🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 14 May 1997 13:38:05 GMT, himler.w@glo.be (Walter Himler)
wrote:

>Ik las ergens dat er een website voor shareware bestaat die de
>gewenste files als attachment aan e-mail naar je toezendt om alzo het
>lange downloaden tegentegaan .  De gedachtengang hierachter is dat je
>e-mail vlug wordt binnengehaald omdat enkel de verbinding tussen jou
>en je provider dan van tel is.
>Weet er iemand hier meer over?

Dit komt uit de Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ:


                           FTP BY E-MAIL
                           -------------

FTP stands for "file transfer protocol", and is a means of accessing
files that are stored on remote computer systems.  In Internet lingo,
these remote computers are called "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:

  mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu

and include these lines in the BODY of the note.

   send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part1
   send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/sitelist/part2
   ... (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, or consider requesting just the first few as a sampler before
getting the rest.

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: Primary 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:

   ftpmail@ccc.uba.ar                           (Argentina only)
   ftpmail@cs.uow.edu.au                        (Australia only)
   bitftp@vm.gmd.de                             (Germany)
   ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de                 (Germany - OUT OF
SERVICE?)
   ftpmail@ieunet.ie                            (Ireland)
   bitftp@plearn.edu.pl                         (Poland
   ftpmail@archie.inesc.pt                      (Portugal only)
   ftpmail@ftp.sun.ac.za                        (South Africa)
   ftpmail@ftp.sunet.se                         (Sweden)
   ftpmail@ftp.luth.se                          (Sweden)
   ftpmail@NCTUCCCA.edu.tw                      (Taiwan)
   ftpmail@oak.oakland.edu                      (United States)
   ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu                      (United States)
   ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com                       (United States) *
   bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu                    (United States)
   ftpmail@ftp.Dartmouth.EDU                    (United States)
   ftpmail@census.gov                           (United States)
   ftp-request@netcom.com                       (United States)
   ftpmail@src.doc.ic.ac.uk                     (United Kingdom)


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          |
|  drwxrwx---   2 incoming OAK         8192 Feb 25 11:05 incoming     |
|  drwxr-xr-x   3 w8sdz    OAK         8192 Jan 30 17:37 pub          |
|  drwxr-xr-x   2 jeff     OAK         8192 Apr 17  1994 siteinfo     |
|                                                                     |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

In your next e-mail message you can navigate to other directories by
inserting (for example)

   chdir pub

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 ftpmail@sunsite.unc.edu (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             (The name of the FTP site)
   chdir SimTel/msdos/disasm        (The directory where the file
                                    lives)
   binary                           (Because we're getting a ZIP file)
   get bubble.zip                   (Sounds interesting, anyway...)
   quit                             (We're outta here!)

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
   quartz.rutgers.edu  Try: pub/humor for lots of humor files
   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.

You should note that ftpmail servers tend to be quite busy so your
reply may not arrive for several minutes, hours, or days, depending on
when and where you send your request.  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, but it's not the same on every server - so
send the "help" command to find out how it works on the server you are
using.

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
    M4$L#!`H`!@`.`/6H?18.$-Z$F@P```@?```,````5$5,25@S,34N5%A480I[
    M!P8;!KL,2P,)!PL).PD'%@.(!@4.!P8%-@.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.

One final point to consider...  If your online service charges you to
store e-mail files that are sent to you and you plan to receive some
large files via FTP, it would be wise to handle your "inbasket"
expeditiously to avoid storage costs.


Dit zou je moeten kunnen verderhelpen. Ik weet niet of het lijstje van
FTP-by-mail servers nog up-to-date is, ik werk meestal met deze
server: ftpmail@src.doc.ic.ac.uk

Vriendelijke groeten,

Bruno De Fraine
defraine@glo.be