April 6, 1995



   How to Get FCC Documents from the Internet By File Transfer
Protocol

Most publicly released FCC documents are available on the FCC's
Internet server.   In order to get the documents, you will need
access to the Internet and file transfer protocol
(ftp) software, and a basic understanding of how to use the
software.  The following are instructions for the command line
version of ftp.  Graphical ftp interfaces may slightly
differ; please check with your local computer specialist.

1    Connect to the FCC ftp server, usually ftp.fcc.gov and press
the enter key.

2    At the user name prompt, type: anonymous and press the enter
key.

3    At the password prompt, type your Internet e-mail ID and
press the enter key.

4    At the next prompt type: binary and press the enter key. 
This permits you to download files which are not plain ASCII
text, such as data base files (.dbf or .xls), Word
Perfect files (.wp), or 'zipped' files (.zip).

5    Next, type: dir and press enter.  You should then see a file
directory.  All documents for public use are in the
subdirectories of the /pub directory.  Choose the directory and
subdirectory you wish to review, and go into it by typing: cd
followed by the full path to the directory.  For example, for
public notices released by the Cable Services Bureau, type: cd
/pub/Public_Notices/Cable. The use of lower- or upper-case is
significant.

6    Use "get" to download files from the FCC ftp server. For
example, to get the daily digest for March 28, 1995, type: get
dd032895.txt and press enter.  To identify the file numbers you
want, download the index file, index.txt which is located in the
root directory:

     cd /
     get index.txt

To leave ftp, type quit.  If you do not have direct access to the
Internet, you can access the files through a service such as
America On-line or Delphi.  The files will be presented
on the FCC.GOV ftp Internet server. 

 The documents are organized according to the following
arrangement:
               
1)   Daily Digests are named ddmmddyy.txt, where the first dd
stands for Daily Digest and the rest of the name is the date in
mmddyy format.

2)   News Releases are named nrxxynnn.txt, where nr stands for
News Release, and xx designates the FCC Bureau or Office which
issued the News Release, y is the year as in 4 for 1994 and nnn
is a nnnth news release issued electronically in that  year.  
See the list below for Bureau and Office abbreviations. 

3)   Public Notices are named similarly to News Releases except
that the file starts with a pn, as in pnxxynnn.txt 

4)   Speeches are named spaaaynn.txt where sp stands for speech,
aaa are the initials of the speaker (as in REH for Reed Hundt), y
is the year and nn is the nnth speech in that year.
      
The xx abbreviations mentioned above refer to the bureaus and
offices within the FCC. 

These are the abbreviations:

          cb --> Cable Bureau
          mm --> Mass Media Bureau
          cc --> Common Carrier Bureau
          pr --> Private Radio Bureau
          et --> Office of Engineering Technology
          wl --> Wireless and PCS Areas
          mc --> Miscellaneous or spanning bureaus 
          it  --> International


For more information call Charles Harrington at (202) 418-0288 or
email charring@fcc.gov.


- FCC -