Network Transfer

Accessing Research Data

• ftp
  • Most data is (as of 3/95) transfered using ftp
  • Common implementations are not extensible
  • Supports only a simple copy of data
• http
  • Fastest growing network transport protocol
  • Common implementations are highly extensible
  • Hypertext can be used to create complex documents

However, most scientific data systems on the web provide only `remote control' access. While useful, this type of data access does not help scientists deal with many different data sources.