This provides a list of WCF FAQs-1 which are of "Difference between" kind

1. Difference between basicHttpBinding and wsHttpBinding
Criteria BasicHttpBinding WsHttpBinding
Security This supports the old ASMX This exposes web services using WS-*
support style, i.e. WS-BasicProfile 1.1. specifications.
Compatibility This is aimed for clients who do As its built using WS-* specifications,
not have .NET 3.0 installed and it it
supports wider ranges of clients. does not support wider ranges of client
Many of the clients like Windows and it cannot be consumed by older
2000 still do not run .NET 3.0. So .NET version less than 3 version.
older version of .NET can
consume this service.
Soap version SOAP 1.1 SOAP 1.2 and WS-Addressing
specification.
Reliable Not supported. In other words, if Supported as it supports WS-*
messaging a client fires two or three calls specifications.
you really do not know if they
will return back in the same
order.
Default By default, there is no security As WsHttBinding supports WS-*, it
security provided for messages when the has
options client calls happen. In other WS-Security enabled by default. So the
words, data is sent as plain text. data is not sent in plain text.
Security None None
options Windows – default authentication Transport
Basic Message
Certificate Transport with message credentials
Difference between Message and Transport level security in WCF
Criteria Transport Security Message Security
Scenarios when we When there are no intermediate When there are intermediate
should be using one of systems in between this is the systems like one more WCF
them best methodology. service through which message is
routed then message security is
If it’s an intranet type of solution the way to go.
this is most recommended
methodology.
Advantages Does not need any extra coding Provides end to end security as
as protocol inherent security is it’s not dependent on protocol.
used. Any intermediate hop in network
does not affect the application.
Performance is better as we can
use hardware accelerators to Supports wide set of security
enhance performance. options as it is not dependent on
protocol. We can also implement
There is lot of interoperability custom security.
support and communicating

2. clients do not need to understand
WS security as it’s built in the
protocol itself.
Disadvantages As it’s a protocol implemented Needs application refactoring to
security so it works only point to implement security.
point.
As every message is encrypted
As security is dependent on and signed there are performance
protocol it has limited security issues.
support and is bounded to the
protocol security limitations. 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 Target can start processing the data when it
it is completely received. is partially received.
2 Performance will be good when Performance will be good when message
message size is small size is larger(more than 64K)
3 Native channel shape is Native channels are IRequestChannel and
IDuplexSessionChannel 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 [ServiceContract]
to be added to the class attribute has to be
added to the class
3 Model [WebMethod] attribute [OperationContract]
represents the method attribute represents the
exposed to client method exposed to
client
4 Operation One-way, Request- One-Way, Request-
Response are the different Response, Duplex are
operations supported in different type of
web service operations supported in
WCF
5 XML System.Xml.serialization System.Runtime.Seriali
name space is used for zation namespace is
serialization used for serialization
6 Encoding XML 1.0, XML 1.0, MTOM,
MTOM(Message Binary, Custom
Transmission
Optimization Mechanism),
DIME, Custom

3. 7 Transports Can be accessed through Can be accessed
HTTP, TCP, Custom through HTTP, TCP,
Named pipes,
MSMQ,P2P, Custom
8 Protocols Security Security, Reliable
messaging,
Transactions
9 State Web Services are stateless WCF Services can
Management manage states