Microsoft FrontPage
The Microsoft FrontPage publishing tool uses a proprietary protocol. Microsoft provides a set of CGIs and an Apache module (FrontPage extensions) that allow Apache Web servers running on Unix to work with FrontPage clients. At the time this book was written, there was no version of FrontPage extensions for Apache 2.0. You can find more information about FrontPage on Apache at the following Web site:
http://www.rtr.com/Ready-to-Run_Software/frontpage_
server_extensions.htm
Should I Use DAV or FrontPage Extensions?
Microsoft itself seems to be moving away from the FrontPage protocol and favoring the DAV protocol. In addition, FrontPage extensions for Unix are regarded as highly insecure because they require running certain parts with root user privileges. This means that if the Web server is compromised, the attacker automatically gains complete control over the machine. Even with those drawbacks, FrontPage remains one of the most popular Apache modules, running in nearly 20% of all Apache 1.3 servers.
DAV enables you to take advantage of all the other Apache and HTTP protocol features, such as SSL, caching, authentication mechanisms, and so on.
So, unless you need to support older clients that understand only the FrontPage protocol, using mod_dav is likely the better choice.