEC.EXE (udec1_0.zip) by Peter Liebel
(liebel@cip.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de). This universal decoding program
handles UUENCODE, XXENCODE, MPACK(MIME), SHIP and HEXBIN files. For Windows,
the decoder of choice is WINCODE (wmcode26.zip) by George.Silva@wadsworth.org
which handles UUENCODE, XXENCODE, MPACK(MIME), and HEXBIN. Both programs are
FREEWARE and are available at most archive sites.
