Dear Simao,
I have
completed the acquisition of all data off the ftp://standards.pictel.com site, and am ready to transfer
this to ITU. I will be enclosing a copy of this email message with the
DVD-R disc I will send to Geneva on Monday 7 April 2003.
This email
contains some background (for TSB IT staff) and information on how to setup the
new anonymous FTP site at ITU.
As you know, PictureTel (now Polycom) has
operated the ftp://standards.pictel.com site for the informal use of
ITU-T SG15 (now SG16) rapporteurs and experts since ~1995, before the ITU
established it's own FTP services via TIES. It has in practice been
the repository for working documents at Rapporteur's meetings of experts
(outside of WP or SG meetings).
This site has been operated as an
anonymous FTP because each Question had (and has) at least some invited experts
and other interested parties who were unable to access the official ITU-T
Question sites (as this requires ITU membership and TIES
passwords).
Recently, the ITU TSB has agreed to take over running this
site as an anonymous FTP from Polycom, and agreed to make this site available on
the same basis as before - via anonymous FTP.
The 3 folders on the DVD-R
disc are the 3 currently active groups. Below is a list, together with the
individuals who are actively managing each
folder:
lbc-site For
Q.1/16 (Rapporteur Patrick
Luthi)
avc-site For
SG16 H.3xx systems groups (Rapporteurs Sakae Okubo and Paul
Jones)
video-site For
Q.6/16 (Rapporteur Gary Sullivan)
Together these sites contain 17,789
files and approximately 3.7 GBytes of data.
The following are tips on how
to setup the anonymous FTP site for continued operation, based on our experience
running this site in years past:
1. Setup the FTP server for READ-ONLY
access via anonymous FTP.
2. Setup one input folder in each group for
anonymous WRITE-ONLY access (FTP "PUT" permitted, FTP "LS" permitted, but FTP
"GET" not permitted). These folders
are:
lbc-site/dropbox
avc-site/Incoming
video-site/dropbox
The
purpose of these folders is to allow experts to upload files to the site for
review by the responsible rapporteurs, before they are made available to the
public (via anonymous FTP). It's important that listings ("LS") be
permitted, so experts can verify the presence of their files, but it's also
important that downloading ("GET") is NOT permitted, otherwise hackers will use
the site to store irrelevant and inappropriate materials (stolen software,
pornography, etc.). [This will occasionally happen anyway, until the
hackers realize that the uploaded materials can't be downloaded by
anyone.]
3. Give the responsible rapporteurs (the list above, plus
whatever individuals they designate) PASSWORD access to both "telnet" and FTP
into the server, with full READ/WRITE/ERASE privileges. These accounts are
used by the rapporteurs to review and virus-check uploaded files, and to move
appropriate files to the anonymous READ-accessible folders. They also must
be able to create and remove folders, to organize the site.
4. Some perhaps-obvious
tips:
a)
Allocate at least twice as much disk space as is currently used. This will
allow room for
expansion.
b)
Make sure the system is backed up
regularly.
c)
Check the system periodically to make sure it is in good working
order.
d)
Designate an email address/phone number where problem reports may be
sent.
Please inform me (and of course the relevant Rapporteurs) when the
ITU system is up and running. After a test period of a few weeks to ensure
things are working smoothly, we will retire the ftp://standards.pictel.com server.
Finally, if
things have changed and for any reason ITU is unable to or concerned about
operating this FTP site, Polycom is willing to continue offering these FTP
services to the standards community indefinitely - just let us know. (We
have a new and more modern server we are currently setting up for public access
- this will soon be offering a "Polycom Standards Web" and other
services.)
Best regards,
--Dave Lindbergh, Polycom Inc.
Rapporteur, ITU-T Q.E/16
----------
Dave Lindbergh
Polycom, Inc.
100 Minuteman
Road
Andover MA 01810 USA
Voice: +1 978 292 5366
Email:
lindbergh@92F1.com
H.320, H.323 video by arrangement