KB175132 - MGET Command Returns Unintelligible Characters from IBM Host

Article ID: 175132

Article Last Modified on 11/15/2006

Microsoft Windows 95

This article was previously published under Q175132

SYMPTOMS

When you use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) tool included with Windows 95 to send the MGET command to an IBM Host FTP server, the server may return extended or unintelligible characters. For example, you may receive the following characters from the server:

   ftp> bin
   200 Representation type is Image
   ftp> mget txt*
   mget ptpaeptp=ptp=ptp(? Y
   Error opening local file ptpaeptp=ptp=ptp(
   ptpaeptp=ptp=ptp(:Invalid argument
   ftp>

CAUSE

This behavior can occur when you set the FTP tool to Image mode (binary).

RESOLUTION

STATUS

This problem no longer occurs in Windows 98. To resolve this problem, install the current version of Windows. For information about the current version of Windows, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows.

MORE INFORMATION

IBM Host (mainframe or mini-computer [S/38 or AS/400]) uses Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) as the character representation scheme, whereas personal computers use American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) characters. EBCDIC is an 8-bit code and ASCII is a 7-bit code.

When you set the FTP tool to Image mode and send the MGET command as in the above example, the NLST command is sent to the IBM Host FTP server in binary format. The IBM Host FTP server has no way of knowing if the client making the request is an ASCII or EBCDIC client. It returns the list of files using EBCDIC, which is its default encoding scheme. Personal computers do not understand EBCDIC, so extended or unintelligible characters are displayed.

For additional information in this issue as it affects Windows NT, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

164542 MGET to an IBM Host FTP Server Returns Garbage Characters

Additional query words: garbage

Keywords: kbenv kbnetwork KB175132