If the compressed files appear as meaningless characters on your browser screen you would probably need to change your browser options.

If you are using Netscape, you will find pull down menu Options amongst other pull down menus on the top of your browser screen. Click on Options ,then click on General Preferences . This will open a window with a number of options. Click on Helper Applications / Helpers option. Amongst various file types on the left hand side you will find file type application/x-compress and corresponding to this file type you will find an extension Z.

Select this file type by clicking on it, then towards the end of the window choose the appropriate Action. The appropriate action in this case is Save to Disk. Choose this by clicking the appropriate radio button.

This will prompt your browser to save the files with extension .Z

If this does not work, then you should not be downloading data for Unix from a PC/Mac. Nevertheless, even if the data from compressed files appear as meaningless characters on your screen, it can always be saved on to networked unix drives and later renamed with an extension .Z, to be able to uncompress it by using the usual unix commands. An alternative way for PC users is to press the shift key and then click on the file name with the mouse.

Users using Netscape (or similarly capable browser) on Unix will find that Netscape uncompresses files with extension .Z automatically.