Re: [squid-users] ftp site

On Tue, Apr 30, 2002 at 11:54:23AM +0000, Simon White wrote:
>
> MSIE FTP support is sketchy.
>

Mind you, Netscape seems to be going down the same path. In version 6
of the Netscape browser they have dumped the file upload (aka
"publish") functionality.

> I really don't think a web browser should be
> going FTP stuff like MSIE attempts to do. Right clicking files and "Copy
> to Folder" just makes me grind my teeth.
>

yes... and don't get me started on the drag and drop lottery that
seems to happen elsewhere, the rules about when you get a link, get
the file moved and when you get a copy are not something I can get my
head around (not that I really care to)

> However since 90% of the web browsing population choose to use MSIE, you'd
> think their FTP support would be better,

Complacency may have something to do with it.

>
> . I would say as
> a hunch that FTP might be a bit friendlier but HTTP downloads are here to
> stay, and at least they can be cached by Squid.
>

The ftp protocol has it's own rude habits - it was designed to
maximise link utilisation which can play havoc on a shared link.
Having said that, overloading http as a file transfer mechanism is not
nice either. At least with a ftp session you can restart the transfer
if the client and server support the feature, with http you are stuck
sucking the whole damn thing down again.

> Look in the advanced options for FTP, there are some things there that you
> might be able to check/uncheck to help improve the situation, but if you
> seriously need FTP functionality then a good FTP client is much better.
> The time it takes you to learn will be saved once you get the hang of it.
>

There is not much you can tweak that appears to be ftp related in IE.
I would be interested in a pointer to a windows ftp client that plays
nicely with a squid proxy (I _have_ to use a www proxy to reach this
particular site - I have no other choice). I know that the ftp client
that comes with NetBSD (and is distributed as lukemftp for other *NIX
systems) will use a http proxy to fetch specific files but I really
need something that is more interactive for the people here that want
to do this.

-- 
Brett Lymn