SURVEY OF FTP MAIL AND MLFL

Two surveys of Arpanet Server hosts were run between September 20, 1978

and December 11, 1978. The intent was to determine the response of the

host's Server FTP program to:

(a) An attempt to mail to an unknown recipient at that host. The

purpose of this survey was two-fold. First, to determine whether the

host accepts mail for unknown recipients at all, and second, what

response the host gives if it does not accept such mail.

(b) An attempt to mail to a known recipient using the MLFL command

rather than the usual MAIL command. This survey was undertaken to

determine the extent of support for the MLFL command among Server hosts,

and the sort of reply received if the Server does not support MLFL. MLFL

is potentially a 'better' form of communication than mail as the message

is sent over a data connection rather than the command connection.

Using the data connection eliminates the 'end-of-mail' marker and

'command reader' problems sometimes encountered over the command

connection.

The ground rules of the survey were that all sites listed as Servers in

the MIT/SAIL Host table were surveyed. In many cases, a host listed as

a Server would not respond to an ICP at any time during the period of

the survey. Once a host responded with what seemed to me to be a

'definitive' answer, I marked it as such and stopped surveying it.

MLFL Survey

The algorithm used was to ICP to socket 3 of the server (the standard

old-FTP socket). Once a 300 response was received, I sent the MLFL

command. Where I had the name of a real mailbox at a site (a

Header-person, for example) I used that, otherwise the name "**". If a

site asked for a password (response 504) after the MLFL command I gave

"USER NETML" "PASS NETML" and retried the MLFL. If the server replied

with a 255 SOCK command, I listened for the data-connection to be

established. When it was, I transferred the mail file. Interestingly

enough, most sites implement an RFC queueing algorithm that will allow

the user site to attempt to establish the data-connection from its end.

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Survey of FTP MAIL and MLFL

Complete FTP scripts may be found, if you are interested, on MIT-DM,

file NETDOC;MLFL SURVEY.

Sites are grouped by the general result they gave.

-site-          -last ftp reply if lost-                -when-

1) Sites that lost for various reasons:

BNL 530 NOT LOGGED IN. after MLFL

HARV-10 431 INVALID ENTRY - Try again after USER

LLL-MFE 454 Login please after SOCK

LONDON 000 INDRA FTP Version 2.00 ... after ICP

NBS-10 454 Login please after SOCK

WHARTON 454 DATA Connection error ... after SOCK

WPAFB-AFAL 454 Login please after SOCK

Note: "when" describes the last action performed by the surveyer before

the indicated anomalous response.

   after ICP --         surveyer had done ICP to socket 3
   after MLFL --        surveyer had sent MLFL command
   after USER --        surveyer had sent USER NETML in response to
                        "504 Login please"
   after SOCK --        surveyer had attempted to connect to specified
                        data socket

2) Sites that don't support MLFL and say so:

AFWL 501 ML<?>FL **

CCA-SPEECH 501 ML<?>FL **

EGLIN 501 ML<?>FL **

LBL 506 Command not implemented.

LONDON-VDH 500 Command unrecognized

UCLA-CCN 500 COMMAND UNRECOGNIZED

WPAFB 501 ML<?>FL **

3) Sites that support MLFL (or at least go through all the right

motions):

AMES-67 MIT-AI SRI-KL

BBN-TENEX MIT-DMS SU-AI

BBN-TENEXA MIT-MC SUMEX-AIM

BBN-TENEXD MIT-ML UCLA-ATS

BBN-TENEXE MIT-XX UCLA-SECURITY

BBN-UNIX NBS-UNIX USC-ECL

CCA-TENEX OFFICE-1 USC-ISI

CMU-10A PARC-MAXC USC-ISIB

CMU-10B PARC-MAXC2 USC-ISIC

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Survey of FTP MAIL and MLFL

DEC-MARLBORO RADC-TOPS20 USC-ISIE

I4-TENEX RAND-RCC UTEXAS

ILL-UNIX RAND-UNIX

LL RUTGERS

LL-ASG SRI-KA

4) Sites that support MLFL but require "USER NETML" "PASS NETML"

(Multics):

MIT-MULTICS

RADC-MULTICS

5) Others:

a) Sites that might support it if I could mail to a real user (some of

these run operating systems that are "known to work", e.g. TENEX):

BBN-TENEXB 450 No such mailbox at this site.

CCA-SDMS 450 User Unknown

CCTC 451 User Not Recognized

CMU-10D 507 USER NOT FOUND: **

DTI 451 User Not Recognized

LL-11 450 User Unknown

LL-XN 450 User Unknown

NCSC 451 User Not Recognized

NOSC-CC 451 User Not Recognized

NOSC-SDL 451 User Not Recognized

NTIA-ITS 451 User Not Recognized

OFFICE-2 450 No such mailbox at this site.

RADC-XPER 451 User Not Recognized

SDAC-44 431 User name invalid

SDAC-UNIX 451 User Not Recognized

SRI-UNIX 451 User Not Recognized

b) Sites that either never responded to an ICP to socket 3, or were not

accepting FTP users:

ANL I4B-TENEX NOSC-SECURE1

ARPA-DMS ISI-SPEECH11 NSWC-WO

CMU-CMMP LBL-UNIX NUSC

CTO-DDS LLL-COMP NUSC-NPT

DTNSRDC MOFFET-ARC NWC

FNWC NADC NYU

GUNTER-UNIX NDRE PENT-UNIX

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Survey of FTP MAIL and MLFL

MAIL Survey

The mechanics of the MAIL survey were similar to those of the MLFL

survey. The command was "MAIL Fzorkness" (an account unlikely to exist

on any host). The responses are grouped into a few general categories.

Complete FTP results may be found on MIT-DM, file NETDOC;MAIL SURVEY.

-site-          -last response-

1) Sites that lost completely.

LONDON 000 INDRA FTP Version <>.00 ...

2) Sites that accept mail to an unknown recipient.

BNL MIT-ML USC-ISI

MIT-AI RAND-RCC USC-ISIB

MIT-DMS UCLA-CCN USC-ISIC

MIT-MC USC-ECL USC-ISIE

3) Sites that refuse mail to an unknown recipient (grouped by response).

SDAC-44 431 User name invalid

BBN-TENEX 450 No such mailbox at this site.

BBN-TENEXA 450 No such mailbox at this site.

BBN-TENEXB 450 No such mailbox at this site.

BBN-TENEXD 450 No such mailbox at this site.

BBN-TENEXE 450 No such mailbox at this site.

BBN-UNIX 450 User Unknown

CCA-SDMS 450 User Unknown

CCTC 451 User Unknown

EDN-UNIX 450 User Unknown

I4-TENEX 450 No such mailbox at this site.

ILL-UNIX 450 User unknown

LL 450 No such mailbox at LL

LL-ASG 450 User unknown

LL-XN 450 User unknown

MIT-MULTICS 450 Cannot locate mailbox for \Fzorkness\

MIT-XX 450 No such mailbox at this site.

NBS-UNIX 450 User Unknown

NCSC 450 User Unknown

NOSC-CC 450 User Unknown

NOSC-SDL 450 User Unknown

NTIA-ITS 450 User Unknown

OFFICE-1 450 No such mailbox at this site.

OFFICE-2 450 No such mailbox at this site.

PARC-MAXC 450 No such mailbox at this site.

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Survey of FTP MAIL and MLFL

PARC-MAXC2 450 No such mailbox at this site.

RADC-XPER 450 User Unknown

RADC-MULTICS 450 Cannot locate mailbox for \Fzorkness\

RADC-TOPS20 450 No such mailbox at this site.

RAND-UNIX 450 User Unknown

RUTGERS 450 No such mailbox at this site.

SDAC-UNIX 450 User Unknown

SRI-KA 450 No such mailbox at this site.

SRI-KL 450 No such mailbox at this site.

SU-AI 450 I don't know anybody named Fzorkness

SUMEX-AIM 450 No such mailbox at this site.

UCLA-ATS 450 User Unknown

UCLA-SECURITY 450 User Unknown

UTEXAS 450 User Unknown

CCA-TENEX 451 No such mailbox at this site.

AFWL 501 MA<?>IL Fzorkness

CCA-SPEECH 501 MA<?>IL Fzorkness

EGLIN 501 MA<?>IL Fzorkness

WPAFB 501 MA<?>IL Fzorkness

AMES-67 503 COMMAND \MAIL FZORKNESS\ IGNORED: UNKNOWN USER

LBL 506 Command not implemented.

CMU-10A 507 % USER NOT FOUND: FZORKNESS

CMU-10B 507 % USER NOT FOUND: FZORKNESS

CMU-10D 507 % USER NOT FOUND: FZORKNESS

HARV-10 507 No such user as FZORKNESS

LLL-MFE 507 No such user as FZORKNESS

NBS-10 507 No such user as FZORKNESS

WHARTON 507 No such user as FZORKN

WPAFB-AFAL 507 No such user as FZORKNESS

4) Sites to which I was never able to connect, or which were not

accepting users.

ANL I4B-TENEX NOSC-SECURE1

ARPA-DMS ISI-SPEECH11 NSWC-WO

CMU-CMMP LBL-UNIX NUSC

CTO-DDS LL-11 NUSC-NPT

DEC-MARLBORO LLL-COMP NWC

DTI LONDON-VDH NYU

DTNSRDC MOFFETT-ARC SRI-UNIX

FNWC NADC SU-ISL

GUNTER-UNIX NDRE

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