Your CS-1371 Survival Kit

Step 1: Getting a Zip/Unzip Program

Since WebWork automatically zips your submissions, you will need an unzip program to verify that your submission was properly uploaded. Below are some links to zip/unzip programs which various TA's have reccomended. NOTE: You may already have one on your computer, so feel free to use that instead.

WinZip (Windows) (Please install it to "C:\Program Files\cs1321\WinZip")

Stuffit Expander (Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris) (Unzip Only)

Step 2: Getting an SSH client

Since you will be required to connect to Georgia Tech's acme.gatech.edu servers frequently for this class, you'll need a secure way of doing so. We strongly reccomend using putty or SecureCRT. We have a good info page on putty posted here for you.

A *very* helpful program for all you off-campus folks is SecureCRT. It will do both telnet/SSH and file transfers for the HTML lab later... Request to download it from GT's SCO page. Use its built-in "Zmodem" option to transfer files to acme from off-campus.

Unfortunately, putty will only run on Windows, below is a link to yet another SSH program:

NiftyTelnet 1.1 SSH (MacOS) (Available from OIT.)

Step 3: Getting an FTP/SCP client.

On-Campus:
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is used for moving files from one computer to another. SCP is similar to FTP, but it uses encryption to make sure your data can't be snooped on in transfer. Please note that if you want to move files to/from ACME, you should use SCP, not FTP. FTP is useful to have around to get files from places that don't let you use SCP (example: ftp.gnu.org).
Here are a few programs recomended by the TA's:

WinSCP Note that this is the preferred option, as it uses SCP and is thus more secure (and sometimes faster) than FTP. Unless you have a compelling reason to use FTP, use this program. One of our TAs has written a helpful guide to setting up and using winSCP to get you going.

WS_FTP (Windows, note that this is an FTP client, not an SCP client)

Fetch (MacOS) (Download from GT's SCO page)

Transmit (MacOS)

Off-Campus:
Unfortunately for those of who are off-campus, you can not FTP to/from Acme directly (for security reasons). Below are some alternatives which will allow you to transfer files to/from Acme.

The most desirable solution is to use an SCP client to move files back and forth. You can get a free SCP client for windows called winSCP from the link just above.
You can take a disk with any files on it to an OIT lab and use FTP from there.
You can use a program called pscp which is available from the same page you got putty from. This is a DOS-based command line program. You'll have to read the documentation that comes with it (we don't have a web page about it yet).

SecureCRT

GT's SCO page

Step 4: Various ways to check your email. (NOT OPTIONAL)

While we officially recomend checking your email/newsgroups from within Acme, we understand some of you may wish to use a slightly easier method. Don't forget Lab 1 has all the instructions on how to set up pine and tin to read mail and newsgroups.

However, if you already have the following software you can follow the instructions below to set it up, instead of pine or tin (if you have trouble, you can always resort to checking through Acme). (Note: Some labs require you to connect through Acme, follow the directions in the lab or risk getting a ZERO on the assignment.)

Spectrum's web-based email(OIT Page at webmail.mail.gatech.edu)

Setting up Outlook Express (POP email, on & off campus)

Setting up Eudora for Windows / MacOS (OIT Page)

Step 5: Setting up newsgroups (ALSO NOT OPTIONAL)

Newsgroups are your best friends in this class. Posting questions helps both you and others with the course material - TA's and professors will answer them. Lab 1 has detailed instructions regarding how to set up tin to read newsgroups from acme.

However, you may wish to set up other newsreaders, such as Outlook Express or Netscape. Here are the relevant links:

Outlook Express

Netscape