Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UREGINA1.BITNET!GORRIEDE
From: GORRIEDE@UREGINA1.BITNET (Dennis Robert Gorrie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Bitnet,FTP,TCPIP
Message-ID: <8909260648.AA04504@jade.berkeley.edu>
Date: 26 Sep 89 06:44:34 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 51

>
> In article <8909192229.AA17973@jade.berkeley.edu> you write:

> > As a rule, people with BITNET accounts cannot access FTPable accounts.
> > This is because BITNET and FTP sites (located on EDU networks) are
> > linked via a priority 4 connection (only suitable for MAIL transfer)
> > and FTP requires a priority 3 link.

>        True, but not for the reason that you think.
>
>        BitNet (and NetNorth/EARN) are networks based on a rather
>specific physical layer (Bi-sync communication). FTP is a file transfer
>protocol that uses TCP/IP as a transport. These are not compatible. The
>only way for BitNet sites to get anonymous FTP is to be on the same piece
>of internet (little I ... distinguished from the Internet which is a single
>large instance of an internet network) *and* have some mechanism for speaking
>TCP/IP. FTP *only* works with TCP/IP. If your machine doesn't speak it, you
>can't FTP.
>
 .  .  .
>        This priority stuff doesn't seem to be in the jargon ...
>
>        Hope this helps clear things up.
>
>        Fred Whiteside
>        McMaster NetNorth Representative and PostMaster

I am on a BITNET site myself.  It is NOT an internet site.  However, we do
have the FTP facility to access files bewteen an IBM 4381 (VM/CMS) and a
VAX 6320 (VMS), both of them local BITNET sites.  I assume therefore that
using the FTP facility, we must then also be operating on the TCP/IP
protocol.  (There exists system users with thems FTPSERVE and VSM-TCPIP.)

Assuming this is true, then the only other factor that remains to prevent
FTP access of EDU sites (from BITNET) is the priority of the comm link.
So, that is how I came to the conclusion at the top.  What am I
overlooking?  Perhaps you would like to explain this in further detail.
I'm sure there are several BITNET subscribers to this list who would also
appreciate a better understanding of why they cannot access FTP sites.

P.S.  I suppose the TCP/IP could be on a different link, that only exists
      between my local machines, but I was under the impression it
      operated on the IBM RSCS.

+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|     "Chain-Saw Tag...                                                  |
|                                                                        |
|                      Try it... You'll LikE iT!                         |
|                                                                        |
| DENNIS GORRIE (GORRIEDE AT UREGINA1.BITNET)                            |
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