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Transferring Files with Macintosh Fetch
  
Unless you have a wide screen, the most efficient way to use this Web page is probably to print it out for reference while you are following these steps, rather than trying to flip back and forth between windows.
If you have not changed your OAK password since October 1, 2007, then you must do so before you will be able to connect to the static-page servers. Use the link at the upper left of http://technology.ohio.edu/myaccount/.
Installation and Configuration
- If you don't have Fetch installed, you can get the installer through:
If the available installer is for a version prior to version 5.5.3, after you install it, you can use Fetch's "Check for Update" feature, in the "Fetch" menu, to upgrade.
After Fetch is launched, before you make your first connection, or at a later time, you should check the Preferences:
- Choose "Preferences" from the Fetch menu.
- In the "General" tab, have a check in the box for "Show New Connection dialog at startup; do have a check in the box for "Use passive mode transfers (PASV)."
- In the "Upload" tab, have checks in the boxes for BinHex files and MacBinary files, but do not have a check in the boxes for Text files or for Other files.
- In the "Proxy" tab, if you are working on campus, set a Proxy type of "None."
Transferring Files
- Once you have Fetch installed and configured with the correct preferences settings, you can use it to transfer files:
- Start Fetch; if already started, select "New Connection" from the File menu.
In the resulting dialog box:
Leave the "initial folder" and "port" fields blank, if those extra choices are displayed.
- Click on "Connect" to make the connection.
The first time you connect to a server, you may be asked to confirm its identity. That stores information about the server in the Mac OS's "known hosts" file.
If the server configuration changes, the conflict between the stored and new information will prevent Fetch from connecting, generating an error message that provides few or no clues as to the true cause ("SFTP connection to 'ww2.ohio.edu' could not be opened because the connection to the SFTP server could not be established or was lost."). You can fix this problem:
- click on Fetch's "Help" menu and choose "Fetch Help";
- type "known hosts" in the "Ask a Question" field at the upper-right and press the "return" key;
- double-click on the dog icon for "'RSA host key differs' warning" (even though you may well not have received that particular warning), and follow the instructions there.
If you decide to delete the known hosts file, the primary consequence will simply be having to reconfirm each new host that you connect to.
- When the connection is made, you will see a list of everyone's top-level (subsite) folders in the main portion of the Fetch window. Scroll down, as needed, to find your subsite's folder and double-click with the mouse on that folder (for OAK, find and click on the folder that is labeled "public_html").
If you are working on pages that are published by the static-page production server, but which are seen by the world with URLs that do not contain "www.ohio.edu," then click on the "Path" tool near the left end of the toolbar across the top of the Fetch window, in order to navigate to other drives and folders, according to the information provided when you were authorized to work on those pages.
- Continue to navigate in your directories on the server in the main portion of the Fetch window, with the usual Macintosh techniques, until you are looking at the files that are already in the directory where you want to place the new file.
You can go directly to recently visited folders using the "Recent" button on the tool bar across the top of the Fetch window.
You can go to "outer" folders in the current path by using the "Path" button on the tool bar.
- Decide whether the file should be transferred in text or binary mode. If the file has a conventional name for its type, then the "automatic" mode is likely to choose correctly between text and binary operation.
- Click on the "Put" button on the tool bar to initiate the file transfer. Navigate on your Mac's disk drive until you have selected the file you want to transfer. Observe that the lower portion of the dialog includes a "Format" pop-up, which defaults to "Automatic"; if you need to, you can force a text mode transfer by selecting "text," or a binary mode transfer by selecting "Raw data."
- Verify that no semicolon (";") is included within the filename. If there is a semicolon, cancel, rename the file on the hard drive, and then go back to Fetch and click on the "Put" button again.
- Double-click on that file or single-click on the file and then single-click on the "Put" button at the lower right to perform the upload. Wiggle the mouse and observe the pointer displayed as a running dog. Wait for the transfer to complete.
- If you need to change the name of a file after uploading it, click on the "Refresh" button on the tool bar, then click on the file whose name you want to modify, then click on the "Get Info" button on the toolbar.
- When done transferring files, choose "Quit" from the Fetch menu.
Alternatives to explore include:
- Creating Fetch "Shortcuts" to the staging and the production servers, which you can select using the heart tool icon to the right of the "Hostname" field when making a new connection. You can identify one shortcut as the default, pre-selected when you start Fetch.
- Using drag-and-drop to transfer files or entire folders: you open a Finder window to the point where you can see the file or folder you want to transfer, you navigate in Fetch until the main window is showing the destination, and then you simply use the mouse to drag the file or folder from your Finder window into the Fetch window.
Return to Chapter III Table of Contents
 
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