In article ,
Kyler Laird wrote:
'course for unauthenticated access, there is *less* overhead for
HTTP, but for large files this difference is in the noise. (Not
only do you not have to "log in" for HTTP, but you don't have to
mess with setting up a data channel. These are just setup costs
though.)

There's no argument that in terms of protocol efficiency, FTP and HTTP
are about the same (since they're both essentially using a single TCP
stream for the bulk data transfer). You can make arguments about
protocol overhead in the HTTP request versus the FTP command channel,
but I think that's down in the noise (especially for larger files).

One thing to consider is that some government agencies have different
policies for what data can be made available via ftp versus HTTP (I
don't know if that is true for the FAA, but that's certainly true for
other agencies). Now, I admit that those policies are dumb, but _you_
try telling the people in charge that.

And I guess I have to ask ... what's the big deal? I mean, doesn't
your web browser handle an ftp:// URL? At least they're thinking about
making it available via the Internet, which you have to admit is a step
up.

--Ken