Subject: Allegedly corrupt packages

6. *****
 Q: I have received the programs but the package is corrupt. When I
try to unpack them with my unpacking program (pkunzip, unzip,
pkxarc, pkunpak, arc, lharc, zoo, arj, etc.) the unpacking fails or
produces files that lock my PC.

 A: The files with the .zip, .zoo, .arc, .arj, .lzh, .pak, .uc2,
.rar and .exe extension are binary packages and you have to use the
correct transfer mode when you transfer the programs from the remote
FTP site to our host, and when you transfer the files from our main
frame to your PC.
   Most frequently the problems the users report are due to failing
to set the binary mode when transferring the files from the user's
host to the users PC. Please see Appendix B for more information.
In 1993 there was been over four million successful downloads from
Garbo. Thus it is very unlikely that the original file at Garbo
really is corrupt. It is not impossible, but first check all the
other possibilities.
   There is another common cause for allegedly corrupt packages
besides failing to use the correct mode in the file transfer from
the FTP site to one's own host, or in the file transfer from one's
own host to one's PC. This is failing to use the correct version of
the relevant archiver for archived packages. Unfortunately some of
the PKUNZIP error messages are quite misleading, like "CRC error",
"use pkzip 3.8 (or whatever)", "use PkFixZip". Just assure that you
have transferred correctly and that are using the current version:
 202574 Feb 1 1993 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/arcers/pkz204g.exe
 pkz204g.exe PKWARE's pkzip, pkunzip, pkzipfix, zip2exe for .zip
or
 247148 Nov 29 1998 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/arcers/unz540x3.exe
 unz540x3.exe Info-ZIP's self-extracting unzipper (with 386 version)
For the Windows 3.1x environment use e.g.
 629038 Sep 26 1997 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/windows/arcers/wz16v63.exe
 wz16v63.exe WinZip for Win 3.1 w/Built-in ZIP, TAR, gzip, compress
For Windows 95/98
 709120 Sep 26 1997 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/win95/arcers/wz32v63.exe
 wz32v63.exe WinZip for Windows 95, Nico Mak Computing
   The World Wide Web has added the possibility of getting the files
from the archive sites also with the WWW browser programs. It
appears that (at least with some of the browser versions) in a long
session the browser gets confused and cannot get the files in the
proper format. If you are experiencing such problems, exit your
browser, reload it, and then try to get the target file anew.
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