[e2e] FTP data port

[Bob Braden]

  *> From end2end-interest-admin at postel.org Mon Feb 26 10:52:07 2001
  *> From: "Oleg Vishnepolsky" <oleg at inforocket.com>
  *> To: <end2end-interest at postel.org>
  *> MIME-Version: 1.0
  *> X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
  *> X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
  *> Importance: Normal
  *> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200
  *> Subject: [e2e] FTP data port
  *> X-BeenThere: end2end-interest at postel.org
  *> X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.1
  *> List-Help: <mailto:end2end-interest-request at postel.org?subject=help>
  *> List-Archive: <http://www.postel.org/pipermail/end2end-interest/>
  *> Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 13:42:33 -0500
  *> 
  *> Why does FTP protocol has FTP server to connect out to a data port specified to a client, as opposed to the client connecting to a
  *> port specified by the server ? Is there a historical reason for doing that ?
  *> Oleg Vishnepolsky
  *> -
  *> 
Yes.  It had to do with supporting ARPANET TIPs (Terminal Interface
Processors, essentially a terminal multiplexor glued onto an ARPANET
IMP.)

I think you will find this history recorded in the early RFCs about
FTP.  Try going to http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfcsearch.html and
search for "FTP".  Of the 69 document hits,, you would probably find
a discussion of the TIP problem and user/server issues around
1973.

Bob Braden