Study & Write T2 (An internet technology that became obsolete and one that survived to our days)
With the rapid development of internet services and technologies in the 20th century, many technologies were later replaced with more powerful and convenient ones. However, there are some technologies that managed to survive to our days. In this post I would like to describe two such technologies - the one that was replaced by a better alternative, and the one that survived to our days and is still in use.
1. NCP (Network Control Protocol)
As you may know, the predecessor of today's Internet was ARPAnet created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and launched in 1969. This network was created in response to the potential threat of nuclear attack from the Soviet Union, so in case of an emergency U.S military leaders could stay in contact with each other. ARPAnet used Network Control Protocol, an early predecessor to TCP/IP. This protocol was developed in 1970 with the objective of interconnecting computers with Interface Message Processor (IMP) between various sites. As the ARPAnet grew, it turned out that the NCP didn’t fulfill all the needs of a larger network. More exactly, computers could only talk to other computers of the same manufacturer using the same operating system and software. The whole idea of ARPAnet was to allow communication, not to limit it, so a need of a new protocol arose.
In 1974 Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, two Internet pioneers, published “A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection.” This paper described the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TCP was faster, easier to use, and less expensive to implement. It
also ensured that lost packets would be recovered, providing quality of
service to network communications. After several test and additional improvements, IP was added to handle routing of messages in a more reliable fashion in 1978. This led to a new suite of protocols called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). In 1982, it was decided that TCP/IP would replace NCP as the standard language of the ARPAnet. The final switch to TCP/IP took place on January 1, 1983. Since then, the network continued to grow exponentially. It is worth mentioning that the TCP/IP protocol is still in use nowadays, meaning that it is more than 40 years old, but still has no worthy alternatives.
2. FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is one of the standard internet
protocols used to transfer data files between a client and a server over
a computer network. It was developed in 1971 by Abhay Bhushan, a student at MIT.
The process of transfering data looks like this. FTP uses port 21 to establish a control connection. Then, the client identifies itself to the server. In most cases the authentication process is made using the client's username and password. When the authentication process is complete, the server and client will negotiate the opening of a new common port. This is the "data" connection through which the files will be transferred. The original control connection will remain open and idle until the file has been successfully transferred, or the connection itself is severed.
The FTP protocol predates the modern internet. At the time of its
development security was not the issue that it is today, and there are
some inherent weaknesses within the basic FTP model. First is the transparency of the data and command connections
themselves. Neither of these channels is encrypted, leaving them
vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. Second issue is that the sender has no way to verify whether the recipient received or
downloaded the file. If an error occurs, the sender will not be
notified.
To solve security issues, two new alternative file transfer protocols were introduced - FTPS and SFTP. FTPS add SSL encryption as a security measure to protect data as it is being transferred between client and server, and SFTP uses SSH (Secure Shell) encryption to protect data in transit. Also, MFT (Managed File Transfer) can be used for transfering files in a secure way, as it supports both FTPS and SFTP. Moreover, MFT
Although FTPS an SFTP were developed, FTP is used nowadays by regular users when there is no need for security. Surprisingly, some enterprises still use FTP, as they may not be aware
Sources used:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/network-control-protocol
https://catalogimages.wiley.com/images/db/pdf/0782141013.excerpt.pdf
https://www.whoishostingthis.com/resources/ftp/
https://www.thruinc.com/ftp-replacement-out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new/
https://www.ftptoday.com/blog/why-do-people-still-use-ftp-sites
https://www.advancedcyber.co.uk/it-security-blog/difference-between-ftp-and-managed-file-transfer
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