WebDAV vs. FTP for iDisk...Is there need for change?

[d8n_two]

I haven't given up and signed up for .Mac yet, but I do plan to within 13 days. I'm doing it because I love my iDisk for transferring files between my iMac at home to the computers (mostly Dells) in the labs at my university.

I seem to remember the reason that Apple went to the WebDAV protocol was to be more compatible with Windows. From my experience, WebDAV is a pain if you are only temporarily accessing a drive from another computer, especially in a public lab. Now, to my point, with FTP writability hopfully coming soon to Jaguar, wouldn't an FTP or FTP-accesible iDisk be much more convenient? If it were FTP-accessible one could simply open IE on a Windows machine and type something like ftp://d8n_two:password@idisk.mac.com and get a "windows" view to download and upload files. Then when done, just close the browser or change pages and your done. This opposed to remembering to delete the WebDAV network drive. Given you can still set-up a network drive, as with WebDAV, with FTP also (for those who want to do it), what is the advantage of WebDAV over FTP?

I'm just curious what you all think and know. I don't know the details of each protocol, so I'm just basing this all on my surface experiences. If I'm missing some convenience or security feature of WebDAV or if there is an easier way to access it on a Windows machine please let me know.

d8n_two

 

[Tigger]

WebDAV is an extension to the HTTP/1.1 Protocol and so has no problems with Firewalls. FTP could be blocked by Firewalls, but that is not a big point, I think.

The way Apple uses WebDAV it hasn't any advantages over FTP, I'd say.

 

[fryke]

Firewalls are a BIG reason to use WebDAV instead of FTP for Apple. They receive many mails daily already about that Backup doesn't work through firewalls.

I've set up one of our servers for WebDAV and must say that I like my new iDisk very much.