Re: why use ftp if http provides the same services???

From: Sudsy (bitbucket44_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 04/19/04 

Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:43:13 -0400

yogesh wrote:
> when downloading a file often the websites give two option..either
> download it from a ftp site or http..
> what is the difference between downloading a file(non
> html.eg.word,spread*** file) from http server and ftp server.?
> if the http server could also provide the service of storing the
> downloadable file then why ftp servers are used?

Two reasons:
- performance
- firewalls
vis:
- FTP is typically more efficient, i.e. there's less protocol overhead
compared to HTTP.
- Corporate firewalls often restrict the use of the ports needed to
use FTP. Port 80 (HTTP) is usually wide open.

So it depends on your target market. But Chris is quite correct in that
this is not really a Java question, merely one which affects those of
us attempting to make our Java services available to the largest user
population.