THE ART OF TRANSLOADING

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WHY SHOULD I TRANSLOAD FILES?
There are several reasons for transloading files that you are using. Whether it is an image file or sound file, if you are linking to it to display an image or sound in your e-mail or on your webpage, you should be linking to your own server. There are two basic reasons for this. One is that if the file is on your own site then you have control of it and won't loose it. If you are linking to someone else's site, the owner of that site might move or delete the file then your link is dead. Another reason is that linking to other sites uses that server's bandwidth every time your link is connected and that costs them money. This practice is being referred to as "bandwidth theft" and is frowned upon by the internet community. An additional reason for transloading is speed. By doing all of your linking for sound and images in your e-mail and webpage to one site (yours) your page will load much faster and avoid those annoying long waits for something to load.

HOW DO I TRANSLOAD?
This is a multiple part question because there are different answers depending on your particular situation. If your site is not with TALK CITY then you will need to use one of the File Transfer Services. There are several but only two free ones currently available. STARBLVD TRANSLOADER and DOMANIA FREELOADER. I will only discuss the free ones here. I strongly suggest that after you choose which transloader you want to use that you save it to your favorites folder and put it on an F# key. The reason for this will become clear in the following text.

The first thing you should do is go to the page you want to copy to your files. This can be an HTML page, a GIF, a JPG, or a sound file such as MIDI, WAV, or RAM.
For an HTML page once it is displayed on your screen hit your GO TO key then click on SHOW LAST. The URL of the page will show in the GO TO window. Save it in your cut/copy/paste by using CMD+A and CMD+C. You may or may not use this later but it's good to have it in case of a problem at the transloader. Use the ESC key in the upper left corner of your keyboard to drop the GO TO pop-up. Use your F# key to go to the transloader.
For an image file if you found it in an index list then click on it. The GIF or JPG should be the only thing on your screen. Hit your GO TO key then click on SHOW LAST. The URL of the image will show in the GO TO window. Save it in your cut/copy/paste by using CMD+A and CMD+C. You may or may not use this later but it's good to have it in case of a problem at the transloader. Use the ESC key in the upper left corner of your keyboard to drop the GO TO pop-up. Use your F# key to go to the transloader.
For a sound file if you found it in an index list then click on it. The sound file must be playing through your speaker. Hit your GO TO key then click on SHOW LAST. The URL of the sound file will show in the GO TO window. Save it in your cut/copy/paste by using CMD+A and CMD+C. Use the ESC key in the upper left corner of your keyboard to drop the GO TO pop-up. Use your F# key to go to the transloader.

LAST VISITED URL: This is the last webpage you were at.

SOURCE URL: This is where you write the URL of where the file is located on the web or paste it using CMD+V. Just above this line is a blue rain drop. By clicking on it, the last visited URL will go into this line automatically. This is the reason for having the transloader on an F# key. You go to the page or image you want to transfer and from there hit the F# key. The last URL you visited is then your source URL and you don't have to type or paste it in. This will not work on sound files though and will give you the URL of the HTML page where the sound file is listed. This is the reason for saving the sound URL in cut/copy/paste.

RENAME TO: This is optional in case you want to rename the file, if you do be sure to use the proper extension ie; .gif, .jpg, .html after the name.

TARGET FTP SERVER: This is the name of your ftp server ie; ftp.tripod.com, ftp.geocities.com, ftp.angelfire.com. In the case of TALK CITY it is: home.talkcity.com.

TARGET ACCOUNT NAME: This is where you put your website login name (Name only not URL for example: Techniguy)

TARGET ACCOUNT PASSWORD: This is where you put your site member password (for example: hahaha you didn't think I was going to give you my password did you?)

UPLOAD DIRECTORY: Optional, if you want to send the file to a subdirectory just enter the name of the directory here. NOTE: This will not work with Geocities and will cause the transfer to fail. You must transload to your main directory.

Leave the next few lines blank, you can figure them out later. Below them are some buttons, "transload", "save cookies", and "dump cookies". If you click "save cookies" it will save your login information in your browser so that it will be there next time you come back to Starblvd. "Dump cookies" will erase the information from your browser. If you are satisfied that the form is filled out correctly then click the "transload" button. You will go to a temporary page for ten seconds then automatically be transferred to your status log. You may have to reload this page once or twice every 10 seconds or so, each time it will show more information as you scroll down. When you reach the bottom you will see a "ZAP" button. Just above it will be a statement confirming the transload. If the operation failed it will show in the last message. In this case use your back button and correct your information (you may have to re-enter some of it) and try again. If it was successful then click the "ZAP" button to clear your session.

Not shown in this picture, near the top of the page it says "COOKIE INFORMATION" [Load cookies]. This is where you click to load your cookies that have been previously saved at the Freeloader. It is not done automatically here as it is at Starblvd. The save cookies selector is below the bottom of the picture. Here you can enter up to 8 sets of information for the form and load any one of them by clicking one of the numbers after [Load cookies] at the top of the page. If you don't have any saved cookies yet you will have to enter the information manually. After you have done that then click on one of the numbers at the bottom to save the information and it will still be there the next time you come back. You will just have to click the number at the top coresponding to your saved information.

YOUR HOME PAGE BASE URL: Put your homepage URL in here. It will be used later to see if your file transfer was successful.

FILE TO BE COPIED: This is where the file you want to transfer is located on the web.

REMOTE FTP SERVER: This is the name of your ftp server ie; ftp.tripod.com, ftp.geocities.com, ftp.angelfire.com, or home.talkcity.com, etc.

USER LOGIN: This is where you put your site login name (Name only not URL for example: Techniguy)

PASSWORD: This is where you put your site login password (for example: ...never mind you don't need and example)

SUBDIRECTORY: Optional, if you want to send the file to a subdirectory just enter the name of the directory here. NOTE: This will not work with Geocities and will cause the transfer to fail. You must transload to your main directory.

NEW NAME FOR FILE: This is required at Domania. Be sure to use the proper extension ie; .gif, .jpg, .html after the name.

When you have the form filled in you can choose to save your cookies. Once saved they will remain in your browser until you dump them, you don't have to save them every time. Now it's time to transload. You can choose to use any one of the 5 freeloaders shown, they are all the same. Click the Freeloader of your choice button and within a few seconds you will go to the Status Log page. At the present time the transfer is done very fast at Domania and the Status Log will probably be complete and not require the page to be reloaded. If completed you can scroll down once or twice and find a link that says "Check to see if it made it". This is where your Home Page Base URL is used. Click here to view the page on your server. Use your back button to return to Domania. Now, there is one more thing you must do which you can do anytime between entering and leaving Domania. This is VERY IMPORTANT to help keep this service free and available for us all to use. Click on the sponsor's banner. This service is free to us but not to the owner of the site. He must pay for the bandwidth that we use to transfer our files. His sponsors help with these costs but only if we click on them. Only one click from your browser each day is counted so there is no need to click the sponsor every time you use the service but please, if you use the service then click once each day. Even the sponsors are not enough to offset the costs of keeping Domania a free online service so Craig is offering free banner promotion for your webpage in return for a small donation to his ADOPT A FREELOADER program. See his banner at the bottom of the status log.

TRANSLOADING TO ANGELFIRE SERVER

Angelfire's ftp procedures are a little different than the other servers. NOTE THESE CHANGES, they apply to both transloader services:
USER LOGIN NAME: Use "Anonymous" here.
PASSWORD: Use your complete e-mail address here exactly as you have registered it with Angelfire.
UPLOAD DIRECTORY OR SUBDIRECTORY: In this box put "/incoming".
When the transload is complete go to your file manager (Web Shell) and type the name of the file you transloaded exactly the same (filename.html) (or .gif,.jpg) in the file name text box under you file list. Scroll down and click the button marked TRANSFER FROM FTP. This will move the file into you directory.

UPLOADING AT TALK CITY

If your site is at TALK CITY you can use their Webtv friendly "EZ TRANSFER" uploader. Just go to the "EZ TRANSFER" page from their tools page. Scroll down and enter the URL of the file you want to transfer. Then enter your login name and password and click the "transfer" button. It may not work the first time and show a message that says "Houston, we have a problem...." I still don't know who Houston is but this happens frequently due to heavy traffic. Hit your back button and recheck your input information. Make corrections if needed and try again. If it fails again use your back button and try again, and again, and again until it confirms your file has been transferred. Go to your file manager and you should see the file listed there but it might take a few minutes before it shows up in your directory.

Now that you know and understand everything there is to know about transloading, say what?, it's time to try it. Click on your choice of transloaders here or on the links in the above text. If you have any questions or need help just hit the "HELP!" button at the top of the page. Good luck and have fun.