[texhax] unreachable tug.ctan.org ftp site

Karl Berry karl at freefriends.org
Fri Feb 8 00:04:12 CET 2013


1) http://mirror.ctan.org redirects to a "nearby" mirror.
ftp://mirror.ctan.org does not, because the FTP protocol doesn't support
redirection.  Therefore ftp://mirror.ctan.org will always end up at
(currently) the dante site.  So don't do that.


2) http://tug.ctan.org and ftp://tug.ctan.org now go to the University
of Utah, thanks to Nelson Beebe.  Announcement:
https://lists.dante.de/pipermail/ctan-ann/2013-January/006778.html

Ping not working proves nothing; ICMP can be and often is filtered even
when ftp/http/rsync/whatever is allowed through.

ftp://tug.ctan.org works for me right now.  Overload is always possible;
more likely with ftp than any other protocol.  Active/passive ftp is
another likely culprit.


3) http://ctan.tug.org, on the other hand, is the same as
http://mirror.ctan.org.  (And so, as with #1, ftp://ctan.tug.org/
shouldn't be used.)


4) DNS is public information.  So when in doubt, you can always do DNS
queries to see exactly what is intended to go where.


Hope this helps, though I fear it won't.

karl


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