Date   : Mon, 21 Mar 1988 08:55:49 EST
From   : prindle@NADC.ARPA (Frank Prindle)
Subject: FTP

The term "FTP" stands for "File Transfer Protocol", one of several high level
protocols in use by the TCP/IP networking standard used by internet hosts
(those on ARPANET, MILNET, and all the zillions of subnets at local sites).
The term "Anonymous FTP" refers to the capability of some hosts (Columbia being
one) which will allow access to some of their files with a generic logon
(i.e. USER=anonymous, PWD=guest).  This facility is only available if one is
calling Columbia through the internet facilities (i.e. from a machine tied in
to the internet - it's operating system is of no consequence).  It can't be
accessed via dialup lines or the Usenet.

The reason for this confusion is that this newsgroup originates on the ARPANET/
MILNET side as "INFO-CPM", but is gatewayed to the equivalent Usenet
group (comp.os.cpm I believe).  I did not mean to imply that the average
Usenet user could access Columbia's Kermit archives via FTP; I only meant to
answer the original query from an internet user.

I believe Columbia has set up alternative access methods for the same set of
Kermit files (possibly on a different machine) so that non-internet users
can obtain the necessary files.  Unfortunately, I don't have any details on
these alternative methods.  The proper way to obtain this information, I
suspect, is to post a query to the newsgroup INFO-KERMIT (or it's Usenet
equivalent "comp.protocols.kermit").  There is also a newsgroup TCP-IP (comp.
protocols.tcp-ip) for those who want to know more about FTP and the like.

Sincerely,
Frank Prindle
Prindle@NADC.arpa