What
is FXP?
FXP
stands for File eXchange Protocol and it let's you copy files
from one FTP-server to another using a FXP-client (see the
downloads section).
Normally you transfer files using the FTP protocol between
your machine and a FTP-server, and the maximum transfer speed
depends on the speed of your Internet connection (e.g. 56k,
cable or T1). When transferring files between two remote hosts
using a FXP client, the maximum transfer speed does not depend
on your connection but only on the connection between the
two hosts, which is usually much faster than your own connection.
Because it is a direct connection you will not be able to
see the progress or the transfer speed of the files.
Although
FXPing is very easy, there are a few restrictions to transferring
the files. Both hosts have to support PASV mode and must
allow PORT commands to foreign hosts. The FXP client tells
the destination FTP to listen for a connection by sending
a "PASV" command. The source FTP then connects to the data
port reported by the destination server (after a success
PASV command). So all the data goes directly from the source
to the destination FTP and both servers do only report status
messages on fail/success to the FTP client. At least one
of the two remote hosts has to be a non-NT FTP-server, like
a UNIX host or anything else. You can move files from a
non-NT FTP-server to a NT FTP-server and the other way around,
but you CANNOT FXP from a NT to an NT. One way to get by
this limitation is using a Wingate (see the security
section).
FXPing
is fun, but the last thing you want is some sysop who is walking
around your pc. Or even worse a sysop that contacts your isp
and makes sure your account gets terminated, or one that turns
you in to the cops... U can be identified by your computer's
ip, that is why you should always use a proxyserver or a wingate
when you connect to the internet.
A
proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and
the Internet. The data you request comes to the proxy first,
and only then it transmits the data to you. Usually, proxy
servers are used to increase the effective speed of your connection
to the Internet, because they save files that are requested
most often in a special database called "cache". As a result,
the information you need may already be present in cache by
the time of your request, making it possible for the proxy
to deliver it immediately. In most cases, however, proxies
do inform the target server about the address of the computer
that made the request, transmitting your IP-address in different
forms. Anonymous proxy servers don't transfer the information
about the IP-address of the client, and hide the information
about you and your surfing interests. Besides that, some proxy
servers can also hide the very fact that your are surfing
through a proxy server! One of the safest kind of proxies
is the socks proxyserver.(it was originally intended as firewall).
You can check whether a proxy is really anonymous or not on
one of these sites.
Lists of anonymous proxy servers can also be found there.
Another
way of hiding your identity and transfer your files is using
a wingate. Wingate is installed and run on a Windows 9x/ NT
computer and used as a server for a lan. All other pc's connected
to the lan will access the internet through this Wingate.
Wingates
work a little differently then socks proxy servers. If you
log onto both sites using the same port , the files you want
to transfer between the two sites are going through the wingate.
The advantage to this is that it will allow you to FXP files
to/from sites you could not before. The disadvantage is, the
speed of your transfer is limited by the speed of the wingate
you are using. Wingates are usually very busy and because
of that very slow. Unless
you absolutely can not make two sites FXP to each other, you
probably do not want to use a wingate, as it will slow down
your transfer 99.99% of the time. Wingates offer you a lot
of services, but make sure when you are transferring files
you always use port 21, not 23!
The
easiest way of finding a proxy server or Wingate is to check
a list on one these
sites. However the proxies that are on these lists are usually
heavily used, and die soon because of that reason. The best
way to get your hands on a good proxy is scan one yourself
using a standard
port or a special proxy
scanner.
Sharing
your files
If
you want to share your files, but do not want dozens of people
sucking up your bandwidth, this is the way to go: First find
at least two pubs (anonymous FTP-servers). Use one FTP-server
as a "store-site". You first transfer your files to this pub
and send them to any other pub you want. Make sure that the
first pub is a deletable one, and the second one (preferably)
a non-deletable . Always clear the store-site not too long
after you have transferred your files. Together with the fact
that only you are accessing this site will make sure that
the sysop will probably never notice that you are using it.
Why
using a intermediate site in stead of transferring the files
directly to a site that you're going to share with others?
Those published sites usually do not last very long. First,
the pub you are sharing will get very busy and because the
sysop is probably wondering where all that traffic is coming
from he will discover your files and he will delete them or
shut the server down. Second there are the deleters (F**k
you Pussy!). These people are out there to destroy your nice
pub. In general they first download the files they want and
then delete files leaving the empty dirs behind. When your
pub gets deleted you will not have to upload all your files
using your "slow" connection again to another pub, just simply
use the fast connection from your store-site. This saves loads
of time.
Finding
Pubs
In
order to publish a pub, you will first need to find one :-).
The best way to do this is using a portscanner. These programs
can scan series of ip's on public FTP's. Some of these scanners
can also ping a site (see how fast it is), check for anonymous
login and see whether you have write and delete rights. The
directory attribute you are looking for is Dwrxwrxwrx, but
others can work too. Dirs that often allow uploading are:
pub (that is where the name comes from), incoming, _vti_pvt
and upload. The fastest way to scan pubs is using FTP
scanner. This program scans by default, up to 100 threads
at the same time, on port 21 and checks for anonymous access.
The easiest way of finding pubs is using Grim's
Ping. It is slower than FTP scanner (max 5 threads), but
it can also check for dir attributes. By the default it only
checks the dirs named above, but you are able to change this.
Scanning like this saves loads of time. It is also possible
to run more than one copy of Ping at the same time. New in
Version 2.5.8 is the ability to import FTP-scanner result
logfiles. This makes these two programs a deadly combination.
There's
no use in scanning random ip's, because most ip's will not
have a public FTP-server running. Large companies and especially
universities (fast connection) are a good target. First lookup
a website using a searchengine (e.g. Altavista), for instance
the Technical University of Prague (www.cvut.cz). Now use
a ping commando (supplied with win 9x and nt) to find out
the ip (in this case 147.32.241.4). Third thing to do is scan
an ip range. Since this is a university, which has loads of
hosts, we will scan the whole 147.32.x.x to 147.33.x.x ip-range
for anonymous FTP-sites. When you are scanning a corporate
website just scan the 147.32.240-50.x range. Once you have
found one check whether you can write and delete files. The
last thing to do is test the speed of your newly found pub.
You can do this by using any ping commando and see what kind
of value it returns, the lower the better. If you have found
a site that is anonymous, has write rights and great speed……Just
fill it!
Transferring
files & Creating directories
Open
your FXP client and connect to the first remote host. Make
sure this is a non-NT pub! Connect to the second host as well.
The next thing you have to do is creating directories for
your files. Make sure they are somewhat hidden, otherwise
the sysop or, even worse, those damn deleters will clear your
pub before you've filled it. Usually you only have writing
rights in the /pub (that's where the name comes from) or the
/incoming dir. Create here a dir called tmp or something else
people will not recognize as a unusual dir on a anonymous
FTP.
The
rest of your path should be hidden. This can be done by
placing points (.) in the name of the dir (e.g. /.FXP) or
using spaces (e.g. / FXP). The best method is however using
the tilde (/~FXP). Clicking on a dir containing this symbol
causes the remote host to change the dir to the root! A
well hidden dir with your stuff could look like this: ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/pub/temp/~/[2
spaces] ~/.my/~pub/…for/.[2spaces]FXP/myfiles. The last
thing to do is just simply drag and drop files in your FXP-client
from one host to the other, the rest goes naturally….
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