What Happened To Archie? 10
JoLo asks: "I've just been hanging out on irc when I had to search for a file. My browser was closed, and I didn't want to open it again because I was happy having a clean desktop. So I tried to use archie, but .. I couldn't find an archie server! Can this be true?? Archie's dead? Killed by some hypertext language? When and how could this happen? And why didn't I notice it before? Does anyone have a list of running servers?"
Further to that (Score:1)
ping: unknown host archie.au
[poppacrow:~] mark% ping archie.doc.ic.ac.uk
ping: unknown host archie.doc.ic.ac.uk
[poppacrow:~] mark% ping archie.internic.net
ping: unknown host archie.internic.net
Didn't try all of them, but... I don't really know how Archie works though, so perhaps I'm using this information wrong
Re:YEp, I see what ya mean... (Score:2)
There is an FTP search facility on Lycos [lycos.com].
Ade_
/
Re:YEp, I see what ya mean... (Score:2)
Public domain was/is one step less restrictive than open source, only the source code wasn't necessarily available, and modifiers of the code didn't necessarily have to release their modifications (although I think fair use strongly prohibits presenting it as entirely your own work.)
More akin to BSD than GPL or Open Source.
If the GPL existed, I imagnine people would have slapped it on this code.
OB archie comment: I could never get it to actually work, even in 1995. I would search for a file, knowing its name, and it would fail. I tried many servers, but I was better off with the web.
I have also noticed a trend away from FTP archives towards HTTP archives. I think the rationale is that HTTP servers are heavily optimized, whereas the same focus wasn't placed into FTP servers.
IMHO, that sucks. It's easier to find files surfing through unlabeled ftp directories (or using regular expressions on things like "Allfiles.txt", than it is to use these really, really crappy search engines. Don't get me started on Yahoo's implied OR searches... where a highly ranked match with one word always outranks a lowly ranked match with all of them.
who needs archie : ftpsearch.lycos.com (Score:4)
http://ftpsearch.lycos.com [lycos.com]
(make sure you type http, otherwise some browsers will assume you want ftp protocol)
-Alex
Try here (Score:4)
Was this post a troll? :) I mean you are running a browser now to post and read so the immeadiate desire to use Archie has faded, right? :)
Anyway, I found something here with Google: http://archie.emnet.co.uk/ [emnet.co.uk]
Please let me know how this pans out. I never really needed to use Archie (too much of a youngun I guess) but I remember accessing it with Mosaic.
--8<--
Archie is still around (Score:2)
A bleak future (if any) (Score:4)
I have never even used archie, I read about it in an early internet for dummies, but ask 99.99% of people and they wont have a clue.
Worse than that, todays computer science students - with thair microsoft loving ways, dont even know anything more then http, ftp and napster!
Sites like these litter the internet.
I think the main reason, from my brief research, is
Archie Closed archie.switch.ch closed down on 28 September 1999. The Canadian software company Bunyip, supplier of the Archie server software, closed down in May 1999. Having no more support for the software and no source code...
That was from hotbot's search engine. I cant get to the site at the moment.
Were any archie servers open source? That looks like your best bet. I wish I could help.
OT: public domain (Score:2)
Mac OS X says: (Score:1)
defaults read com.apple.internet ArchieAll
And got the following output:
{
"ic-data" = (
"Australia:archie.au:",
"Austria:archie.univie.ac.at:",
"Belgium:archie.belnet.be:",
"Canada, Bunyip:archie.bunyip.com:",
"Canada, McGill:archie.mcgill.ca:",
"Finland:archie.funet.fi:",
"France:archie.univ-rennes1.fr:",
"Germany:archie.th-darmstadt.de:",
"Japan, Kyoto-u:archie.kuis.kyoto-u.ac.jp:",
"Japan, Wide:archie.wide.ad.jp:",
"Korea, Kornet:archie.kornet.nm.kr:",
"Korea, Sogang:archie.sogang.ac.kr:",
"Norway:archie.uninett.no:",
"Poland:archie.icm.edu.pl:",
"Spain:archie.rediris.es:",
"Sweden:archie.luth.se:",
"Switzerland:archie.switch.ch:",
"Taiwan:archie.ncu.edu.tw:",
"UK, Hensa:archie.hensa.ac.uk:",
"UK, IC:archie.doc.ic.ac.uk:",
"USA, InterNIC:archie.internic.net:",
"USA, Rutgers:archie.rutgers.edu:"
);
}
Output was indented too, but Slashcode ate that
YEp, I see what ya mean... (Score:2)
Archie went down already some couple of years, but the sad thing is that its functionality hasn't really been replaced. There are search engines, but they don't concentrate on just files you can download. In fact they are cramed full of useless commercial information and such. If you look around even FTP servers seem to slow down and apart from the old sunsites, funet.fi and other good old places there number is receeding. I wonder sometimes if your modern net user even has a clue of what FTP is. (As if http file transfers were any reliable, you can't even know when your file as been received in full and discover later you only have 85% of a 20 megs Zip file.)
As for Archie, it requires a telnet connection, something the equivalent of a Masters Degree for a Windows User, no wonder Joe User hasn't got a clue about it.
It is scarry, I wonder if in 10 years there would still be anything to download at all apart from drivers and press releases. I already feel the effect of archives that just can't be found anymore, like practical good old tools called Terminate/Telemate/Zmodem and I am not even talking about old docs and the lot. Only GNU software seems to stick around.