CONTENTS ======== 1. Getting started 2. Finding out what's new 3. Finding a specific file 4. Directory structure 5. Mirror sites of Aminet 6. Accessing Aminet on the Internet 7. Accessing Aminet without Internet 8. Copyright status and disclaimer 9. Background information 1. Getting started ------------------ Welcome to Aminet. Aminet is a set of interconnected FTP sites and other file accessing services for Amiga software. It is structured differently from most other FTP sites so please read below instructions carefully. Even more important: Read new/README.BEFORE.UPLOAD before uploading anything, or your upload is in danger of being deleted. Wherever not mentioned otherwise, pub/aminet/ is the path for the files described. If you are new to FTP, you'll find most of your questions answered in the text info/start/FTP-Help.txt here which is also posted to the newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.introduction bi-weekly. The archivers needed to unpack the files stored here can be found in util/arc/, the archivers themselves are self-extracting (in .run format) in most cases, ie. start them and they'll unpack automatically when you run them. 2. Finding out what's new ------------------------- Once you're in pub/aminet/, you can receive the file RECENT for a list of the last seven day's uploads. The newest files are on the top of the list. In FTP, you can type 'get RECENT -' or 'get RECENT |more' to see the new files. Interesting files also found in CHARTS. Once you see a file that interests you, cd to the appropriate directory and have a look at the according .readme file. There you'll usually find a more extensive description. Based on that you may choose to download the file (but never forget to type 'bin' in FTP before you start!). Also, a copy of all recent file can be found in the directory recent/. 3. Finding a specific file -------------------------- Before you start looking, you should be aware that not all Aminet sites are complete. Most delete older files. So if you don't find something at your 'home' mirror, use one of the big sites that keep everything online like ftp.wustl.edu, ftp.cdrom.com or ftp.etsu.edu. To do a search, download the file INDEX.Z, uncompress it and search for the name or description you've been looking for. Under UNIX, you'd hit CTRL-Z in FTP after the download, type 'zcat INDEX.Z | fgrep -i foo' in order to look for 'foo' and then type 'fg' to return to FTP. You may use the version from info/index/ if your terminal is capable of showing more than 80 characters per line. This one doesn't truncate the short descriptions and includes an age column. If you were looking for something on Aminet but only found it elsewhere, please do everyone a favor and upload it to Aminet to make the file easier to find for the next ones. 4. Directory structure ---------------------- Sometimes you are looking for a certain category of file without knowing a name. You then best go by directory. The directories within /pub/aminet/ are: new/ New files, upload here. (See new/README.BEFORE.UPLOAD) priv/ Private uploads. (See new/README.BEFORE.UPLOAD) biz/ Business software hard/ Hardware related comm/ Communications info/ Site information demo/ Euro style demos misc/ Miscellaneous docs/ Text documents mods/ Music modules dev/ Developer software mus/ Music software disk/ Disk tools pix/ Pictures game/ Games software text/ Text related gfx/ Graphics software util/ Utilities A complete list of the sub-directories can be found in the file TREE. To show the descriptions of all files in hard/, download the index file and perform a search on hard/ using fgrep. 5. Mirror sites --------------- These are the members of Aminet and have the files from here. All mirrors have the new files but most delete old files, however ftp.wustl.edu and ftp.cdrom.se keep all files. Whenever possible, use the mirror that is the closest to your place. Most mirrors get updated three times a day. USA (MO) ftp.wustl.edu 128.252.135.4 pub/aminet/ USA (CA) ftp.cdrom.com 192.153.46.2 pub/aminet/ USA (TX) ftp.etsu.edu 192.43.199.20 pub/aminet/ Scandinavia ftp.luth.se 130.240.18.2 pub/aminet/ Switzerland ftp.eunet.ch 146.228.10.16 pub/aminet/ Switzerland litamiga.epfl.ch 128.178.151.32 pub/aminet/ (*) Germany ftp.uni-erlangen.de 131.188.3.2 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-paderborn.de 131.234.2.32 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-kl.de 131.246.9.95 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de 130.149.17.7 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-oldenburg.de 134.106.40.9 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-bielefeld.de 129.70.4.55 pub/aminet/ Germany ftp.uni-stuttgart.de 129.96.8.13 cd aminet UK ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.2.1 pub/aminet/ (*) closed 6:30am to 4pm weekdays 6. Accessing Aminet on the Internet ----------------------------------- There are many other ways than FTP to access Aminet. On the Internet: - ADT. This is a front end for FTP that allows easy access to Aminet. Get it from comm/misc/ and compile it on your UNIX box. - FSP. Aminet Files can be downloaded from the FSP site ftp.luth.se at port 6969 and from disun3.epfl.ch port 9999. ftp.wustl.edu and ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk have FSP on port 21, but can't be reached from everywhere (just try). Uploads are accepted at wustl and luth. - Telnet. ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk strikes again. You can telnet to 146.169.2.1 and log in as 'sources', which gives you a UNIX account where you can download the files on src using commands like 'sz' and 'kermit', or just browse around. - NFS. The only Aminet site that allows NFS mounting of the archives is ftp.wustl.edu. FTP there and read the details in /README.NFS - IRC. On Internet Relay Chat, you can talk to various server robots like Mama, LitBot and MerBot, to do queries and retrievals. Find out more about them using '/msg mama help', for example. - Finger. To find out what's been uploaded to Aminet within the last week, enter 'finger aminet@ftp.etsu.edu'. - Gopher. Gopher is specially supported by several Aminet sites. Just type 'gopher ' or 'gopher -p '. USA (MO) ftp.wustl.edu 1/pub/aminet/info/goph USA (TX) ftp.etsu.edu 1/AmigaArchives/Aminet SWITZERLAND ftp.eunet.ch 1/pub/aminet/info/goph GERMANY ftp.uni-paderborn.de 1/Service/FTP/Direct/ftp-server/aminet UK ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk 1/pub/aminet/info/goph 7. Accessing Aminet without Internet ------------------------------------ - Get internet access. Certainly the most comfortable way to access Aminet but sometimes expensive. Some Internet providers are: USA Portal Voice 1.408.973.9111 Modem 1.408.973.8091 Netcom Voice 1.408.554.UNIX GERMANY EUnet Voice +49.231.972.00 Fax +49.231.972.1111 SWITZERLAND EUnet Voice +41.1.291.45.80 Fax +41.1.291.46.42 - Mailserver. The Aminet site src.doc.ic.ac.uk has an email server that sends out uuencoded binaries. Send a message with HELP in the body to ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk. You can also use ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com to retrieve files from any Aminet site, but please use an American one to save bandwidth. Send HELP there for information, too. Germans try ftpmail@uni-paderborn.de . Also, the RECENT and CHARTS files are available from an automatic e-mail server. Send mail to announce@cs.ucdavis.edu with the single word "help" (no quotes) in the body to find out how to use the server. - Modem. The following BBSes carry up-to-date Aminet files. Most have more numbers than mentioned here. If you don't want a permanent account, log in as user 'ftp' with password 'ftp'. Country Name FIDO Phone ISDN ------- ---- ---- ----- ---- Germany Brainwave 2:246/2006.0 (+49)7071-78729 (+49)7071-971213 Germany Fairytale 2:246/2300 (+49)7541-24362 (+49)7541-930232 Germany Uplink 2:246/2320 (+49)751-96217 Germany Roderick (+49)2151-932076 (+49)2151-932071 Germany Delvinor (+49)2131-549457 (+49)2131-951253 Germany Incubus (+49)931-781464 Germany LSD (+49)9133-9591 Germany **'el Outside (+49)6838-84739 Germany Outworld (+49)6831-52995 (+49)6831-995000 Switzerland Dolphins (+41)1-8450936 (+41)1-8846028 Switzerland Turicum (+41)1-9918501 (+41)1-9918503 Switzerland Dive-Inn 2:301/325 (+41)22-7518103 (+41)22-7518105 Switzerland Amiga Magic 2:301/707 (+41)61-9716843 (+41)61-9730019 Switzerland Helvetica 2:301/723 (+41)1-3130879 (+41)1-3101016 Switzerland Amiga Micro 2:301/819 (+41)1-3001008 (+41)1-3001009 Switzerland AmiCall 2:301/722 (+41)1-9804297 Switzerland Alphanet (+41)38-414081 France Ramses 2:320/104 (+33)1-60037015 Canada Intuition (+1)905-569-1482 USA (OR) CryoCafe (+1)503-257-4823 - Anonymous UUCP. In Germany, you can access the Aminet files at the phone numbers of Brainwave BBS (see above) using the following entry. Download the file "Aminet:INFO" for more information. anarchy Any SER 38400 ATD BBS. ..\c ogin: uanon sword: uanon - FIDO. If you want to file-request Aminet files, you can do so by requesting the file INFO from 2:246/2006.0. The BBSes which have a FIDO node number mentioned above allow file requests. - Mailing lists. If you want to get the list of new uploads mailed every week, send a mail with 'SUBSCRIBE aminet-weekly foo@bar.edu' in the body to listserv@wunet.wustl.edu or if you want daily updates, just use 'SUBSCRIBE aminet-daily' instead. Replace foo@bar.edu with your email address, of course. Keep the welcome mail in case you forget how to unsubscribe... - Usenet. A list of recent uploads is posted every week to the newsgroups comp.sys.amiga.misc and de.comp.sys.amiga.archive. - EZINFO. This is an internet BBS in Switzerland. Here you can download by Kermit or ZMODEM, but you need to be verified to become user. Modem dial 01 251 20 02, then type 'call b050' to connect to EZINFO. Also try telnet kometh.ethz.ch and 'call b050' from internet. - CD-ROM. Aminet is available on CD-ROM. Talk to info@cdrom.com, or write to Walnut Creek CDROM, 1547 Palos Verdes Mall, Walnut Creek CA 94596, USA or phone 1 800 786 9907, +1 510 674 0783 or +1 510 674 0821 (FAX). If you are the author of one of the programs on Aminet, you're entitled to one free CD (once): Check if your file is on the CD by looking at the contents list in disk/cdrom/ and then send file names(s) and your address to them. - Aminet-on-disk. You can order single Aminet files (3 DM per disk) or per-directory subscriptions (2 DM per disk) from Martin Schulze, Parkstr. 14, 66806 Ensdorf, Germany. Phone: ++49 (0) 6831 506171, email masc@coli.uni-sb.de . Send 3 DM in stamps or $2 to get an index disk with instructions. 8. Copyright status and disclaimer ---------------------------------- While the files from Aminet are freely distributable, the collection as a whole is copyrighted. Making a CD-ROM of it or mirroring it on a regular basis requires permission from the administrators. That permission will be granted if mirrors provide an upload facility and CD-ROM makers give free CD's to uploaders. If you do not like this policy, don't upload or have your uploads removed. The administrators of Aminet give no warranties concerning the files stored. Use at your own risk. Specifically, we cannot guarantee that the programs are virus-free, uncorrupted, freely distributable or even useful in any way, although we do our best to ensure the above. 9. Background information ------------------------- - History Aminet was founded by members of ICU (computer science students' club) in Zurich, Switzerland, using an A3000UX donated by Commodore Switzerland. In the beginning it was one FTP site among many, but when the formerly biggest site (ab20.larc.nasa.gov) shut down, people started adopting amiga.physik as the replacement. In order to share the burden both performance- and network load wise, two mirror sites were installed. The new 1GB harddisk donated by Walnut Creek and the user community allowed us to keep all old files, while at the same time number of mirror FTP sites increased constantly to currently 10. Today, Aminet is the leading Internet source for Amiga software, giving authors a far-reaching distribution medium and the user community a place to look for both new and old freely distributable software. - Contact addresses Please direct reports about corrupt, illegal or infected files immediately to aminet@ftp.wustl.edu (do not rely on someone else doing it!). For problems local to one mirror, check the local README's to find out about the administrator there. Some of the the people involved: Moderators Urban D. Mueller umueller@wuarchive.wustl.edu Chris Schneider cschneid@wuarchive.wustl.edu Matthias Scheler mscheler@wuarchive.wustl.edu Mirror admins Peter Sjostrom pjotr@ludd.luth.se Brian Wright wright@merlin.etsu.edu We hope you enjoy the service.