Hi rodferna,
The main reason to implement an HTTP service is to give the server a
means to provide HTML content. HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer
Protocol. This means that it transfers Hyper Text Markup Language
(HTML). This explains why a web address is preceded by HTTP. The HTTP
tells the web browser: "Here comes another Hyper Text Markup Language
document”. Further, you might have noticed that a lot of web
addresses and with .HTML, which again supports how these two are
related. Some web addresses will end with an .HTM. This is generally
from the old days when web sites were hosted on servers, which did not
allow more than three characters for a file extension. They were
stored in what's called the 8.3 format (eight characters for file
name, three characters for file extension).
FTP on the other hand is a File Transfer Protocol. It is designed for
transferring files of types other than HTML (although it will allow
you to transfer HTML too). Generally when a server has FTP services
enabled, the server hosts files for downloading. ZIP files, EXE files,
and such are best transferred via FTP. The FTP has two standards.
The Binary, used for compressed /compiled files, and the ASCII, used
for text files (including HTML, since HTML is not compiled, and can be
opened and read in any text editor). The FTP protocol was designed
for much larger files than HTML was designed to handle.
I hope this gives you somewhat of an insight about the two transfer
protocols you were wondering about, and why/what they are used for.
Here is a little bit more information on FTP and HTML protocols
(contrary to the title, it has a bit of info on both HTML, and FTP).
File Transfer Protocol - What is an FTP, anyway?
http://www.ipswitch.com/Products/WS_FTP/whatisftp.html
For more information, type in "what is HTML", "what is FTP" into the
Google search engine. You will get a lot of hits with web sites
offering to explain the two protocols, and what their purposes are.
Regards,
slawek-ga |
