I am looking for an on-line compression/uncompression utility. I need
this because I often urgently need to zip or unzip files on computers
on which third-party software may not be installed. I know this
sounds a bit silly, but locally, bandwidth is not an issue. We simply
can't read .zip files.

By "on-line" I mean remote processing or local Java. In any case, it
must not require local installation. Also, the utility must not create
self-extracting .exe files, as the firewall won't allow them to be
downloaded. Ideally, the program should handle more than one
compression format. PKZIP is a basic requirement and it has to be
free.

Your deliverable is a URL link to such a program. Optionally (if you
know it), please provide links to web pages with a bunch of online
programs like this, graphic conversion utilities and other nice stuff.
A Google/Yahoo directory would do.

A quick answer that does what I need gets *****. Other answers will be
left unrated.

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Clarification of Question by spurious-ga on 02 Mar 2003 23:33 PST

This was aparently what I need (but it doesn't seem to work):
http://www.interclasse.com/tools/compress.php

This is the link page to graphics and optimization I was looking for:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/onlineoptimization/

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Clarification of Question by spurious-ga on 03 Mar 2003 18:33 PST

I have seen this question locked and released a couple of times, which
means the question was attempted by more than one researcher who came
to a dead end. Therefore, I am giving up and closing this question.

Before I do so, I post the results of my own research:

The short answer is that a working on-line .zip comression /
uncompression utility doesn't exist. At least not that I can find
after a fair bit of research.

I have searched through Google, Google Directory, Yahoo and About.com
and the best one-stop metalink page for compression I have found is:

  http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Data_Compression/

So, if you are running a PC without the necessary software, you have
no alternative but to download and install an application that will do
it. I cannot vouch for a software package's fitness, nor freedom from
viruses, trojan horses or whatever nasties might be present. The
packages that I have used before are PKZIP, the original command-line
utility and Winzip 8, the third-party GUI-based application. Both are
available as shareware. The advantage of PKZIP is its small size and
Winzip is its functionality. PKWARE, the manufacturer of PKZIP has
also brought out its own GUI-based app. I believe the official
websites of these software packages are:

  http://www.pkware.com/
  http://www.winzip.com/

Remember, because of their simplicity and ubiquitousness, trojan
versions of both software applications exist. It is your
responsibility to make sure that the download site or software vendor
you obtain the software from is legitimate.