UTILITY TO COLLECT CLIENT IP ADDRESSES FROM FTPSERVER MONITOR

The script drop.cmd in this package is for use with the Monitor program
that is distributed with FtpServer.

Prerequisite: As supplied, this uses a feature of a registered version of
DragText.  DragText, which can be found at the usual OS/2 software
repositories, is in my opinion one of the essentials for any OS/2 user,
so I have no hesitation in recommending it.  In the present case, anyway,
it allowed me to produce a simple solution to an otherwise tricky problem.
Most of the work is done by DragText itself; the script in this package
is a minor addition.


MOTIVATION

When using FtpServer's Monitor program, you might often see connections
from addresses that you would like to ban.  Some people will do the banning
using Setup options; others might do it in firewall controls.  In either
case, the first step is to capture the address(es).

It would not be easy to put the "ban" feature into the Monitor program
itself, because it is often being used remotely from FtpServer.  What we
can do, however, is collect the addresses in a file, and then let you
decide what you want to do with those addresses.


HOW TO USE IT

These instructions assume that you have already installed a registered
version of DragText.

1. In the Monitor's listbox, highlight the lines that you want to collect.
   This can be done in the usual way with mouse clicks, using shift/click
   to select a block of lines or ctrl/click to select individual lines.
   Or, of course, you can use the keyboard equivalents.

2. Using mouse button 2, drag those lines from the monitor window and drop
   them to any desktop folder that's convenient.  This will create a
   text file that is a DTFile object.

3. Again using mouse button 2, drag that file and drop it onto drop.cmd.
   This will create a file IPAddrs.txt, in the same folder as the file
   you just dragged, containing the addresses you want.


IF THE OPERATION FAILS

Sometimes, it appears, the drag in step 3 will result in the script's
receiving a corrupted file name.  This appears to be because DragText
sometimes creates file names containing the '^' character, and for
some reason that character gets deleted when you do the drop.  If this
affects you, you have a choice of three solutions:
 (a) edit the title so that the title and real name agree; or
 (b) drag the file to a different folder, which makes DragText
     change the file name; or
 (c) in the "Files" section of DragText configuration, restrict
     file titles to one line.
For most people, (c) will be the most convenient solution.

