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FTP: Better Than HTTP, Or Obsolete?

Posted by timothy on from the don-your-holy-vestments dept.

An anonymous reader asks "Looking to serve files for downloading (typically 1MB-6MB), I'm confused about whether I should provide an FTP server instead of / as well as HTTP. According to a rapid Google search, the experts say 1) HTTP is slower and less reliable than FTP and 2) HTTP is amateur and will make you look a wimp. But a) FTP is full of security holes. and b) FTP is a crumbling legacy protocol and will make you look a dinosaur. Surely some contradiction... Should I make the effort to implement FTP or take desperate steps to avoid it?"

8 of 870 comments (clear)

  1. Screw all of that! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Use telnet and screen capture the VT100 Term buffer!

  2. "Files," eh? by Anonymous+DWord · · Score: 5, Funny

    1 to 6 megs, huh? Why not use Kazaa like everybody else? :-P

    --
    "If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
  3. Boy do I feel the pain... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "HTTP is amateur and will make you look a wimp"

    You really gotta watch out for things like this. I know one guy that got a 'click me' sign on his back because he used HTTP instead of FTP.

  4. Re:do both... by enos · · Score: 5, Funny
    Try both - see which gets used more.

    Then report back to us in the first ever Answer Slashdot.

    --
    boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
  5. Use ZMODEM !! by boy_afraid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Come on people, use the Z-Modem protocol. It can resume transmission on a file transfer where HTTP or FTP can not. The only way a FTP or HTTP can resume transmission is with the GetRight tool.

    I remember in my days of BBSes with X and Y Modem, and then when Z-Modem showed up we all couldn't be happier. When some idiot in the house picked up the phone and disconnected you from hours and hours of downloading the latest Liesure Suite Larry, I just reconnected and started to resume my downloads (but only if I had enough credit, then I might have to upload some crap). :) HA HA!

  6. Change it to, Ask slashdot to do my job. by Neck_of_the_Woods · · Score: 4, Funny


    Why do we have all these new ask slashdot question that sounds like a tech with a years experience is asking how to do his job?

    I vote for a new section, "How do I do my job" with a dollar bill as the logo.

    --
    Neck_of_the_Woods
    #/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
  7. Re:how about rsync? by MisterMook · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know, after Rsync's last album I've decided that they're probably too old for serious contending in the boy-band heavy marketplace.

  8. Why /.? by Piquan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Let me get this straight. You went to search the web and got conflicting, likely ill-informed, and inconclusive reports. So you went to Slashdot?