jon@CS.UCL.AC.UK.UUCP (04/03/87)
A few days ago i inadvertantly mentioned the UK JNT spooled file transfer service as a neat means of getting data around a network. A larginsh number of people have asked me for more information, so Network Independant File Transfer protocol (aka Blue Book), normally runs over transport + X.25, but can and does run over TCP/IP at some sites (using well known port 47). Does recovery from connection failure, is spooled etc. Is widely used in the UK for email, a lot. A list of implementations can be got from: r.cooper@gec-b.rutherford.ac.uk One unix version can be got from SApider Systems, or ask piet brooks at Cambridge (don't have his address, but requests to mailgroup@ucl.cs.ac.uk will find him). jon
Steve.Kille@CS.UCL.AC.UK.UUCP (04/06/87)
This is just to expand a few details of Jon Crowcroft's note:
NIFTP (Network Independent File Transfer Protocol) may be of
some interest to the DARPA community, as it is currently more
widely available than FTAM. There are a number of potential
advantages of ARPA FTP, as Jon pointed out:
- Many implementations support resumptions
- Spooled implementations are available
- the single channel makes gatewaying rather easier
A copy of the protocol can be obtained from:
ITSU
Department of Trade and industry
Kingsgate House
66-74 Victoria Street
London SW1
The protocol will operate over TCP/IP, and has assigned sockets:
47 (straight NIFTP)
61 (NIFTP + JNT Mail)
There are implementations for a wide range of machines. A full
table of colured book implementations for the various machine
ranages can be obtained from Dr. Bob Cooper
<r.cooper@gec-b.rutherford.ac.uk> who runs the Joint Network Team.
A brief note on UNIX implementations, which I know are of
particular interest. There is a JNT supported implemetnation,
which is available through Spider Systems. Contact
Andy Davis <andy%spider@cs.ucl.ac.uk>. However, this does
not support either TCP or resumptions.
There is another UNIX implementation, which is not supported
but is being assembled as a public domain package by
Cambridge/UCL/Nottingham. This is a very full implementation
of the protocol, and has TCP/IP (4.2/4.3). We believe that this system is
substantially better than the official one, but of course there
is no support. We are currently doing testing as a
smallish group, but the system will be distributed in due course,
after it has been released to a number of beta sites.
If anyone is interested, contact <unix-niftp@cs.nott.ac.uk>.
Do NOT send messages to mailgroup@cs.ucl.ac.uk, as suggested by Jon.
Steve