Welcome, New Users!
If this is your first time on the Open Channel Foundation site, we thought it would be useful to collect some basic information here for you. You can also view an FAQ page for users here.
The Open Channel Foundation web site, run by Open Channel Software, offers a number of technical and scientific software titles for download. In some cases, there is a fee associated with the software. Other titles are free. We publish software from a variety of academic and federal institutions, including a number of NASA field centers.
How to log into our site
To get software from our site, you must create a user name and password for yourself. You can do this by clicking on this link, or in the black bar across the top of every screen, where it says "New User." After creating the user account, you will see a link that you can use to log in. Whenever you come to our site after that, you can log in by clicking on the "Secure Login" link in the black bar at the top of every screen.
Note: when you create your user account, and/or when you log in, you may receive a warning about the certificate. Our certificate is registered under the name of server1.openchannelsoftware.org. If you are using one of our other domain names (e.g., openchannelsoftware.com, openchannelfoundation.org), you may see the certificate warning. Please accept the certificate- it is really from us!
How to find software on our site:
There is a search field at the top right of every screen. Searching with multiple words currently shows you all software where the title or description contains any of those words. You may prefer to browser through the list of disciplines on the right side of the page. If you know the institution that a particular piece of software came from, you can visit the institution list page. This page shows a link called "View Title List" for each institution with software on the Open Channel Foundation site.
How to get software from our site:
Every software title has a
link on the front page, next to its name. There is also a link on the left side of the page. Both of these take you to the order entry page for the title. You can only order one title at a time.
Fill out the order entry form, and indicate which files you want. The order entry form will show whether there is a price for the title. Currently, we do not process payments on-line. If you are ordering a title with a fee, you should call us at (773) 334-8177 to arrange for payment. We can process credit card payments over the phone. Please note also that not all titles are available to all users. Some titles have export restrictions that prevent us from releasing the code to people outside of the United States. The Export Status is listed on the order entry page.
When you have entered your order information, you may be asked to accept the license agreement on-line. Once you have done this, you will receive an email with download instructions. To download the code, you will have to follow the link in the email, and you may have to log in again.
Some titles require that you print and sign a paper license agreement, and then fax it to us at (773) 334-8187. Once we have received the signed license agreement, and have settled payment if appropriate, we will release the order. You will then receive an email with download instructions, as described above.
Please note: If you submit a request with an incorrect or false email, you will not be able to get the code you requested.
What to do with support questions:
In general, we do not support the titles listed on the Open Channel Foundation site. However, where there are active developers still involved with the program, we will try to forward your question on to the developer. Some software titles have forums for posting quetions- always look for a "Forums" link on the left side of the pages for that title.
