Comparing HTTP and FTP for transferring files

Question

What are the advantages (or limitations) of one over the other for transferring files over the Internet?

(I am aware of secure forms of both protocols. I\'d like to

Answer 1

I just benchmarked a file transfer over both FTP and HTTP :

• over two very good server connections
• using the same 1GB .zip file
• under the same network conditions (tested one after the other)

The result:

• using FTP: 6 minutes
• using HTTP: 4 minutes
• using a concurrent http downloader software (fdm): 1 minute

So, basically under a "real life" situation:

1) HTTP is faster than FTP when downloading one big file.

2) HTTP can use parallel chunk download which makes it 6x times faster than FTP depending on the network conditions.