Dear Jack,

I've received several inquiries about our FTPD NLM for NW, thanks to your
commentary in the January Issue. You would not believe what I've gone through
to get a copy of your magazine -- just trying to find out what the commentary
looked like was an exercise itself!

Anyway, interested parties can get a free demonstration copy of our NLM via
Anonymous FTP from:

ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/murkworks/demos/ftpd/ftpdnlm.zip

The list price is $325 per server, with educational discounts of 35%.

We are working on a Telnet Daemon NLM -- and looking to integrate telnet
access into the Netware Access Server and other programs via LanWorkPlace for
DOS.

I've been trying to track down various BBS manufacturers (not much progress
on that score) to see which ones are interested in providing incoming telnet
access to their BBS systems.

This would allow BBS systems with dial-up IP or leased line Internet access
to provide a very wide base of availability to their users. Commercial
organizations running support BBS systems (ala WordPerfect, etc) could also
provide Internet access and capitalize on their existing systems.

Several questions come up. How should file transfer be handled in this case?
(Xmodem/Kermit over the TCP stream, FTP to user specified location, accept
incoming FTP requests and generate a temporary account...)

What kind of interest is there in providing outgoing telnet (ala dial-up with
modem, and use a 'door' to telnet to a remote host), or outgoing FTP, Archie
and Gopher?

MurkWorks is interested in providing solutions which will enable BBS
operators to capitalize on the services currently available on the Internet.
On the other hand, there are several BBS systems which 'blow-away' existing
Internet services currently designed for line mode Unix operation.

I would appreciate hearing your opinions on these topics, if you have time to
comment.

Thanks,

 Brad Clements
 bkc@murkworks.com

ps. We're also working on a UUCP to MHS NLM, and an SMTP NLM with supportfor
MHS, 'PMAIL', and other mail systems, perhaps including QWK format.

 Brad:

We're a secret. Now that you know about us, there's nothing I can do, so I
guess you're in. But please keep it to yourself.

Similarly, many BBS software vendors seem to want to keep it a secret. But I
think you will find interest in these topics will rise in the near future.

File transfer can theoretically be handled quite well over telnet using Chuck
Forsberg's ZMODEM protocol. It was originally designed for packet nets and
most BBS callers are familiar with it. I'll admit I don't quite understand
why there are problems with this. TEAMate, a high-end BBS package for Unix
systems allows ZMODEM file transfers and we've had excellent success on
TEAMate systems. Other bulletin boards we've accessed by telnet simply won't
do ZMODEM successfully - even if it does support the protocol. I would
imagine this is something quite simple, some sort of timeout, but I'm not
sure what. Kermit always seems to work, but with very poor performance.

I would say ultimately the concept of ftp and telnet OUT from a BBS is really
not a priority in the way most Internet sites view it. FTP almost doesn't
make sense since many bulletin boards have larger file collections than the
ftp sites. For specific files where a location is given, some form of reverse
file server will probably be developed where callers specify a file,
directory, and ftp site, and the BBS fetches the file and stages it locally.
For telnet, again, I would expect these to be menu items much the way the
FreeNets do them, or perhaps after the fashion of Gopher. The BBS operator
will setup menus listing CARL or whatever to link out to. Archie might be an
interesting door program though. In any event, I think you'll find virtually
every BBS package moving toward Internet compatibility over the next 2-3
years. If you can help them get there, you should prosper.

 Jack Rickard