CPM-er looking to FTP for free.

Sep 2 10:55 UTC 1991

I want to dial into merit and from there do ftp without first logging onto
(and using up funds from) my ub account.  Unfortunately I have a cpm
machine and haven't found any ftp programs for it (Kaypro II).  I do not want
to spend money.  Can it be done?  Is it hopeless?

response 2 of 15:

Sep 3 08:50 UTC 1991

I seem to be saying this a lot these days:  I am not a student, and I don't
want to spend any money if I can help it.

response 4 of 15:

Sep 3 16:49 UTC 1991

What about us EMU students?  EMU's 0.8 MIP MicroVAX II is kinda annoying to
do much of anything with (Ultrix v3.0, anyone?).. I've got the proper hardware
for FTP (386SX, V.32bis), just need to know what programs are necessary and
what access is required. 
 (EMU: Mascots, not micros! <thpht>)

response 6 of 15:

Sep 5 19:48 UTC 1991

I don't understand why the ftp stuff has to be bigger than 64k.  It's not
that complicated to do file-transfers, surely.  If someone can point me to
a source of information perhaps I can figure out how to do it.
 
I get the impression (from the outside) that ka9q has a lot more to it than
is necessary just to do file transfers.  Isn't that true?

response 8 of 15:

Sep 6 01:09 UTC 1991

The code that acutally does the file transfers may be small, but you
also need code for the human interface, the serial port drivers, etc.
You also have to leave room for the BIOS, too, don't forget.  The
application itself is actually less than 64k.

response 10 of 15:

Sep 16 17:03 UTC 1991

   There is an FTP system available for CP/M machines, but I've never sctually
seen it here.  It was written in England, for I believe a Torch CP/M machine.
It is basically only FTP and nothing else.  The code design came from the ka9q
package but was written in assembley.  I have talked to an English ham who
has seen and used it, but I was so horrified/amused I just stood there and
listened.  If you are serious about this, get onto rec.ham-radio.packet and
ask there.  Several folks in the UK listen and perhaps will help you.

   But I have to agree with Marc's sentiments: why bother?  You'll spend
more free time than its worth trying to get the damed thing working on your
system.  Remember, CP/M programs are not all that compatible with each other
so you'll have to tweak it for your system.  Sigh.

response 14 of 15:

Oct 23 02:31 UTC 1991

Ya - MTS isn't a good place to FTP to (or TELNET or ...)  Basically,
370 architecture machines were never real good at this type
of interactive I/O, & TCP/IP is something that's happened to
MTS late in its lifespan, mostly as commitment & support for
it is disappearing.  So, sure, it works.  Most of the time.  If
you don't look too hard at it.  Over ethernet, I've managed to
move large files around with a transfer speed of ~20K bytes/second,
which is actually not all that impressive.  Over SLFP connections,
I've seen far worse speeds.  At one point, I discovered I could
speed things up on SLFP by sending ICMP echo packets to MTS;
apparently, the extra activity did good things to MTS's IP support.

If you're just going after archives of things, there are other sites
far more worth trying out.  All of the stuff on PC1: etc., is definitely
duplicated elsewhere.  I don't have a list right handy, but if nobody
else has any ideas, I'll try to ship a list of interesting sites
over here in the next few days.  Hmmm.  "nis.merit.edu" might be
a good starting place.