[comp.sys.amiga.datacomm] "But _I_ can't FTP..."

lordbah@bisco.kodak.COM (Lord Bah) (01/16/91)

Mr. Xanth writes:
> 
> One of the better kept secrets on the net appears to be the ability of
> _anyone_ who can use email to retrieve stuff from FTP sites.
> 
> Princeton University Computer Center runs a pro bono email<->ftp server.

And once again I must correct someone to say that this is not the case.
It is probably true for 99% of email-capable sites, but as of my last
investigation (about 1 month ago) BITFTP does not support a PATH command
which would allow the sender to tell it how to send mail back.  It seems
that some sites mangle outgoing email to read "From: nobody@site.org",
and BITFTP only uses the From: line to determine how to return files.

On a related note, I've heard noises about an email archive server at
uunet, as well as something called AlterNET (run by uunet?), but I don't
know where to look for more details.  Any help?

--------------------------------------------------------------------
    Jeff Van Epps    amusing!lordbah@bisco.kodak.com
                     lordbah@cup.portal.com
                     sun!portal!cup.portal.com!lordbah

tadguy@abcfd01.larc.nasa.gov (Tad Guy) (01/21/91)

In article <9101161845.AA15497@bisco.kodak.COM> amusing!lordbah@bisco.kodak.COM (Lord Bah) writes:
> > Princeton University Computer Center runs a pro bono email<->ftp server.
> 
> And once again I must correct someone to say that this is not the case.
> It is probably true for 99% of email-capable sites, but as of my last
> investigation (about 1 month ago) BITFTP does not support a PATH command
> which would allow the sender to tell it how to send mail back.  It seems
> that some sites mangle outgoing email to read "From: nobody@site.org",
> and BITFTP only uses the From: line to determine how to return files.

While the implementation of a PATH command would be nice for other
reasons, it is not a substitute for fixing broken mailers.  If someone's
mailer generates an incorrect From: line, well, the mailer is broken...

> On a related note, I've heard noises about an email archive server at
> uunet, as well as something called AlterNET (run by uunet?), but I don't
> know where to look for more details.  Any help?

More information on these services is available by sending mail to
<uunet-request@uunet.uu.net>.  This is NOT an archive server, but a real
person, so please use English...

	...tad