Survey of FTP mail and MLFL

P.D. Lebling

doi:10.17487/RFC0751

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This is a modified version of the Internet RFC suitable for machine-translating. Original version is available here: RFC751

UNKNOWN

NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn

Network Working Group P. David Lebling Request for Comments: 751 (PDL@MIT-DMS) NIC: nnnnn 10 December 1978

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. Complete FTP scripts may be found, if you are interested, on MIT-DM, file NETDOC;MLFL SURVEY.

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NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn
Survey of FTP MAIL and MLFL

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 DEC-MARLBORO RADC-TOPS20 USC-ISIE I4-TENEX RAND-RCC UTEXAS ILL-UNIX RAND-UNIX LL RUTGERS LL-ASG SRI-KA

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NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn
Survey of FTP MAIL and MLFL

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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NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn
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. 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

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NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn
Survey of FTP MAIL and MLFL

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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