Ira Goldklang: http://www.trs-80.com/

From: Steve Jones <classiccmp_at_crash.com>
Date: Tue Feb 8 21:27:34 2005

On Tue, 2005-02-08 at 14:26 -0800, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
> > I think an FTP linked from the website would be much easier to control
> > leechers.
>
> Actually, FTP is even harder to control IMHO because you can't block the
> obvious copy program's user agent strings, [...]

Interesting -- I was certain this sort of thing had been
hashed out long ago, and that packages like WU ftpd
(http://www.wu-ftpd.org) had it covered eight ways to
Sunday by the mid-90s.

It isn't perfect, though. I can limit the overall number
of sessions, and I can limit the bandwidth each of those
sessions can grab using the "throughput" directive in the
ftpaccess(5) file. Of course this leaves normal folks
throttled even when they haven't done anything wrong...

I'm surprised it doesn't include a directive to limit
overall bandwidth usage, but that *is* something that the
altq feature of OpenBSD's pf provides (available on both
Open and FreeBSD), and I believe Darren Reed's ipf has
something similar who's name escapes me at the moment. In
fact I intend to do this with a machine I'm sending off
to a colo this week.

So, maybe this is why there are a whole pile of ftp
servers on freshmeat.net that have all been written long
after WU came out... ;^) I suppose I'll have to look at
them now. Though for the life of me I wouldn't speculate
as to why someone implemented one in Allegro Common Lisp
(which would be named "Allegro FTPd" of course).

"Share and Enjoy!"
--Steve.
Received on Tue Feb 08 2005 - 21:27:34 GMT

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