FTPMAIL help file ***************** * WARNING * * This is a United States Government Computer. Use of * this computer for purposes for which authorization * has not been extended is a violation of federal law. * * (Reference Public Law 99-474) * For Help contact: * * Timothy.Rulon@noaa.gov 301-713-1677 x 128 * Clifford.Fridlind@noaa.gov 301-713-0882 x 122 * **** NEW USERS....Read these notes on CAPITALIZATION ***** CORRECT CAPITALIZATION FOR COMMANDS, DIRECTORY AND FILE NAMES IS CRITICAL. FOLLOW THE EXAMPLES CLOSELY. *.noaa.gov sites are the only valid FTP sites for this server This 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 one hour, however, performance may vary widely and receipt cannot be guaranteed. NOTICE - Check time and date of forecasts. Downloaded data may not represent the latest forecast. The Internet is not part of the National Weather Service's operational data stream and should never be relied upon as a means to obtain the latest forecast and warning data. Become familar with and use other means such as NOAA Weather Radio to obtain the latest forecasts and warnings. Please read our disclaimer at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/disclaimer.html 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 any *.noaa.gov Internet FTP 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. The UUencoding process can add 0 to >100% overhead depending on your system and the type of file. Files sizes for NWS radiofax graphic files average 35KB but can be much greater. 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 NEW! Radiofax .TIF files now also available as (larger) .gif files 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: Correct capitalization for commands, directory and file names is critical 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 open cd data cd forecasts cd marine cd coastal cd an get anz231.txt quit Connect to default_site (weather.noaa.gov) and send back coastal marine zone forecast ANZ231 to e-mail address of requestor open cd data cd forecasts cd zone cd md get mdz009.txt quit Connect to default_site (weather.noaa.gov) and send back public land zone forecast MDZ009 to e-mail address of requestor. (Contact your local forecast office to identify the public forecast zone number for your county, known as the UGC code) 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 www.ndbc.noaa.gov cd data cd latest_obs get 42007.txt get gdil1.txt quit Connect to the National Data Buoy Center's FTP server and send back the latest observations for buoy #42007 and C-MAN station GDIL1 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 Trop Atl radiofax file dir) get rfaxak.txt (Alaska radiofax and ice file directory) get rfaxhi.txt (Hawaii radiofax file directory) get otherfax.txt (Foreign charts file directory) get marine1.txt (Highseas,Offshore,Open Lakes,NAVTEX text file dir) 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 uk.txt (UK marine forecasts from Bracknell directory) get canada.txt (Canadian marine text forecast directory) get buoydata.txt (Buoy and C-MAN data directory) get robots.txt (Marine forecasts via e-mail systems) quit Connect to default_site (weather.noaa.gov) and send back the requested files to e-mail address of requestor. Many, but not all National Weather Service forecast products may be obtained using FTPMAIL if the WMO/AWIPS Header is known as follows. Be aware that several NWS products share WMO headers so the desired forecast may be overwritten at times by another product. Example: To obtain the Atlantic high seas Forecast, WMO header FZNT01 KWBC, AWIPS HEADER HSFAT1 Send an e-mail to: ftpmail@weather.noaa.gov Subject Line: Put anything you like Body: open iwin.nws.noaa.gov cd data cd text cd FZNT01 get KWBC.TXT quit or Send an e-mail to: ftpmail@weather.noaa.gov Subject Line: Put anything you like Body: open cd data cd raw cd fz get fznt01.kwbc.hsf.at1.txt quit *************************SPECIAL NOTES************************* CORRECT CAPITALIZATION FOR COMMANDS, DIRECTORY AND FILE NAMES IS CRITICAL. FOLLOW THE EXAMPLES CLOSELY. FTPMAIL e-mail requests must be sent in ASCII/Plain Text only. HTML formatting will likely result in no response from the FTPMAIL server. Problems have recently been reported by users of Hotmail. If you are a Hotmail user and are using the system successfully, please notify us of and your experiences and any workarounds you may have developed. If you restrict incoming e-mail as a means of preventing spam, you must program your e-mail system to allow messages from: ftpmail@tgsv22.nws.noaa.gov, ftpmail@tgsv23.nws.noaa.gov, ftpmail@tgsv24.nws.noaa.gov, ftpmail@tgsv25.nws.noaa.gov The majority of error messages have been disabled. You may or may not receive an error message back from FTPMAIL if your script is in error. 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. Also be certain that each of your commands is not followed by any trailing space(s) or you will see an error message with a number of statements saying "=20" 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 marine" instead. In both these instances, the likely error will be "Directory not Found" If the FTPMAIL server is too busy, you will receive an e-mail with a subject line similar to: "ftpmail job queuing for retry queue/097095.69568" Your request will be resubmitted automatically and your requested file(s) should be received within several hours. **************************************************************** If you have access to the World Wide Web 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 Page An FAQ webpage describing several public and commercial FTP-to-EMAIL and WWW-to-EMAIL servers may be found at: www.faqs.org/faqs/internet-services/access-via-email/ A free service which is similar in concept to FTPMAIL and also allows retrieval of NWS marine GRIB files, simple webpages, and products to be retrieved on a scheduled, recurring basis may be found at: www.saildocs.com or send a blank email to: info@saildocs.com Note: Any reference to a commercial product or service does not imply any endorsement by the National Weather Service as to function or suitability for your purpose or environment. Author: Timothy Rulon, Marine and Coastal Weather Services Branch W/OS21 National Weather Service Last Modified April 01, 2004 Document URL: http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/ftpmail.txt ftp://weather.noaa.gov/fax/ftpmail.txt