Baslinux mailing list

[James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>]

I've been meaning to post to the list for some time on MC (Midnight
Commander file mgr) and its ftp capabilities - something I've only
recently discovered.  It takes a "fuller" version of MC to do this, i.e.,
one that has had the capability compiled in, I presume.  Since I have no
BL machine working here at the moment, I cannot confirm more specifically
which packages work or do not work (e.g., whether the one at JP's site
works).  Anyway, for local file transfer it really works nicely.  I
wouldn't recommend it for anything on the 'net though, since it almost
certainly does not encrypt username and password.  In any case, in order
to use this feature you must have an ftp server running on the computer
whose filesystem you want to access.  Once you've done that, on another
local machine where you've got MC installed open it an hit F9 (menu).
Select either the left or right file pane and from the drop-down menu
select "ftp link..."  In the text box that appears, type a valid username
and password on the system you'll ftp to, followed by the machine's IP
address.  For your local network (the only network on which you should be
trying this), the entry would look something like user:passwd AT 192.168.0.2
.  In other words, user name, colon, password, the @ sign, then the IP
address for the machine running the ftp server.  Hit "ok" and, if all is
well, the remote computer's filesystem will appear in the pane.  You can
then use MC's usual keystrokes for copying and moving files between the
local computer's filesystem and the local one.  You can also edit files on
the remote machine using MC's built-in editor (invoked by hitting F4), as
well as delete them (F8).  Hope this proves as helpful to someone else as
it has proven for me.

James