We have replaced our usual confusion with high-tech automation.
If you can't remember your contest password, email acm00@plg.uwaterloo.ca, giving your account number.
Files from the web come in tar.gz format, which is easy to deal with in the undergrad environment. If they are emailed, they get uuencoded, too.
Note that you can't get any files when a contest is running. (Or testing is done on the environment.) In those cases you will have to be patient.