Obtaining Knowledge Base Articles on the Internet

SUMMARY

The Microsoft Product Support Knowledge Base contains articles that are available on the Internet through an FTP service (ftp.microsoft.com). This service includes technical support articles for the following product categories:

• BUSSYS: LAN Manager, Windows NT, Microsoft Client, SQL Server, Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC), and Microsoft Mail.
• DESKAPPS: Desktop Applications, including Microsoft Excel, Word for Windows, and Office.
• DEVELOPR: Development tools and languages.
• PEROPSYS: Desktop Systems, including Microsoft Windows, Windows for Workgroups, and MS-DOS.

• MSEDCERT: Microsoft education and certification materials.
• MSFT: Microsoft annual reports, sharholder information.
• TECHNET: Information on TechNet.

MORE INFORMATION

The Microsoft Knowledge Base is a primary Microsoft product information source for Microsoft support engineers and is also available to Microsoft customers. This comprehensive database contains more than 40,000 detailed articles with technical information about Microsoft products, fix lists, documentation errors, and answers to commonly asked technical support questions. These articles are also available through the Microsoft TechNet CD-ROM, and the Microsoft Developer Network CD-ROM.

Connection to the Microsoft Internet server requires a "live" session to the Internet through a file transfer program (FTP) service provider.

Opening a Connection to the Microsoft FTP Site

1. Log on to your Internet account.

2. At the Internet prompt, type

         open ftp.microsoft.com
   

   or use the following IP address:

         open 198.105.232.1
   

3. When prompted for a user name, type

         anonymous
   

4. When asked for a password, type your full electronic mail address (for example, johndoe@test.com).

Accessing a Product Group Area

Knowledge Base articles are located in a subdirectory below a product directory. The product areas are located under the product group area directories listed above. The Personal Operating System area is used as an example in these instructions. This category is located in the PEROPSYS directory on the FTP server. To access the PEROPSYS directory, type the following at the FTP prompt:

   cd /peropsys

Each group area contains subdirectories for each product contained in the group area. Under the PEROPSYS directory, the following subdirectories are available:

   WINDOWS -  Microsoft Windows and Windows for Workgroups
   MSDOS -  Microsoft MS-DOS
   HARDWARE -  Microsoft Mouse and other hardware

Log on to the KB subdirectory with the CD command (type "cd kb" [without the quotation marks]). Once you are in the KB directory, download the README.TXT and INDEX.TXT files located in that directory. README.TXT contains important information regarding Knowledge Base articles on the Internet FTP server. INDEX.TXT contains a list of article titles and article IDs for each article. You must determine the article ID before you can download the article. (There is no search mechanism other than downloading and searching the INDEX.TXT file.)

To download these files, type the following at the FTP prompt:

   get readme.txt
   get index.txt

The Knowledge Base articles are stored in a tree structure, with each article ID translated into a two-digit filename and stored two subdirectories under the KB directory. This method avoids storing thousands of articles in one subdirectory, which would slow server performance.

You do not need to change to the directory that contains the Knowledge Base article you want to download. The directory structure is consistent and the GET command can be used to obtain an article from the KB directory.

Steps to Download (GET) a Knowledge Base Article

The following steps outline how to obtain an article after logging on to the FTP server. This example includes downloading an actual article contained in the WIN3X area. The sample article ID to download is Q91679, "Terminal: Sending Incoming Text Data to a Text File."

1. After logging on to the FTP server, change to the PEROPSYS directory:

         cd /peropsys
   

2. Change to the WINDOWS directory:

         cd WINDOWS
   

3. Change to the KB directory:

         cd kb
   

   NOTE: These three steps can be substituted with "cd/peropsys/windows/kb" (without the quotation marks).

4. Translate the article ID into a GET command. There are three parts of the article ID to be divided before using the GET command. Reading the article ID backwards, translate using this formula (article ID Q91679 is used as an example):

   The filename is the last two digits plus the .TXT extension (79.TXT). The subarea is the first digit to the left of the filename (6). The primary area is the remaining characters to the left, including the "Q". To use the GET command, place a forward slash (/) between the filename, subarea, and primary area (primary/sub/filename).

   If the article ID is six digits (including the "Q"), the article ID translates to:

         Q91679 = Q91/6/79.TXT
   

   If the article ID is seven digits, it translates to:

         Q107409 = Q107/4/09.TXT
   

5. Use the GET command at the FTP prompt to transfer the article to your system as follows:

         get Q91/6/79.TXT Q91679.TXT
   

         -or-
   

         get Q107/4/09.TXT Q107409.TXT
   

   The "Q91679.TXT" part of the above example is the destination name for the file. The destination name is the name of the file as it appears on your hard disk drive.

6. To close the connection with the server for most FTP clients, type the following from the FTP prompt:

         bye