Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!p.cs.uiuc.edu!zweig
From: zweig@p.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Super-Dumb Transport Protocol?
Message-ID: <93400023@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 11 Jun 89 23:04:00 GMT
Lines: 24
Nf-ID: #N:p.cs.uiuc.edu:93400023:000:1283
Nf-From: p.cs.uiuc.edu!zweig    Jun 11 18:04:00 1989


  Is there a protocol out there (possibly one for which an RFC is still
forthcoming) that is designed to do file-transfer from a server to a
client at minimal computational cost? That is, a protocol that just involves a
client sending a reqest which, if received by the server, generates a bunch of
IP datagrams in response (maybe with a terribly naive checksum/retransmit
of lost/damaged packets mechanism).

  FTP has far too much baggage -- sitting as it does on top of TCP -- and
TFTP is close, but still sits on top of UDP. I was thinking of an utterly
mindless protocol so I can run it on a PC which has some archival files
on a hard disk and whenever somebody wants a copy of one, they basically
send the filename and snarf up the replies. Optimally, the PC would just
need to have IP and this snarf/barf protocol in order to be an archive
server.

  I have been toying with the idea of using a Mac or an AT as a net-accessible
archive-disk, and bringing up TCP/IP/UDP/NFS/whatever seems like way too
much work, both in terms of hacking and in terms of getting the best
performance out of the slow, dumb box. I could come up with a local kludge
for this protocol -- but if there is something like it already out there,
I would like to know.

-Johnny Streamlined/Stripped-Down