FTPMAIL "help" file May 7, 2002 The below is the text of the Noaa "help" file for the Noaa FTPMail server access to be able to request Noaa weather products via email. For Help contact: Clifford.Fridlind@noaa.gov 301-713-0882 x 122 Timothy.Rulon@noaa.gov 301-713-1677 x 128 ***************************************************************** ** CAPITALIZATION: NOTICE! USING THE INDICATED CORRECT CAPITALIZATION FOR ALL COMMANDS, ALL DIRECTORIES & ALL FILE NAMES IS CRITICAL! "weather.noaa.gov" is the only valid FTP site for this server The National Weather Service (NWS) FTPMAIL server is intended to allow Internet access for users who do not have direct access to the World Wide Web but who are equipped with an e-mail system. The service is free and no signup is required. Using FTPMAIL, users can request files from NWS and have them automatically e-mailed back to them. Turnaround is generally in under three hours, however, performance may vary widely and receipt cannot be guaranteed. Although these instructions are tailored for marine users to gain access to graphic(radiofax) and text products via e-mail, all publicly available data on the weather.noaa.gov internet server is accessible using the FTPMAIL server. To use FTPMAIL, the user sends a small script file via e-mail to NWS requesting the desired file(s). An error message will be returned if the script file is in error. Users should be familiar with sending and receiving messages and attachments with their particular e-mail system. Attachments are received in uuencoded form. The majority of modern e-mail systems handle the conversion automatically, other users will need to run the uudecode program for their particular system. See your system administrator if you have any questions on this topic. Files sizes for NWS radiofax graphic files average 35KB. Users should be aware of the costs for operating their particular e-mail system before attempting to use FTPMAIL, especially when using satellite communication systems. For marine users, using FTPMAIL via INMARSAT C for obtaining current NWS radiofax graphic files is cost prohibitive. Using the FTPMAIL compression feature of FTPMAIL is not recommended as these files are already in a compressed T4(G4) format enveloped in TIFF for viewing. You will need a graphics program capable of displaying files in this format in order to view them. Suggestions for TIFF viewers may be found in file http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/rfaxtif.txt The latest versions of Web browsers often include a TIFF viewer. The following examples demonstrate the use of FTPMAIL. Indexes of currently available marine products, the list FTPMAIL commands, and suggestions for TIFF viewers may be obtained following these instructions. To use FTPMAIL: o Send an e-mail via the Internet to: ftpmail@weather.noaa.gov o Put anything you like on the subject line o Enter a command script in the body of the message NOTE 1: Correct capitalization for commands, directory and file names is critical. They very! Example scripts are: help Connect to default_site (weather.noaa.gov) and send back this help file to e-mail address of requestor open cd fax get PWAE98.TIF quit Connect to default_site (weather.noaa.gov) and send back the chart file PWAE98.TIF to e-mail address of requestor NOTE 2: Capitalization is critical for this server. The TIF file names in the "fax" subdirectory must be CAPITALIZED! The fax subdirectory itself is always lower case. reply-to captain.kidd@noaa.gov open dir quit Connect to default_site (weather.noaa.gov) and send back the contents of the top level directory to captain.kidd@noaa.gov open cd fax get ftpcmd.txt (List of FTPMAIL commands) get rfaxtif.txt (TIFF suggestions) get rfaxatl.txt (Atlantic radiofax file directory) get rfaxpac.txt (Pacific radiofax file directory) get rfaxmex.txt (Gulf of Mexico and Tropical Atlantic radiofax file dir) get rfaxak.txt (Alaska radiofax and ice file directory) get rfaxhi.txt (Hawaii radiofax file directory) get marine1.txt (Highseas,Offshore,Open Lakes,NAVTEX text file directory) get marine2.txt (Hurricane text file directory) get marine3.txt (Coastal forecasts text file directory) get marine4.txt (Offshore forecasts by zone directory) get marine5.txt (Atlantic coastal forecasts by zone directory) get marine6.txt (Pacific coastal forecasts by zone directory) get marine7.txt (Gulf of Mexico coastal forecasts by zone dir) get marine8.txt (Great Lakes coastal forecasts by zone directory) get marine9.txt (Alaska coastal forecasts by zone directory) get marine10.txt (Hawaii&Trust coastal forecasts by zone directory) get nhclist.txt (NHC hurricane listserver instructions) get uiuclist.txt (UIUC hurricane listserver instructions) quit Note 3: The descriptions in parenthises must be excluded! Ie use the file names only! Note 4: The TXT file names can be in lower case, ie not capitalized. Connect to default_site (weather.noaa.gov) and send back the requested files to e-mail address of requestor. *************************SPECIAL NOTE************************* FTPMAIL problems are occasionally encountered when embedded control characters are received within the e-mail message received by the FTPMAIL server. These control characters may be introduced by the user's e-mail system and may be unavoidable. We are working to develop a version of FTPMAIL which parses these control characters. Note 5: Problems may also be encountered in trying to go down several levels of directories simultaneously, e.g. "cd data/forecasts/marine/test". Use a series of commands "cd data", "cd forecasts", "cd mariine", cd "test" instead. In both these instances, the likely error will be "Directory not Found" **************************************************************** If you have access to the World Wide Webb be certain to check out the following webpages. See these pages for further links. http://www.nws.noaa.gov NWS Homepage http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/home.htm NWS Marine Dissemination http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/forecast.htm NWS Marine Text Products http://www.nws.noaa.gov/data.html#mar NWS Marine & Satellite http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/marine.shtml NWS Radiofax Webpage http://www.ncep.noaa.gov/MPC NWS Marine Prediction Center Author: Timothy Rulon, Office of Meteorology, National Weather Service Last Modified Friday, Mar 26, 1999 Document URL: http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/ftpmail.txt end