Today, I have come across a technical issue that a process is taking too long to download a file from one of our file server. The reason is due to the number of the files of a folder is increased over time and finally reach to ~ 12000. If you use ftp, you need to establish tcp connection per file download.

1. Webdav is a protocol. It enhances http, and works thru http, so you only need to open port 80 (or 443 if https)
2. It allows you to work with remote files as if they were on your machine.
3. Example, ftp, for you to edit a txt file on an ftp server, you need to download the file, edit, and upload the revised file. Webdav allows you to work with the file, fromthe server, without downloading.
4. It also allows for “locking” of files, which means, multiple users can work with a file at the same time, but only 1 at a time can make changes.
5. Wedav is also secure because it works along side ntfs permissions, and can be used over https, so everything is encrypted. With FTP you’d have to setup a vnp connection to the ftp server, and enable IPsec policies over that vpn.
6. Webdav allows you to pipe multiple transfers, as opposed to ftp opening a new connection for every transfer.
7. It is more efficient, and nativley support by windows (webfolders IS webdav) and ultimatly more secure than FTP, and the fact that when working with xp, every app sees the file as if it were local, makes it a much more efficient webmastering/file transfering solution.
8. It means less ports to open on your firewall, and a smaller attack zone for hackers, cause it works from port 80 with http