Help with FTP?

[Paul Houtz]

I am just starting to use ftp, and I have a few questions:

   1.  How does it work?  I am currently trying to get into some anonymous
       sites, and am experiencing the following difficulties:
 
          a:  I will be connected to the site, some line noise or something
              knocks me off, and then I can no longer connect to that 
              site.   I get the following error:
          
                ftp: connect: No route to host

          b:  Some sites I attempt connection to give me the error 
        
                 ftp: (site address):  Unknown host


         Once I have been bounced off, I seem to get the first message
         above no matter what machine I attempt to open.   Is it possible
         that getting bounced screws things up on my machine for some
         undetermined amount of time (say--to the next boot up)?

   2.    Is there another method of specifying the address of machine, 
         rather than the Arpanet address (i.e., machine.university.edu)?
         In some of the site lists, the give a bunch of numbers with 
         periods (302.333.23.2349) that appear to be some kind of address.
         What is this?

  Thanks for your time and help!

Paul Houtz
HP Technology Access Center
10670 N. Tantau Avenue
Cupertino, Ca 95014
(408) 725-3864
hplabs!hpda!hpsemc!gph 
gph%hpsemc at hplabs.HP.COM