Kermit Communications Protocol
Kermit is a file transfer protocol first developed at Columbia University in New York City in 1981 for the specific purpose of transferring text and binary files without errors between diverse types of computers over potentially hostile communication links, and it is a suite of communications software programs from the Kermit Project at Columbia University. The Kermit protocol and software are named after Kermit the Frog, star of the television series, The Muppet Show; the name Kermit is used by permission of Henson Associates, Inc.
Kermit is noted for its transmission accuracy and slow transmission speeds due to its default settings that optimize for accuracy. However, Kermit can also be tuned to transfer data as quickly as any other data transfer protocol. Kermit is not in the public domain, but Columbia University allows people to use the protocol for free, so almost all communications products support it. However, not all implementations support the full protocol. This has led some people to refer to an advanced version of Kermit as Super Kermit. Actually, there is only one version of the Kermit protocol, which supports all the advanced features usually attributed to Super Kermit, such as sliding windows and long packets. Other file-transfer protocols used by modems include Xmodem and Zmodem.
The feature that distinguishes Kermit protocol from most others is its wide range of settings to allow adaptation to any kind of connection between any two kinds of computers. Most other protocols are designed to work only on certain kinds or qualities of connections, and/or between certain kinds of computers, and therefore work poorly (or not at all) in other settings and offer few if any methods to adapt to other situations. Kermit, on the other hand, allows you to achieve successful file transfer and the highest possible performance on any given connection.
Unlike X-, Y-, and ZMODEM (the other protocols with which Kermit is most often compred) Kermit software does not assume or require: