Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!excelan!donp
From: donp@na.excelan.com (don provan)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Anonymous FTP
Message-ID: <909@excelan.COM>
Date: 21 Dec 89 18:39:44 GMT
References: <NELSON.89Dec20233752@image.clarkson.edu> <630229363.780000.LARSON@CRVAX.SRI.COM> <NELSON.89Dec21093605@image.clarkson.edu>
Sender: news@excelan.COM
Reply-To: donp@na.excelan.com (don provan)
Organization: Excelan, Inc., San Jose, Califonia
Lines: 20

>I implemented this because my boss told me to make anonymous ftp as
>easy as possible.  He says: "I want people who know nothing about ftp
>to be able to get on with no other instructions than 'ftp to
>grape.ecs.clarkson.edu'".

Actually, there's nothing in FTP that requires any login at all.  The
first FTP server i had to deal with would do an implicit "anonymous"
login when needed if no "USER" command was given.  I've never quite
figured out why the famous "anonymous" login was adopted but the much
simpler implicit login is never implemented.

>Whatever happened to the dictum "be liberal in what you accept, conservative
>in what you generate"?

This dictum applies to protocol implementations, not user interfaces.
A misbehaving peer will probably continue to misbehave indefinitely.
A mistaken user is capable of correcting her mistakes.

						don provan
						donp@excelan.com