\title{Access to the UK \TeX\ Archive} \vskip-\medskipamount \section{Interactive} Interactive access to the archive is not, at present, provided. \section{File Transfer} However, you may use NIFTP to access any of the files in the archive; send a transfer request for the required file (which must be named explicitly, no wildcard search mechanism exists). The first file you should fetch is {\tt\lowercase{[TEX-ARCHIVE]00README.TXT}} which gives some clues as to the directory hierarchy of the archive. The file {\tt\lowercase{[TEX-ARCHIVE]00DIRECTORY.LIST}} contains the names of every file in the archive; {\tt\lowercase{[TEX-ARCHIVE]00DIRECTORY.SIZE}} gives their sizes and creation dates as well. The latter file is approximately 6\,Mbyte in size. Queue the transfer request specifying the site as {\tt\lowercase{% UK.AC.ASTON.TEX}}, username |public|, password |public|; note that it {\it is\/} necessary to specify the directory (|[tex-archive]| for those files mentioned above, and subdirectories of it for most other files) in your request, because the |public| account does not reference this directory by default. \section{Mail Transfers} An alternative access method is through the TeXserver, which accepts requests sent by e-mail, and returns its response by the same method. To get started, send a mail message to \begintt TeXserver@Uk.Ac.Aston.TeX \endtt with the body of your message consisting only of the TeXserver command |HELP|; you should receive a `receipt' for your request, and later the help information which describes the rest of the commands available. Receipts are sent within a few minutes of arrival of your request; if the request is valid, it will be queued for later processing. Generally speaking, you should receive the requested information within about another hour, but it could be delayed if the server is heavily loaded. If you don't get the receipt within a reasonable time (say 6 hours), then please try only once more: it may be that the server is unable to route mail back to you. If this happens to you, please send details of your request, and any response (including bounced mail reports) to me at the address given at the end of \TeXline. You shouldn't normally fail to get a receipt, but it may occur with sites on the BT PSS network who have routed their requests to TeXserver through one of the PSS-\Janet\ gateways; the TeXserver account isn't authorized to route traffic back by the same route. If you know of another route back to you that the server could use (for example, {\tt uk.co\dots} sites may have registered with |uk.ac.ukc| to act as a relay for them), then you may try once more, specifying your address relative to Aston in a |PATH| command on a line preceding the |HELP| command; for example |fred@uk.co.somefirm| could send the following request: \begintt PATH fred%uk.co.somefirm@uk.ac.ukc HELP \endtt Good luck! \author{Brian {Hamilton Kelly}}