Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.erols.net!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!omega.metrics.com!omega.metrics.com!not-for-mail
From: mgleason@probe.net (Mike Gleason)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.announce
Subject: SOFTWARE: NcFTPd -- High-performance FTP Server for UNIX
Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc
Date: 15 Oct 1996 20:55:40 -0400
Organization: NCEMRSoft
Lines: 107
Sender: tomh@omega.metrics.com
Approved: tomh@metrics.com
Message-ID: <541bqc$2lt@omega.metrics.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: omega.metrics.com
(Text from http://www.probe.net/~mgleason/ncftpd/index.html)
NcFTPd is a high-performance File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server for UNIX
systems, designed especially for high-traffic sites.
Table of Contents
* Why you should use NcFTPd for your FTP server
* Why NcFTPd out-performs the rest
* Licensing
* Where to download a copy of NcFTPd
(Please see http://www.probe.net/~mgleason/ncftpd/download.html)
* Performance comparisons
(Please see http://www.probe.net/~mgleason/ncftpd/perf.html)
For more information, send mail to Mike Gleason, mgleason@probe.net.
Why you should use NcFTPd for your FTP server
---------------------------------------------
The reason is simple -- you can service more remote users at a time, and
therefore move more data out the door. Instead of upgrading your hardware,
upgrade your software by using NcFTPd. It is certainly cheaper to install
NcFTPd than it is to buy more workstations whose sole purpose is to act as
additional FTP servers. There are also security benefits, because NcFTPd
runs as a non-privileged set of processes.
Why NcFTPd out-performs the rest
--------------------------------
Almost all standard UNIX FTP daemons, including wu-ftpd (Washington
University FTP Daemon) are based off the same code from the original BSD
release of long ago. NcFTPd has been written from scratch and optimized with
anonymous FTP service in mind.
NcFTPd's "no-forks" philosophy dramatically reduces the load on your server
and increases responsiveness to your users. Standard FTP servers fork a
child process for each new incoming connection, and then one or more child
processes for each directory listing that connection requests. NcFTPd, on
the other hand, literally does not need to spawn any additional processes
after initialization.
Your standard FTP server is bottle-necked by a well-intentioned process
called the /etc/inetd, which is the Internet Superserver process. Inetd
handles traffic for many standard internet services all under the umbrella
of one process. Unfortunately inetd was never intended for high-volume FTP
service. Besides forking a child process to do the FTP, inetd also has other
internet services to worry about. NcFTPd is a stand-alone server that only
services FTP, and does not operate from the inetd. This means new incoming
connections get snappier response times.
Directory listings have been optimized within NcFTPd. Standard FTP servers
fork a /bin/ls process to do each directory listing. NcFTPd has its own fast
/bin/ls-compatible directory listing mechanism built-in. On top of that,
NcFTPd has an intelligent directory listing caching scheme which saves
pre-sorted and pre-loaded directory listings of your most accessed
directories, making them available for rapid re-use.
Although the directory caching uses a little memory, the savings from not
spawning child processes proves to be a significant memory savings overall.
That leaves room for more simultaneous remote users for NcFTPd. That, in
conjunction with many internal optimizations, lets you service more users,
and service them faster than you could with your standard ftpd or wu-ftpd --
and the numbers prove it. Check out the performance comparisons for your
system and see for yourself. Then download a FREE evaluation copy and try it
on your system with no obligation!
Licensing
---------
NcFTPd is not free software. The licensing fee depends on the number of
simultaneous users you want to be able to use your server, and what type of
organization you are. For commercial organizations, the per-server fee is
US$199.00 for 51 or more users, and for 50 or fewer users, you get a $170
discount, making it just US$29.00 for a small server. For educational and
non-profit institutions, the licensing fee is waived for both the 50-user
and unlimited user license, but you must still register your copy with the
author.
You may download and use NcFTPd for a 30-day free evaluation period. After
the 30 days, you must either register the software or uninstall NcFTPd from
your system. To register, fill out the registration form and mail it to the
author. Upon receipt of payment, you will get instructions on how to turn
your copy of the program into an officially licensed copy.
More URLs
---------
This page is:
http://www.probe.net/~mgleason/ncftpd/index.html
Performance comparisons:
http://www.probe.net/~mgleason/ncftpd/perf.html
Download page:
http://www.probe.net/~mgleason/ncftpd/download.html
--
[ /tom haapanen -- tomh@metrics.com -- software metrics inc -- waterloo, ont ]
[ "trust the programmer" -- preface to ansi c standard ]