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DOS FTP Server Testing (Round 2)

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mbbrutman

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I have made some changes to improve the logging and the user interface of the FTP server and I am looking to get a little traffic to test it out. So if you have a few moments come check it out!

The current machine is a 1983 PCjr running DOS 3.3 with a SCSI Zip 100 drive. (The Zip is connected via a parallel port-to-SCSI adapter.) The Western Digital Ethernet card is still connected. This is about as trashy a setup as you can get without running from floppy drives. :)

For web users, use this url ftp://96.42.228.74:2021/ and then click around into the different subdirectories. Each time you click your web browser is opening a "passive mode" FTP connection to the PCjr and getting a directory list. Most of the files are older text files and pictures of classic machines; I will be adding more PC related software over the next day or two. It's not a major archive; I'm just hoping to generate a little interest for a few minutes.

For command line users the address is 96.42.228.74, port 2021. It's a non-standard port for FTP to get around my ISP's restrictions on running services. You will need an FTP client that can do "passive mode" if you are behind a firewall. The Windows XP client will not work! (But any Linux FTP client will be just fine.) FileZilla and other 3rd party FTP clients should be fine too.

If you are adventurous you can CD into the 'incoming' directory and leave a file. The "SITE WHO" command will show you the active connections, and the "SITE STATS" command will spit out some usage statistics.

The machine is doing some logging for diagnostic/debug purposes, but that shouldn't slow it down too badly. Multiple users signed on browsing directories is not a big deal either. Multiple users doing file transfers might not be so fun. ;-0


Thanks!
Mike
 
I think you are trying to be helpful, but even when you are trying to be helpful you can't resist the little dig.

I made note of the Windows XP limitation in the discussion of command line clients. If you know of a trick that fixes the lack of a passive mode in the standard Windows XP command line client, feel free to post it.

Here is a description of the limitation straight from MS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271078/en-us
 
It could be noted though there exists 3rd party command line ftp programs for 32-bit Windows. I'm not sure if they work in 64-bit Windows but probably it is a matter of recompiling. I installed a such custom ftp client before when I ran ange-ftp from Emacs.W32, another application that strongly prefers passive connections. Currently I'm running a customized Windows edition of Emacs that comes with its own ftp client, different from the first one I tried so they really exist - just not that Microsoft's own client handles passive mode.

For reference, the ange-ftp syntax would be /ftp:anonymous@96.42.228.74#2021:

However I can't get it to work neither in Emacs.W32 nor plain Emacs on a Linux server. I have tried to set both variables ange-ftp-try-passive-mode and ange-ftp-generate-anonymous-password to true. I don't know if using a different non-anonymous login would make things better. It comes as far as logging in and getting the directory, then it bails out in some way.
 
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One of the short comings of anonymous FTP is that nobody fills in the email address when requested at the password prompt. I didn't even try to enforce it.

Don't worry - the PCjr will keep the data safe.

Just for grins, if you do the "SITE STATS" command now this is the current output:

211-Stats: Sessions: 103 Active: 3 Timeouts: 46
LIST: 222 NLST: 0 RETR: 119
STOR: 104 STOU: 0 APPE: 0
TcpS used: 4 free: 13
Tcp: Sent 14767 Rcvd 13288 Retrans 34 Seq/Ack errs 33 Dropped 0
Packets: Sent: 14858 Rcvd: 14023 Dropped: 0 LowFreeBufCount: 25
211 OK

LIST corresponds to a full directory list, including file sizes and dates. NLST is the shorter 'name list' which only gives names. Apparently none of the clients or people connecting use the 'ls' command (or the equivalent) to get the abbreviated name list. Interesting, but not important.

RETR is a file send, while STOR, STOU (store unique) and APPE (append) are file receives. Everybody is using anonymous FTP, so there will be no appends. Those are rare in real world anyway.

For a 4.77Mhz machine running off a Zip drive it's doing pretty well.


Mike
 
mbbrutman said:
I think you are trying to be helpful, but even when you are trying to be helpful you can't resist the little dig.

I made note of the Windows XP limitation in the discussion of command line clients. If you know of a trick that fixes the lack of a passive mode in the standard Windows XP command line client, feel free to post it.
Click to expand...
You're absolutely right, a flaw in my character makes it impossible for me to refrain from "little digs". ;-)

On the other hand that just makes me look even more foolish when I overlook something crucial and my dig turns out to be irrelevant and inappropriate, so it kinda evens out in the end.

To quote SNL's Emily Litella: Never mind...
;-)

Very nice work, BTW!
 
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BTW, I should make it a point to say thank you for the testing. None of this works without a lot of testing, and on something like an FTP server with so many different clients out there it's impossible to do this type of testing myself. I have a little 'welcome beep' each time a person logs in so I can hear the activity on the machine, and it's fun to hear the little chirp going off. (Kind of like an old SYSOP pager from the BBS days - it was Jorg's idea.)

It has been up for almost a day and nobody (except for Google) has been abusive to it. (And yes, the Google bot tries to index it periodically. Which is good testing too, but if they knew it was a PCjr they might think twice.)


Mike
 
MikeS said:
You're absolutely right, a flaw in my character makes it impossible for me to refrain from "little digs". ;-)

On the other hand that just makes me look even more foolish when I overlook something crucial and my dig turns out to be irrelevant and inappropriate, so it kinda evens out in the end.
Click to expand...

Ok, moving on then ...

Btw, you have the honor of being one of the few visitors to try uploading a file. I suspect that most people are using browsers.
 
That makes sense - it looks like a command without a parameter.

If that is blocking one of the FTP clients from connecting using anonymous I'm happy to remove that restriction. But it does say 'send your email addr' ...

Mike
 
mbbrutman said:
That makes sense - it looks like a command without a parameter.

If that is blocking one of the FTP clients from connecting using anonymous I'm happy to remove that restriction. But it does say 'send your email addr' ...

Mike
Click to expand...
I'm using IE6 and IE7 and usually get logged right in to an explorer view where I can browse, drag and drop etc. with no login/password prompt at all; never have seen a request for my email. Does this only apply to the command-line client?
 
You would see the prompt on a command line client. The prompt is going to the browser too, but it's ignoring it.
 
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