WCF Difference FAQs-1

Difference between basicHttpBinding and wsHttpBinding

Criteria	BasicHttpBinding	WsHttpBinding
Security support	This supports the old ASMX style, i.e. WS-BasicProfile 1.1.	This exposes web services using WS-* specifications.
Compatibility	This is aimed for clients who do not have .NET 3.0 installed and it supports wider ranges of clients. Many of the clients like Windows 2000 still do not run .NET 3.0. So older version of .NET can consume this service.	As its built using WS-* specifications, it does not support wider ranges of client and it cannot be consumed by older .NET version less than 3 version.
Soap version	SOAP 1.1	SOAP 1.2 and WS-Addressing specification.
Reliable messaging	Not supported. In other words, if a client fires two or three calls you really do not know if they will return back in the same order.	Supported as it supports WS-* specifications.
Default security options	By default, there is no security provided for messages when the client calls happen. In other words, data is sent as plain text.	As WsHttBinding supports WS-*, it has WS-Security enabled by default. So the data is not sent in plain text.
Security options	None Windows – default authentication Basic Certificate	None Transport Message Transport with message credentials

Difference between Message and Transport level security in WCF

Criteria	Transport Security	Message Security
Scenarios when we should be using one of them	When there are no intermediate systems in between this is the best methodology. If it’s an intranet type of solution this is most recommended methodology.	When there are intermediate systems like one more WCF service through which message is routed then message security is the way to go.
Advantages	Does not need any extra coding as protocol inherent security is used. Performance is better as we can use hardware accelerators to enhance performance. There is lot of interoperability support and communicating clients do not need to understand WS security as it’s built in the protocol itself.	Provides end to end security as it’s not dependent on protocol. Any intermediate hop in network does not affect the application. Supports wide set of security options as it is not dependent on protocol. We can also implement custom security.
Disadvantages	As it’s a protocol implemented security so it works only point to point. As security is dependent on protocol it has limited security support and is bounded to the protocol security limitations.	Needs application refactoring to implement security. As every message is encrypted and signed there are performance issues. Does not support interoperability with old ASMX webservices

Difference between Buffered transfer and Streamed transfer in WCF

S.No	Buffered Transfer	Streamed Transfer
1	Target can process the message once it is completely received.	Target can start processing the data when it is partially received.
2	Performance will be good when message size is small	Performance will be good when message size is larger(more than 64K)
3	Native channel shape is IDuplexSessionChannel	Native channels are IRequestChannel and IReplyChannel

Difference between WCF and Web Services

S.No	Features	WebService	WCF
1	Hosting	It can be hosted in IIS	t can be hosted in IIS, windows activation service, Self-hosting, Windows service
2	Programming	[WebService] attribute has to be added to the class	[ServiceContract] attribute has to be added to the class
3	Model	[WebMethod] attribute represents the method exposed to client	[OperationContract] attribute represents the method exposed to client
4	Operation	One-way, Request- Response are the different operations supported in web service	One-Way, Request-Response, Duplex are different type of operations supported in WCF
5	XML	System.Xml.serialization name space is used for serialization	System.Runtime.Serialization namespace is used for serialization
6	Encoding	XML 1.0, MTOM(Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism), DIME, Custom	XML 1.0, MTOM, Binary, Custom
7	Transports	Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Custom	Can be accessed through HTTP, TCP, Named pipes, MSMQ,P2P, Custom
8	Protocols	Security	Security, Reliable messaging, Transactions
9	State Management	Web Services are stateless	WCF Services can manage states