Path: utzoo!censor!geac!maccs!cs4g6ag
From: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: XMODEM,YMODEM,ZMODEM,KERMIT Which is best and why?
Message-ID: <25A14694.9576@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
Date: 3 Jan 90 00:25:56 GMT
References: <32428@news.Think.COM>
Reply-To: cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Lines: 25


   If you can avoid kermit, do so for several reasons.  It's designed
to work on a 7-bit data path, so it has an inherent performance penalty
due to this.  Also, it uses miniscule packets (although newer versions
are supposed to be able to handle reasonably-sized packets ... but only
if you have a newer version at both ends of the data link).  I'm not
sure if it can transmit date/time stamp information; I don't think it
can.

   Between X and Y, pick Y if you have a reasonably reliable phone line.
It uses 1K packets rather than the 128 byte packets of XMODEM, so the
overhead is reduced by about a factor of eight (but if you have a very
noisy phone line, more packets will have to be resent).  I think that
some implementations of XMODEm have added batch transfer capabilities
to it; these are standard in YMODEM (although I don't think either one
transfers time/date stamps).

   I haven't used ZMODEM, so I can't comment except to say that it is
reported to be better than X or Y.

-- 
Stephen M. Dunn                               cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
          <std_disclaimer.h> = "\nI'm only an undergraduate!!!\n";
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    If it's true that love is only a game//Well, then I can play pretend