[JDEV] File transfers

[Jacek Konieczny]

On Thu, Jun 06, 2002 at 12:28:00PM -0700, Mike Oliver wrote:
>  I completely concur the Jabber clients can open a second 
> session for the file transfer, 
I agree

> and the handshaking of "do you want it" "ok" 
> "send it" 
I don't agree. The handshaking should be done via jabber protocol.

> but the question is what protocol to use for that file transfer 
> session.  I vote for FTP because the FTP libraries and tools are universal 
> and every language that a Jabber client or server has been built on will 
> have them and can easily be added.
But FTP is a very broken protocol. It requires two connections, some
undetermined ports open on firewall, and in active mode connections 
are initiated by the both sides. I think many firewall adminitrators
hate FTP. Why should they hate jabber too?

> You could even use the Jabber protocol to ask the other Jabber client what 
> ip address/port to use and if they support FTP, HTTP or JTP (aka new TP) 
> for file transfers and leave the server out of it.
I think jabber shoudl be used for handshaking and choosing routes via
some proxies (it may be needed for firewall traversal). Of course
HTTP could be used for the actual transfer, but if the handshake is
already done, so we really need any higher level protocol? Just a simple
TCP stream should be enough.

Greets,
	Jacek

PS. 
  Please, do cut the citations. We are talking about problems about
  sending large files and generating such files at the same time :-)