gettting data files from the net

is there a popular source for obtaining text files full of data? for example, right now i need a list of as many of the most common NYSE/NASDAQ symbols as i can find for a utility im writing. but also, other sorts of data like this; such as perhaps a list of common names, or maybe a list of recent temperatures - just stuff along those lines; is there somewhere that gathers this sort of data and kindly publishes it for people to use? or am i in dreamland ? but most importantly what i need is the stocks list, the other stuff is not so important i was just curious for future reference.

Have you looked into using web services or xml? If you will be using Windows exclusively you see if this information is useful.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...dc_ofwstrex.asp

no im on linux. im not sure what you mean by "web services or xml"? i just want a text file with all the ticker symbols thanks for help, i'll do some googling on those terms i guess.

Some providers such as ups allow users to connect via xml and retrieve data. You can use java or c/c++ and even Visual Basic to work with XML.

NYSE/NASDAQ ticker symbols are unique to each company, what are you trying to do with a list of the "most common"?
(or did you just mean most heavily traded? If you did http://www.nse-india.com/content/in..._cnx500list.htm
is the s&p 500, which are pretty heavily traded)