New Socksified FTP makes debut for e3000 sites

A new version of the FTP file transfer utility is available for e3000 sites, one that permits “Socksified” connections without rebuilds.

HP CSY engineer Mark Bixby created a newer version of FTP.ARPA.SYS “so intranet users can establish FTP connections to the Internet side of a firewall via a Socks server.” Socks is commonly used as a network firewall that enables hosts behind a Socks server to gain full access to the Internet, while preventing unauthorized access from the Internet to the internal hosts.

HP released its first Socksified FTP client for MPE/iX in 1999, but that version was a special binary-only build of FTP.ARPA.SYS and the NEC Socks client library. Since it was only designed to run on MPE/iX 6.0, it was prone to causing system aborts on 6.5, and was never updated with HP patches for the regular FTP client.

“This new SocksMPE distribution has a different architecture that does not require special source builds or binary modifications of the program being Socksified,” Bixby explained. “As a result, even though you’ve Socksified official HP software such as FTP.ARPA.SYS, the OS patch and update process will still be able to deliver new functionality to the socksified program.”

An HP Socks library is now used instead of the NEC one. “Commercial use does not appear to be prohibited, but selling software based on this code may be problematic,” Bixby reported on HP’s Web page documenting the software. “I am not a lawyer; you are solely responsible for determining whether or not your use of this software is legal.” HP is not supporting this new SocksMPE software yet, but it is distributing it from the HP Web page at jazz.external.hp.com/src/ftp.