OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Networking => Topic started by: ivan on August 01, 2013, 06:25:42 pm

Title: FTP
Post by: ivan on August 01, 2013, 06:25:42 pm
I have a need to move some rather large files between two networks, by large I mean greater than 12GB.

The easiest way to do this is via FTP.  The problem is that I have not been able to discover an OS/2 FTP client that can handle that size of file, most clag out at 2GB.

Is there such an OS/2 FTP client that will do the job or do I have to look at some sort of kludge to get the job done?   
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Andy Willis on August 01, 2013, 09:30:01 pm
There may be others but IBM did put a set out on testcase that support greater than 2G but then closed the PMR as a permanent restriction and later released an updated FTP server/client that did not have the 2G updates in it.  I am not sure now where to find the >2g cable ones but they are available. 
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Doug Bissett on August 01, 2013, 10:03:19 pm
I have a need to move some rather large files between two networks, by large I mean greater than 12GB.

The easiest way to do this is via FTP.  The problem is that I have not been able to discover an OS/2 FTP client that can handle that size of file, most clag out at 2GB.

Is there such an OS/2 FTP client that will do the job or do I have to look at some sort of kludge to get the job done?   

I just used QFTP ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/qtapps/qftp-1.5.2-os2.7z (ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/qtapps/qftp-1.5.2-os2.7z) to transfer a 5.1 GB file. I am also using Peter Moylan's FTP server http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/ftp/server/ftpser1.35.zip (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/internet/ftp/server/ftpser1.35.zip) at the other end. It did some very strange things during the transfer, but it did do the complete transfer, correctly.

FWIW, I usually use RSYNC http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/util/file/rsync-3.0.9-20120425-shl.zip (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/util/file/rsync-3.0.9-20120425-shl.zip) to do transfers like that. SAMBA, with the SAMBA client http://svn.netlabs.org/samba (http://svn.netlabs.org/samba), will also handle large files.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Ben on August 01, 2013, 10:06:49 pm
Hello, Ivan...

Allow me to make it easy for you:

 OS/2 FTP Update with large file support. (http://www.sf-w.net/files/OS2%20FTP%20Update.ZIP)
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: ivan on August 01, 2013, 11:32:28 pm
Thank you all for the suggestions which I will try out tomorrow if it's not as hot as it was today (45 degree C outside and about 60 C inside because the AC is off for its yearly check).

I have the IBM FTP update for greater than 2GB files from testcase and so far it has died after transferring just under 5GB (maybe a standard DVD).

As I said these are larger than 12GB, actually 12.5GB to 25.8GB virtual machine files that my client now wants to put back in operation after the arson of last year. 
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Ben on August 02, 2013, 01:11:05 am
There is no question regarding OS/2 and the need for a good FTP client; it simply does not exist.

Strange, really.

Filezilla used to work with ODIN, but has not done so in years, (though I have not tried it with the latest ODIN updates).

Also, the need for FTP has diminished since Webrowsers integrated FTP into themselves.

There is still a need, just a diminished one, hence fewer clients.

That's too damn bad! in my opinion for I use FTP everyday and would welcome a proper client.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Andy Willis on August 02, 2013, 05:19:19 am
http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=ncftp&pushbutton=Search
Starting with 3.2.3 it supports large files but not sure on OS/2.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: ivan on August 02, 2013, 12:27:21 pm
Andy, I've already tried ncftp and it appears to be stuck at the 2GB barrier on OS/2.  It did flag up a warning that it couldn't continue though which is more than the others did.

It now looks as if I will borrow a windows notebook and use FileZilla to transfer the files from the old server to it and then transfer them to a NAS box.  Then use SAMBA to transfer the files from the NAS to their new home.

I have to agree with Ben we do need a GOOD FTP client for OS/2 that has no restrictions on file size.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Andy Willis on August 02, 2013, 04:04:39 pm
Andy, I've already tried ncftp and it appears to be stuck at the 2GB barrier on OS/2.  It did flag up a warning that it couldn't continue though which is more than the others did.
Just to verify I have the right information... you were using 3.2.5 without success?  I don't know that there were any previous OS/2 releases after the large file support was added.  I had 3.2.2 previous to this discussion myself and it wasn't introduced till 3.2.3.
Andy
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Doug Bissett on August 02, 2013, 06:04:02 pm
Quote
There is no question regarding OS/2 and the need for a good FTP client; it simply does not exist.

Quote
I have to agree with Ben we do need a GOOD FTP client for OS/2 that has no restrictions on file size.

Perhaps if we define what "good" means, somebody will take that information and create a "good" client. IMO we already have a "good" FTP server (Thanks to Peter Moylan).

My "requirements" would be:

1) Follows the latest RFC for FTP. I would assume that that would include large file support.

2) It works easily, and in the OS/2 way. Probably as a file system, similar to what SAMBA does, or even the way that Firefox does it (what is wrong with Firefox? I haven't checked, but I think it will handle files greater than 2 GB. I would assume that SeaMonkey does it the same way).

What else is there, that I haven't thought about? I admit that I usually use the old FTP-PM program for most things, and it does what needs to be done, quickly, and easily. I haven't used the version that supports greater than 2 GB files, but  would assume that it is the same as far as the user is concerned (whether it actually works, or not, is unknown to me - I must try it).
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Doug Bissett on August 02, 2013, 07:09:08 pm
I should have mentioned that Firefox (and, I assume, SeaMonkey) will only download from FTP sites (and it does handle files greater than 2 GB), without some sort of add on to do uploading.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Andi B. on August 02, 2013, 07:44:09 pm
netdrive ftp plugin support >2GB too. I use it as ftp client in conjunction with LarsenCommander but can't remember if I ever tested it with >5GB. Server from Peter Moylan.

Edit: just tested with a 19GB file. Worked ok.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Andy Willis on August 02, 2013, 08:38:36 pm
I should have mentioned that Firefox (and, I assume, SeaMonkey) will only download from FTP sites (and it does handle files greater than 2 GB), without some sort of add on to do uploading.
Seamonkey still shows having upload file under File - Upload File.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: ivan on August 03, 2013, 12:16:33 pm
Thank you everyone for your helpful ideas, several of which have been noted down for possible future use.  I went the multi hop route and the VMs are now up and running in their new server.

Now another question.

During the course of trying various things I loaded the latest OS/2 version of firefox on the server and all went well.  That is until I found a picture of a circuit board I was interested in and clicked MB2 to bring up the save image menu.  On clicking ok firefox vanished - it did save the image though.  I tried it several times with different images all giving the same results.  I also get the same thing happening on other multi core processor boxes so the question is, is firefox SMP safe?
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Doug Bissett on August 03, 2013, 04:54:55 pm
Quote
is firefox SMP safe?

I am pretty sure that it is supposed to be SMP safe. I don't see the problem that you describe, although FF does have a few other, similar, problems (at least one is probably related to FLASH). I do have the latest ACPI installed (acpi-3.22.02.exe), along with the SMP updates for various things that were released with the recent ACPI updates (but have nothing to do with ACPI directly). Perhaps you need them?
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Alex Taylor on August 04, 2013, 02:12:50 am
Firefox itself is SMP safe.  However, the IBM TCPIP32.DLL is not, and IIRC this can cause problems with Firefox among other things.  There's a patched SMP-safe version of TCPIP32.DLL available from various sources, such as recent versions of the ACPI WPI packages.

On that note, the Mozilla FireFTP extension is a fairly decent graphical FTP client.  It's available for SeaMonkey as well as Firefox.  I've never tried it with files that large, but I'd expect them to be supported.
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Ian Manners on August 04, 2013, 05:47:51 am
I use jMethods JFTP from jMethods http://jmethods.com/jftp/
(Requires Java)

I use '@JAVAW.EXE -jar -Xmx256M jftp-5.0.1.jar' to run it from a cmd file with Java6.
Main reason I use it is because that happens to be the one I settled on to run with
AIX, and it also happened to work fine under OS/2 (though the start ups a bit slow).

The largest file I've transferred, I think, is about 8gB.

Otherwise for hobbes stuff I prefer EmTec's FTP client simply because it's fast
but it has problems connecting to Mac's, some other FTP servers, and has the
standard file size problem due to it's age. <== Probably also due to my extensive
FTP bookmark's, I'm to lazy to copy them over :)
Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Ben on August 10, 2013, 09:16:24 pm
I don't know if there is any point in listing what one would want/need in a quality FTP Client... however.


Of course, this list is incomplete.

FTPBrowser had most of these features and has the most potential, but if memory serves me correctly, the programmer felt burnt by the lack of OS/2 support and the registration cracks that were easily available, and thus, is embittered and unresponsive; any attempts to contact him on the matter has failed... that I am aware of.

I believe there was an interview with him here on OS/2 World in a previous in incarnation.

Maybe a collection or "bounty" might be able to loosen things up a bit... I cannot say... I am merely brain-storming.

If I am not mistaken, Steven Levine, (and I do not speak for him, but would welcome his input), once wrote that he would be willing to look at the source code... if it became available... of course, he might not want to now and... the source is unavailable.

There are other options, but they would require more work; NFTPPM is but one example, (it is not GUI though has an ANSI interface), and the sources are available.

I am sure that there are many others here that can add to this starter post...

Title: Re: FTP
Post by: Dave Yeo on August 11, 2013, 05:43:47 am
Thank you everyone for your helpful ideas, several of which have been noted down for possible future use.  I went the multi hop route and the VMs are now up and running in their new server.

Now another question.

During the course of trying various things I loaded the latest OS/2 version of firefox on the server and all went well.  That is until I found a picture of a circuit board I was interested in and clicked MB2 to bring up the save image menu.  On clicking ok firefox vanished - it did save the image though.  I tried it several times with different images all giving the same results.  I also get the same thing happening on other multi core processor boxes so the question is, is firefox SMP safe?

Sounds like the RMB bug. Basically with certain various extensions or combinations of extensions the RMB context menu recurses and crashes, usually with a bunch of entries in popup.log.
You can start FF in safe mode (help --> restart with add-ons disabled or such) to see if it still crashes and if not try disabling extensions until it clears up.
BTW Paul has more recent builds of ncftp that support large files. smedley.info