On Thu, 16 Jan 1997 10:42:20 +0100 (MET) "Nathan L. Cutler"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>On Wed, 15 Jan 1997 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>> Anybody who wants more information on ftpmail can send me a private
>> e-mail, or if you feel its appropriate I will post it on the
>debain-user
>> list.
>
>As long as it's not commercial software, I think it would be
>appropriate
>to post it to the list. I've never heard of it, so I'm curious.
>
>Nathan L. Cutler
>Linux Enthusiast
>http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~nlc
>
>
Here it goes:
ftpmail is a free service previded by many network servers, mostly
running on yes you guessed linux or unix. It allows you to request files
via. ftp sights through e-mail uuencoded or in ASCII.
I learned about it from a small text document on a bbs, and now I use it
quite often.
Here is a portion of the original text:
From:
//I almost skipped this part
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Accessing The Internet By E-Mail |
| Doctor Bob's Guide to Offline Internet Access |
| 6th Edition - November 1996 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Copyright (c) 1994-96, "Doctor Bob" Rankin
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to make and distribute
verbatim copies of this document provided the copyright notice and
this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Feel free to
upload to your favorite BBS or Internet server!
//
This document is now available from several automated mail servers.
To get the latest edition, send e-mail to one of the addresses below.
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (for US, Canada & South America)
Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
FTP BY E-MAIL
-------------
FTP stands for "file transfer protocol", and is a means of accessing
files that are stored on remote computer systems (sites). Files at FTP
sites are typically stored in a tree-like set of directories (or nested
folders for Mac fans), each of which pertains to a different subject.
When visiting an FTP site using a "live" internet connection, one would
specify the name of the site, login with a userid & password, navigate
to the desired directory and select one or more files to be transferred
back to their local system.
Using FTP by e-mail is very similar, except that the desired site is
reached through a special "ftpmail server" which logs in to the remote
site and returns the requested files to you in response to a set of
commands in an e-mail message.
Using FTP by e-mail can be nice even for those with full Internet
access, because some popular FTP sites are heavily loaded and
interactive response can be very sluggish. So it makes sense not to
waste time and connect charges in these cases.
To use FTP by e-mail, you first need a list of FTP "sites" which are the
addresses of the remote computer systems that allow you to retrieve
files anonymously (without having a userid and password on that system).
There are some popular sites listed later in this guide, but you can get
a comprehensive list of hundreds of anonymous FTP sites by sending an
e-mail message to the internet address:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
and include these lines in the BODY of the note.
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part1
... (19 lines omitted for brevity) ...
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part21
You will then receive (by e-mail) 21 files which comprise the "FTP Site
List". Note that these files are each about 60K, so the whole lot will
total over a megabyte! This could place a strain on your system, so
first check around to see if the list is already available locally.
Another file you might want to get is "FTP Frequently Asked Questions"
which contains lots more info on using FTP services, so add this line to
your note as well:
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
After you receive the site list you'll see dozens of entries like this,
which tell you the site name, location and the kind of files that are
stored there.
Site : oak.oakland.edu
Country: USA
Organ : Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan
System : Unix
Comment: Simtel Software Repository mirror
Files : BBS lists; ham radio; TCP/IP; Mac; modem protocol info;
MS-DOS; MS-Windows; PC Blue; PostScript; Simtel-20; Unix
If you find an interesting FTP site in the list, send e-mail to one of
these ftpmail servers:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Denmark)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Finland)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Germany)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Germany)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Germany)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ireland)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peru)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Poland)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Romania)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sweden)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sweden)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (United States) -fastest, but
1MB limit per person per day.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (United States)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (United States)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (United States)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (United Kingdom) -My personal
favorate
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Venezuela)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Germany * Local files only *)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (USA * Local files only *)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Taiwan * Local files only *)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (* DEFUNCT *)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (* DEFUNCT *)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (* DEFUNCT *)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (* DEFUNCT *)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (* DEFUNCT *)
It doesn't really matter which one you choose, but a server that is
geographically close may respond quicker. (Please DON'T use the first
one in the list just because it's there!) In the body of the note,
include these lines:
open <site> * use "connect <site>" for dec.com sites
dir
quit
This will return to you a list of the files stored in the root directory
at that site. See the figure below for an example of the output when
using "oak.oakland.edu" for the site name.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
-r--r--r-- 1 w8sdz OAK 1255 Nov 9 16:32 README
drwxr-xr-x 3 w8sdz OAK 8192 Feb 25 05:17 SimTel
d--x--x--x 3 root system 8192 Jan 19 20:26 bin
d--x--x--x 5 root system 8192 Dec 30 05:15 etc
drwxr-xr-x 3 w8sdz OAK 8192 Jan 30 17:37 pub
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
In your next e-mail message you can navigate to other directories by
inserting (for example)
chdir pub (use "cd" if "chdir" doesn't work)
before the "dir" command. (The "chdir" means "change directory" and
"pub"
is a common directory name, usually a good place to start.) Once you
determine the name of a file you want to retrieve, use:
get <name of file>
in the following note instead of the "dir" command. If the file you
want to retrieve is plain text, this will suffice. If it's a binary
file (an executable program, compressed file, etc.) you'll need to
insert the command:
binary
in your note before the "get" command.
Tip: Many directories at FTP sites contain a file called 00-index.txt,
README, or something similarly named which gives a description of the
files found there. If you're just exploring and your "dir" reveals one
of these filenames, do a "get" on the file and save yourself some time.
OK, let's grab the text of The Magna Carta. Here's the message you send
to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (or another ftpmail server):
open ftp.spies.com (The name of the FTP site)
chdir Gov/World (The directory where the file lives)
get magna.txt (Sign here please, John)
quit (Bring it on home)
Here are the commands you would send to to get a file from the Simtel
Software Repository that was mentioned earlier.
open oak.oakland.edu
chdir SimTel/msdos/disasm
binary (Because we're getting a ZIP file)
get bubble.zip
quit
Some other interesting FTP sites you may want to "visit" are listed
below.
(Use these site names on the "open" command and the suggested directory
name on your "chdir" command, as in the previous examples.)
ocf.berkeley.edu Try: pub/Library for documents, Bible, lyrics,
etc.
rtfm.mit.edu Try: pub/usenet/news.answers for USENET info
oak.oakland.edu Try: SimTel/msdos for a huge DOS software library
gatekeeper.dec.com Try: pub/recipes for a cooking & recipe archive
Remember that you can't just send e-mail to ftpmail@<anysite>, rather you
send the "open <site>" command to one of the known ftpmail servers.
Notes:
- The ftpmail servers tend to be quite busy. Your reply may not arrive
for
several minutes, hours, or days.
- Some large files may be split into smaller pieces and returned to you
as
multiple messages. You can control this (and also override the return
e-mail address) using special ftpmail commands.
- The commands are not the same on every server - send the "help" command
to find out how FTPMAIL works on the server you are using!
- Often the ftpmail servers keep local archives. Open the local archives
by
not specifying a site on the "open" line. Using the local archives
gives
your request priority so it will be processed before all outside
requests.
If the file that is returned to you ends up looking something like what
you see below, (the word "begin" with a number and the filename on one
line, followed by a bunch of 61-character lines) it most likely is a
binary file that has been "uuencoded" by the sender. (This is required
in order to reliably transmit binary files by e-mail.)
begin 666 answer2.zip
[EMAIL PROTECTED]/[EMAIL PROTECTED]@?```,````5$5,[EMAIL
PROTECTED],34N5%A480I[
M!P8;!KL,2P,)!PL).PD'[EMAIL PROTECTED]([EMAIL
PROTECTED]@.6%PL*!@@*.P4.%00.%P4*.`4.
You'll need to scrounge up a version of the "uudecode" program for your
operating system (DOS, OS/2, Unix, Mac, etc.) in order to reconstruct the
file. Most likely you'll find a copy already at your site or in your
service provider's download library, but if not you can use the
instructions
in the next section to find out how to search FTP sites for a copy.
I hope this is useful for some of you, however it doesn't quite match
live download.
Jason Wood
Windows[n.]- another pane in the glass.
Want a laugh and learn about me: http://www.ccil.org/~wood/
Have a great day/night whatever, I don't seem know 1 from the other.
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