
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.



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NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn
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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NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn
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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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.



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NWG/RFC 751                                          PDL 10 Dec 78 nnnnn
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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