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CAS LX 522 Syntax I
Saving your work in CAS 330

If you are working in the CAS 330 lab, you cannot assume that files you save to the hard drive of any given computer will be available to you later, so you will need a way to get the files to a safe place.

In previous years, I had suggested using FTP to save the files to your ACS account, but it appears that CAS Computing Services Group has made space available on their file servers for students who sign up for it. I haven't tried it, but with any luck, this will be a relatively simple option. Here is what I understand the steps are: (Note: As I am writing this, the CSG site is down, so I can't verify that everything is exactly accurate, but it's close)

To get access to the Windows machines in CAS 330:

  • Go to the Computing Services Group web page at http://cashelp.bu.edu and choose File Servers.
  • In the left frame of the screen (you may need to scroll down to find it), there should be an option like "Link my BU account". Click it.
  • You will be asked a couple of questions (your surname, your BU Kerberos login and password). Answer them.
  • Once this is submitted, you should be able to log in to the Windows machines relatively soon (they say 24 hours, but in practice it appears that it is nearly immediate), using your Kerberos login and password.

It is possible that the procedure above also gives you access to a folder on CSG's network disk casfs1. If so, you will probably have a folder there where you can safely store your information for the duration of the course. Or, there may be a different procedure for casfs1, but look around for it (since if you are reading this I haven't had a chance to check it myself). Macs and PCs alike should be able to get access to these folders.

To get 24 hour access to CAS 330 (card access):

  • Go to the Computing Services Group web page at http://cashelp.bu.edu and choose Labs.
  • In the left frame of the screen (you may need to scroll down to find it), there should be an option like "24 hour access". Click it.
  • You will be presented with a form to fill out, including things like your BUID number, your name, the lab you want access to (CAS 330), and so forth.
  • Once you submit this, it shouldn't be too long before your BU ID card will open the door, even when it is otherwise locked (so you can do your lab work in the wee hours, on campus, should you care to).

If you wish to do it the "old school" way, here are the notes I had provided two years ago about how to use FTP:

To save over FTP ("File Transfer Protocol"), you need to use a FTP program. Both Windows and the Mac have FTP "built in", but it is a little bit hard to use. If you can find AbsoluteFTP under the Start menu in Windows or Fetch on the Mac, that's quite a bit easier. You should set the parameters of a new connection as follows:.

  • host: acs.bu.edu
  • user: Your Kerberos user name (i.e. the part before @bu.edu in your BU email address)
  • password: Your Kerberos password
  • path: empty (the path may have contained "pub", but it needs to be empty.

To save files, hit "Put", to retrieve files, hit "Get". If transferring files on the Mac that are intended to be read on a Mac, it's usually a good policy to choose "Macbinary II" as the transfer method. This will generally add a ".bin" to the end of the file name when it is stored.

If you want to be really "old school" about it, you can go to the MS-DOS prompt in Windows or the Terminal in Mac OS X and type ftp acs.bu.edu, which should prompt you for a username and password as above. The tricky part there is that you need to be able to find the file. I have no idea where anything is under Windows XP, but on the Mac, you can find the Desktop by typing cd ~/Desktop at the Terminal prompt (before you type ftp). If you do succeed in finding the file, you just type put filename to store the file on acs.

Another, probably easier, option is to email the file to yourself. You can do this by going to webmail via http://www.bu.edu/webmail/. Write a message to yourself (New message), and clicking the Browse... button to find your file. Then click Attach, and you should be able to retrieve the file.

Note! The webmail method doesn't always work. I've seen it work once for SignStream files and I've seen it fail once (these comments pertain to SilkyMail, I don't know about Horde). Also, almost every Excel spreadsheet I've ever seen mailed with SilkyMail has turned up unreadable on the other end. So, before you leave the lab, try retrieving your file and make sure it looks like the one you sent (open it in the program you -- or I -- will be opening it in). The FTP method described above is moderately more complicated, but it should be somewhat more reliable as well.