Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
In theory, networks can be virtualized. In practice, virtual networks are much harder to audit.
As hosts in the Internet are identified by their IP addresses, we can simply rely on it with or without virtualization..
FTP is limited to the UNIX/VMS notion of file paths for labelling files.
Simply wrong. Don't try to criticize FTP without having proper knowledge on it. For example, a hostname used in section 7 of rfc959 is multics. Appendix I of the rfc is about page structure of TOPS-20 (of DEC). VMS was a latecomer. FTP was developed in ages when there were various operating systems where various file structures (not just a byte stream of UNIX, which is why FTP has STRU command) were supported and is more robust than newer protocols. As for file names, it is, in general, impossible for FTP clients to properly output characters used by FTP servers. So, it is servers' responsibility to make their files somehow accessible through NETASCII. As such FTP works with EBCDIC based OSes or Windows. Masataka Ohta
