News
Deprecation of FTP File Download Protocol in the PDB Archive
11/01 
The FTP protocol for file downloads has been losing popularity over the years in favor of HTTP/S. There are many advantages of HTTP/S including speed, statelessness, security (HTTPS), and better support. Importantly during the past 2-3 years the main web browsers (Chrome and Firefox) have dropped support for the FTP protocol, which has effectively discontinued the FTP protocol for non-technical users.
Given that the majority of file download activity on the internet has moved to HTTP/S, wwPDB plans to deprecate FTP download protocol on November 1st 2024.
wwPDB has traditionally supported FTP, together with HTTP/S and RSYNC. Gradual deprecation of the FTP protocol, in favor of the HTTP/HTTPS protocol will be approached while maintaining support for the RSYNC protocol which offers additional functionality compared to the other 2 protocols.
As announced previously, we have introduced DNS names that are specific to the protocols:
- files.wwpdb.org for HTTP/S
- ftp.wwpdb.org for FTP. To be deprecated on November 1st 2024. Note that from September 2023 this DNS name will not accept HTTP/S traffic.
- rsync.wwpdb.org for RSYNC
Starting September 2023, wwPDB will start enforcing use of these updated DNS names for the preparation of FTP protocol deprecation.
Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
