MEGAlink (protocol)

MEGAlink is a file transfer protocol developed by Paul Meiners in 1987. His goal was to design and implement a protocol that meets or exceeds the following criteria:

# Fast. Efficiency must exceed 95% on average basis.
# Reliable. Known defects in prior protocols must be corrected.
# Inexpensive. Implementation cost must be low.

Based on Meiners' experience and reading the literature, he believed:

* Zmodem - The ideal protocol. Highly reliable and fast. Only failing is that the cost of implementation is high.
* Ymodem - Very fast, but not network friendly. Also leaves something to be desired on the reliability front. Error correction is slow.
* WXmodem - Fast and network friendly. However, several questions exist with regard to reliability.

The format of the header block conforms to the standard "link" format established by Tom Jennings when he designed the TeLink protocol, also used by the SEAlink protocol.

External links

* [http://www.cpeterso.com/protocols/MLINK16.ARJ MEGAlink 1.6 program]
* [http://www.cpeterso.com/protocols/MEGALINK.TXT MEGAlink documentation]