HOW TO SEARCH THE WEB

Part Two : Get your files via mail


Use email to get files from ftp-directories
compiled by The Seeker
always under heavy construction
last modified : 15 Jan 2000

will be updated without further announcement






1. Some Basics

 a. Getting started

ftpmail is a widely available package, which allows the user to submit FTP requests by email.
The receiving service interprets the commands and invokes an FTP service in the normal way (usually, but not necessarily on the same machine). The normal output from the FTP service is emailed back to the user.
A number of additional commands are also available to control the ftpmail server itself. These allow the user to choose options relating to the encoding or compression of data files and the splitting of data files into manageable sized sections.
A full log of the server's activities is produced. Requests are queued and there is the capability to cancel jobs.



There is no standard usage so first email the server with the word 'help' in the body of the message and instructions will be sent to you. Don't put a signature block on the end of your message.

Follow the instructions when making a request.

Files as received are normally split into segments which are uuencoded. You need a decoder to decode the files. To uudecode the whole file either:



 b. How does the ftp-by-email work
You send a regular mail to a ftpmail host (see below) and in the body of the message you put ftp'ish commands, eg: help or connect x2ftp.oulu.fi chdir /pub/msdos/programming/gpe dir binary uuencoded get pcgpe10.zip quit And then the ftpmailer logs on to the ftp-site and performs the above commands and mails the result back to you.



 c. Basic commands
help
open [site[user[password]
cd path
ls [path]
dir [path]
get file
size max[ K | M ]

mode binary
mode ascii
quit
do this first and read the text
connect to site
change directory
directory listing
directory listing
get a file, can have path in name
size when file is split before sending,
  the max size is Kilobytes or Megabytes
archives, binary files
nothing but ascii text
end of ftp-by-email message




 d. UUencoding
Binary file transfers using ftpmail aren't difficult ... they just require a few additional steps. Because all e-mail has to be in ASCII form, ftpmail has to encode your Binary file in ASCII before it can e-mail the file to you. Once you get the file, you can then decode the file back into Binary :) Fortunately, there are two ways that ftpmail can encode Binary files into ASCII. The first way it can do this is through something called "uuencode." As long as you have a uudecode program -- and uudecode programs are all over the place (chances are your site has uudecode stored on its system) -- the whole process is simple.

Some encoders :
1. WinZip
2. uudecode.com - 1821 bytes
3. WinCode -- look at SoftSeek
4. got some javascript-program somewhere at my HD - gonna publish it



2. The URLs

Don't forget to check here Boyd's list of defunct servers

The actual list :

O P E R A T I O N A L   F T P M A I L   S E R V E R S
=========================================
bitftp@plearn.edu.pl)

bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu
ftpmail@academ.com
ftpmail@btoy1.rochester.ny.us
ftpmail@cnd.caravan.ru
ftpmail@dna.affrc.go.jp
ftpmail@ftp.sunet.se
ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de
ftpmail@garbo.uwasa.fi
ftpmail@giswitch.sggw.waw.pl
ftpmail@gu.net
ftpmail@ml.imasy.or.jp
ftpmail@mail.iif.hu
ftpmail@mercure.umh.ac.be
ftpmail@uar.net
Poland - No UUCP gateways
NO ANSWER 7Dec99 -- DEFUNCT?
United States - OK UUCP gateways
United States
United States
Russia - SLOW
Japan
Sweden
Germany NO ANSWER since 01Sep99
Finland NO ANSWER 04, 07Jun99, 14Sep99
Poland
Ukraine
Japan
Hungary
Belgium
Ukraine



useful additions ? Please let me know !!






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