DMS not supported on server

[scuzzb494]

Hi

Have been struggling with PIPEX who host my website as I am unable to target DMS files and ADF files for download. Works prefectly on my Lycos mirror, but I have ,limited space on the mirror and I have started to upload to my DMS section a load of Amiga Demo Disks in DMS format. Anyway I have had a response from Pipex today..

Hi

Pipex have confirmed the following about the dms file
extension when stored on their servers...

[ quote ]

The product development team have confirmed that this type of file is not supported by our servers. I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

[ end quote ]

What is more tragic is that I had to spell Commodore twice and Amiga three times before the support technical person could deal with my query. They have no reason to support DMS and obviously the new talent there has no knowledge of the Amiga. If this trend continues you can see there would be problems for Amiga folk using DMS.

Probably more to do with the death of the floppy disk to be honest. ar hum

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[meega]

What happens if you rename the file, say to something like "filename.dms.bin" ?

When you d/l it, just rename it.

[scuzzb494]

Hi

I can rename to .zip and it downloads fine. But under Windows you don`t seem to be able to change the extension on a zip file, unless I'm missing something. It just becomes file.dms.zip with the zip extension hidden even with all file extensions showing. No problem with the Amiga cus it sees file.dms.zip and I can delete zip. Windows thinks its a zip file. Just seems so stupid to me. I will have to give instruction to every visitor on how to edit and use the file. Just creates problems.

I'll try the .bin idea now.

scuzz

[scuzzb494]

Hi

That worked much better. I simply just have to delete the bin and it reverts to a dms file. As ever with life on the Amiga there is a ready work around to deal with modern trends. Thanks a bunch.

I have uploaded the first 100 Amiga Demo Disks in DMS format if anyone is interested.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz423.htm

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

[meega]

scuzzb494 wrote:
Windows thinks its a zip file.

No, not a file... Windows thinks it's a zip archive and it proceeds to treat that archive as a directory - at least it does in XP Pro. The 'problem' is probably that the archive wasn't created properly as a .zip in the first place.

Mind you, I don't know why you can't see the extension...

You might also want to try .raw as an extension, it is particularly suitable for files that can be considered bytewise, whereas .bin is eminently suited to a bitwise approach.

[RRunner]

By default, Windows will hide file extensions of known file types. To change this, open up an explorer window, go to Tools -> Folder Options and click on the View tab. Uncheck the option to hide extensions for known file types.

[motorollin]

Why should Pipex's servers care about the file extension? Why would this make a difference to whether or not the file is "supported"? What does "supported" even mean in this context? Is their server running on some OS which doesn't allow files with a .adf or .dms extension, or a web server which will not recognise these files? :roll:

--
moto

[maffoo]

motorollin wrote:
Why should Pipex's servers care about the file extension? Why would this make a difference to whether or not the file is "supported"? What does "supported" even mean in this context? Is their server running on some OS which doesn't allow files with a .adf or .dms extension, or a web server which will not recognise these files? :roll:

It could be that they (for some reason) only allow websites to be stored, not general files, so anything with an extension not on a specified list (.htm, .jpg, .zip etc.) is deleted? It's the only thing I can think of anyway.

[BlackMonk]

motorollin wrote:
Why should Pipex's servers care about the file extension? Why would this make a difference to whether or not the file is "supported"? What does "supported" even mean in this context? Is their server running on some OS which doesn't allow files with a .adf or .dms extension, or a web server which will not recognise these files? :roll:

--
moto

It's most likely the web server itself does not have any MIME types set up for those file extensions.  

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Properly_Configuring_Server_MIME_Types
http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/definitions/mimetype.html
http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/index.html

Probably, the hosting company is using some cookie-cutter premade definition file to handle most common filetypes.

The people that the original poster dealt with were most likely the first level of tech support, barely-trained people following scripts to get an answer for a customer.

Adding support for the other filetypes, say, to make them like a ZIP file for downloading properly.  You probably don't need to know this amount of detail:

http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/zip

Most likely, someone can look in their htaccess file and do a copy/paste of an existing line (like ZIP or some other binary/raw (i.e. non-text) file) and just add the extensions needed.

Good luck actually getting access TO someone who can do that.  And most hosting companies run like 500 websites from one physical server and are too afraid to make any changes for a single site.  Adding a MIME type just for you might somehow affect 499 other customers on that same machine, for instance.  It most likely won't, but it's always safer to tell the customer "sorry we don't support this" than actually risking something, know what I mean?

Anyway, I hope that answers your question moto.

[madsjm]

Microsoft's web server Internet Information Services 6 is pretty much locked down out of the box.
Just a couple of extensions (mime types) are open for download.
This can be changed easily, but has to be done by the server administrators.
The situation you are describing sounds like a typical IIS6 question. Only zip files can be downloaded, not dms, lzx, lha etc. These file types will just return a 404 File Not Found.

Of course I have no idea what web server they are running, nor do I have any interest to check it.  :-)

Edit: I couldn't help it, I had to check. And it's an IIS server.

[BlackMonk]

Yeah, and I was going to mock you, too, saying "who the heck would use IIS for a hosting company?"

Now I hang my head in shame.

[LoadWB]

By default in most web servers (including IIS) unknown files are sent out as application/octet-stream, which can be interpreted by the browser as whatever it wants.

I've never seen an unknown file extension return a 404 error in any web server.

[motorollin]

Thanks maffoo and BlackMonk - both good suggestions :-)

--
moto

[madsjm]

@LoadWB: This wasn't implemented until IIS6.
You need to enable all unknown extensions or add a mime type for dms in order to be able to download it.

If you haven't seen this, install IIS6 and try it out of the box. Previous versions didn't have this feature.
If you have been using IIS6 without seeing this behaviour, I guess your hosting company has allowed all extensions. It has to be explicitly enabled.

I have the same problem with my hosting company, by the way. But they were good enough to enable a number of file types which I wanted to provide for download.

[madsjm]

@LoadWB: I'm giving you the chance to experience this feature for the first time in your life!  :lol:
Try downloading http://www.sprocket.no/devilscolors.dms

I assure you it's there.  :-)