FTP from OpenVMS to Windows using Internet Explorer

[Jim Geier_1]

I'm interested in using Internet Explorer to transfer files from an OpenVMS system to user's desktop compters running Windows. When I enter ftp://system.domain/ in the IE address window, and then provide login information, I get a list of files that are the files in my directory. But IE is apparently issuing the FTP DIR command, equivalent to the OpenVMS command "directory /size=all /date /owner /protection" and then taking the entire string as the file name, resulting in a file name like: "aaa.bbb 3/16 11-JAN-2006 [JGEIER] S:RWE,O:RWE:G:RWE,W:RWE". Interestingly, Firefox gets the file names right. Does anyone know of a tweak in IE to have it parse the file information properly? The second question, is use of a browser to transfer files via FTP a bad idea? What is a better method of transferring files via FTP from an OpenVMS system to a user's desktop running Windows?

[Chinraj Rajasekaran]

Hi Jim,

I see your problems with the VMS filenames in windows.

Which windows telnet client do you use to connect to VMS Servers?

I use Reflection telnet client which comes with ftp client as well, So we use reflection FTP client to download files from VMS to windows.

Otherwise you can try other free ftp clients on windows for example - SmartFTP (www.smartftp.com).

regards
Raj

[Allan Bowman]

Hi Jim,

In the past I have used SmartTerm as my terminal emulator. It has a fairly decent FTP Drag-and-Drop interface for copying files between the systems.

I'm not sure if this will work, but you might try setting up a special account that points to your login directory but uses a different LOGIN.COM where DIR is not defined as a symbol (should default to just the filenames). I'm assuming that the long DIR command is coming from your LOGIN.COM - if it is coming from SYLOGIN, you will need to delete the symbol in your LOGIN.COM.

Allan in Atlanta

[Steven Schweda]

So far as I know, MSIE is unable to cope with
a VMS DIRECTORY-format file listing (FTP:
LIST), and the TCPIP FTP server is unable to
provide a UNIX "ls"-format file listing.
Some other FTP servers are. Look for HGFTP,
or change to a different IP product. Or
complain to Microsoft.

I haven't tried it lately, but SmartFTP did
work well a few years ago, if an FTP client
which is not a Web browser is acceptable.