prindle@NADC.ARPA (Frank Prindle) (03/21/88)
The term "FTP" stands for "File Transfer Protocol", one of several high level protocols in use by the TCP/IP networking standard used by internet hosts (those on ARPANET, MILNET, and all the zillions of subnets at local sites). The term "Anonymous FTP" refers to the capability of some hosts (Columbia being one) which will allow access to some of their files with a generic logon (i.e. USER=anonymous, PWD=guest). This facility is only available if one is calling Columbia through the internet facilities (i.e. from a machine tied in to the internet - it's operating system is of no consequence). It can't be accessed via dialup lines or the Usenet. The reason for this confusion is that this newsgroup originates on the ARPANET/ MILNET side as "INFO-CPM", but is gatewayed to the equivalent Usenet group (comp.os.cpm I believe). I did not mean to imply that the average Usenet user could access Columbia's Kermit archives via FTP; I only meant to answer the original query from an internet user. I believe Columbia has set up alternative access methods for the same set of Kermit files (possibly on a different machine) so that non-internet users can obtain the necessary files. Unfortunately, I don't have any details on these alternative methods. The proper way to obtain this information, I suspect, is to post a query to the newsgroup INFO-KERMIT (or it's Usenet equivalent "comp.protocols.kermit"). There is also a newsgroup TCP-IP (comp. protocols.tcp-ip) for those who want to know more about FTP and the like. Sincerely, Frank Prindle Prindle@NADC.arpa