Zip, Unzip? What's That All About?

One of the things that a citizen of the world wide web should be accustomed to is the fact of compressed archives that bear extension names like *.zip or *.rar or *.tar.gz. These are archives containing files that have been compressed so as to minimize a phenomenon called "packet loss". "Packet loss" may occur when transferring files from one computer to another when internet traffic is bad. To minimize this, large files or a collection of files are compressed using a software made for this. To get to those files, one will have to uncompress them using either the software that was used to compress such files or another one that is capable of performing the task.

Two of the more popular utilities for archiving are WinZip and WinRAR. Both are commercial tools. Between the two, WinZip is the more popular among Filipinos since it is bundled with Microsoft products. While one can use it for zipping and unzipping files without paying for it, one cannot do so without being "nagged" about its commercial nature. WinZip creates archives known as "zip" files because of the extension *.zip. WinRAR is the made for Windows RAR archiving utility known for its powerful compression ability. The archive associated with it is the "rar" file although it can also work with zip files. There are other archiving utilities less well known perhaps but equally effective that can do what WinZip and WinRAR can. And they are free. Below are just some of these:

7-Zip

7-zip is associated with 7z archives but it can work with ZIP and RAR too. It has become one of the better free alternatives to the more popular but paid archiving utilities. It currently can work from a USB flash drive and is associated with the PortableApps Suite of USB utilities.

ZipGenius

ZipGenius was for a time the better alternative to WinZip but has lagged behind in development. It now comes with a suite of its own and packed with new features. The download size for the complete suite is forbidding. It is a good thing that one can get them piece-by-piece. The stand-alone archiving utlity is about 5MB however.

AlZip

A less known archiving utility is AlZip, one of ESTSoft's egghead software applications. Like the two previous ones it can open up Zip and Rar archives with speed. When used with its brother AlFTP, it can be a great tool for filesharing.

It is obvious that one who will be transferring files from one computer to another will need archiving tools. This can happen when one will be attaching files to emails or will be distributing them for download through the web, even if the download is intended for oneself. And even if a file transfer would be effected between two computers in a LAN network, still, a compressed file of 381 kb is much faster to move around than several files totalling to 1.4 MB.

File transfers through the web are most often called downloading (if transferring to one's computer) or uploading (if transferring to another computer). This can be effected through a website using a browser or through Peer-to-peer file sharing (using a P2P application) or through file transfer protocol (with the appropriate application for it). A mail attachment when received is still downloaded to one's computer and vice versa: when attaching a file to an email, the attachment is uploaded to the mail server. In both these cases, a compressed archive has a greater possibility of being preserved through transfers than if unarchived files where sent one by one through a constantly fluctuating web of interconnected computers.

There is another kind of compressed archives used for installing files into a specific folder in another computer. These are the *.EXE files -- files that are self-extracting and programmed to store themselves in a folder automatically created for them. To be distinguished from such self-extracting archives are Setup files also having the extension *.EXE that programmers use for installing their created applications in a computer. These files are executable and are programmes themselves that create changes in the computer where they are "executed." Another *.EXE file to be distinguished from self-extracting archives are the program executables. These are the software applications that one using a computer is more familiar with (e.g. word.exe for your MS Word).

A self-extracting file does not need an archive utility for decompressing its contents. This is often provided for download through a website. However it is rare that people create self-extracting *.EXE files for distribution through the web since the extension name is similar to that of a program executable which a lot of webhosts would discourage in their servers. Self-extracting archives are easier to distribute in a LAN network where the whole network is protected by a corporate anti-virus software. The archiving applications mentioned above have the option to create such self-extracting *.EXE files.

One of the problems that people find in the software applications I pointed above is the size of the download which can range from 1.5 MB to 16 MB (with the exception of 7-zip which is less than 1 MB in size). There are however zipping and unzipping utilities that are smaller than even 400 kb. The first is ZipALot which works in Win98 and the development of which has stopped at version 3.2. The other one is called PIM and works with Win2000/XP/Vista. While ZipALot can be quite geeky for some, PIM is easy to use. If one wants simply to decompress zip archives, these two may be useful. ZipALot can be downloaded from here. PIM is found here. If you are planning to send out photo or file attachments in your mail later on, or are thinking of further enhancing your desktop tools via downloads from the web, be sure to have one of the above utlities installed in your computer.