Re: connection fight

Lou Montulli (montulli@netscape.com)
Mon, 24 Apr 1995 02:07:59 +0500


On Apr 22, 3:43pm, Christopher Caserio wrote:
> Subject: Re: connection fight
> >
> > Well, I have never listened a word about Netscape being "weak" in
> > the "fight" for connections.
> > Does anybody have something to say about it ???
> >
> Netscape does *seem* to have more problems getting an FTP
> link than other tools (ftptool, ncftp, ftp); but that is
> only a feeling, not scientific at all.

The only sites that I have encountered that Netscape fails
on are ones that have broken PASV implementations. These
sites are in violation of the RFC so there isn't much
I can do about that. If you know of any sites that fail
please email me with the address.

>
> Also, Netscape (and other browsers) open and close the ftp
> connection for each transfer, whereas the standard ftp clients
> maintain the control connection for the entire session. This
> means that your browser must *fight* the traffic for each directory
> listing, file transfer, etc.

Other browsers do that, but not Netscape. Netscape reuses
FTP control connections whereever possible. It is sometimes
necessary to sever a control connection but in most cases
it is reused.

-- 
Lou Montulli                 http://www.mcom.com/people/montulli/
       Netscape Communications Corp.