Problems with Downloads?

     Unfortunately most net servers for Apple II http pages are not set up to
supply correct MIME type information for popular Apple II file types  such as
.shk, .sdk, .dsk, .bxy, etc.. As a result, downloads from these pages may be
corrupted for users of some browsers.

Note: Right-clicking on the item to download will not circumvent the problem.
This will let you choose to download a file taken to be a Text MIME type rather
than have it dumped to your display (good to know).  However, it will not avoid
Text mode corruption.

     Again, to avoid ambiguity, we are talking about downloads from http (not
ftp) sites. Also, not all http sites have this problem. Some use servers which
know about common Apple II file type suffixes and treat the files as binary.

     If you are getting text-corrupted downloads of .shk, .sdk, .dsk, and other
Apple binary files, one indicator will be that your downloaded file is several
too many bytes larger than the original on the download site. A cure which
usually seems to work is to employ the PC utility Uncook after downloading
.shk, etc. files from an http page. (Uncook was 'discovered' by GS Ed, manager
of the ACN Florida site).  Uncook usually succeeds in ridding a file of Text
mode corruption.



Using Uncook

     After you've downloaded Uncook.zip, uncompress it using WinZIP or a
similar utility. The best place for the file Uncook95.exe is in the directory
to which you usually download Apple files; or, you can copy Uncook to the
folder in which your suspect downloads are located. (This saves you the bother
of browsing for the files you want to fix with Uncook.)

Note: Not sure about this ... My guess is that Uncook should probably be 
employed to fix suspect files fairly soon after a session of downloading-- i.e.
before a non-corrupted cached copy of the download (or whatever info about the
file Uncook uses) is overwritten.

     To use Uncook, you double-click on the name in the window which lists
Uncook95.exe. (Or, you can set up a shortcut to Uncook95.exe on your Windows
desktop.)  The Uncook window will pop up.

     Under "Mode", select "Generate new files". Then, click on "File" and
"Open" to get to a file selection window. In this window, Set "Files of type"
to "All" and click on the file to uncook. Finally, you click the "Uncook"
button. Uncook will open a box to tell you the file is uncooked and that the
name is "Copy of ..." whatever the original file is named.

     The reason you pick "Generate new files" is to avoid changing your
downloaded copy. Uncook has a bug which lets it "fix" files even if they are
okay. When it does this, it produces a copy which is usually 1-3 bytes shorter.
If your uncooked copy is only a byte or two smaller than the original, the odds
are that the original is okay-- not always, though; I have encountered bad
downloads off by just a couple bytes. In most cases, if you have problems with
downloads from an http site, Uncook will fix the messed up downloads.



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