i'm not sure if i've come to the right type of forum for this question. but if anybody can assist me by answering my question, i'd greatly appreciate it.

my question is, i've been seeing lot of music sites using http:// and mms:// protocols to serve windows media files.

what are the differences between these two types of internet protocols?

what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

which one will use up more bandswidth?

thanks!

I did a search for mms:// protocol and came up with the following:

http:// protocol is the default protocol for webpages (http servers) and are typically accessed via a web browser. ftp:// protocol is the default protocol for file transfer (ftp servers) and are typically accessed via an ftp client. Similarily mms:// protocol is Microsoft's protocol for media and is accessed via Microsoft Media Player.

Bandwidth isn't an issue here. Regardless of whether you download a 10mb file via http:// or via ftp:// it is still 10mb regardless and will take the same amount of time to download.

Although I have no experience with mms:// my guess is that it is a form of streaming media. When accessing media over http://, it isn't streaming by default but it can be configured on the server's end to do so. This means that you can listen/watch the first part of the media file while it finishes downloading the end part you haven't gotten to yet. This way you don't have to wait for the entire thing to download before you can start playing it. Of course, it still takes just as long to get to your computer when all is said and done. It's just that when it's streaming, you can start playing it before it finishes.

Dani's right about all of the above. The [protocol]:// also tells the application what protocol you are using, and it goes to the specified the address using the default port.

For example, http://'s default port is 80, and ftp://'s default port is port 21.