A file transfer protocol that was popular in the days of analog modem transmission between bulletin boards because it handled noisy and changing line conditions very well, including satellite transmission. Funded by the Telenet packet network and developed by Chuck Forsberg in the mid-1980s, Zmodem uses a sliding window design (as does the TCP protocol), which is faster than the Xmodem and Ymodem protocols that came before it. See
sliding window.
Using variable length blocks and CRC error correction, Zmodem first sends file name, date and size before sending the data. The receiver continuously sends back the starting location of the next part of the file that is required so that crash recovery can be easily implemented by the file transfer program if transmission fails in the middle. Many popular communications programs offer Zmodem as an option.
Industrial Zmodem
As a compact and proven protocol, Zmodem was used for embedded systems. Although residing in the public domain specifically for Unix systems, the heart of the protocol was available as Industrial Zmodem, a commercial product from Omen Technology, Forsberg's company.