Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: FTP client

This is topic FTP client in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 09-26-2013, 04:04 PM:

I'm fairly new to FTP transfer but I have done them before. I'm using Filezilla now. Our internet at the theater is 25MBS download speed. Filezilla is transferring at an average of 800KBS. Is there a faster service?

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 09-26-2013, 04:13 PM:

Probably not. Your theater internet is probably 25 Meg bits per second (Mbps). The FileZilla rate is 800K bytes per second MBps which translates to 6.4 Mbps (8 bits per byte).

Your transfer speed will be limited by the slowest link or host.

I use ftp quite a lot and rarely is the transfer even close to my internet link speed (35Mbps bidirectional). FileZilla is really quite good and the best part is its free.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 09-26-2013, 04:21 PM:

Well that's disappointing. Thanks anyway Rick.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-26-2013, 05:28 PM:

Depending on what you're doing, you may (or may not) get better transfer speeds using scp with compression enabled instead of plain old ftp. scp's native compression method is gzip, so it's great for some types of files and substantially less impressive for others. Of course, transfers of large, uncompressed files will show more of an improvement than transfers of small or previously compressed files.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 09-26-2013, 05:48 PM:

It will mostly be for DCP trailers.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 09-26-2013, 06:24 PM:

Richard, are you talking about the speed for sending something out from your theatre, or downloading something to your theatre. I you're talking about sending out (upload), you're speed will normally be significantly lower than your download speed. This is something tied to your ISP and has nothing to do with what FTP client you're using.

If you are talking about download, it could be slow because it's downloading from a computer that has a slow upload speed, or the bandwidth is being used by multiple users downloading at the same time. About the only thing you can do is make sure you're not trying to download multiple files at one time - or that your connection isn't being used to steam media or any other bandwidth intensive activity by another user.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 09-26-2013, 07:11 PM:

This is for downloading trailers. There is nothing else on our network to slow things down. It must be on their end.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 09-26-2013, 07:29 PM:

I'm interested in Justin's "steamed media". It must look something like this:

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-27-2013, 10:59 AM:

If you're using Windows XP or later, you can just type the FTP address into the Windows Explorer address bar, and use the remote site as if it is a local folder, dragging and dropping as reqiured. That won't work with FTPS/FTPES, but for unencrypted FTP I've found it to be much less of a faff than Filezilla.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-27-2013, 12:35 PM:

FileZilla is a very decent FTP client, probably one of the better ones currently out there. It beats the integrated FTP clients in recent Windows version hands down on may aspect. If you don't need those features, the one integrated in Windows is fine, but...

The nice thing about FileZilla is that it supports queues and can reliably resume file transfers if they were interrupted. It also understands passive FTP without causing headaches, which is important if you're behind a non-supportive firewall/NAT setup. Also, you can download multiple files at once (configurable), which can highly improve your overall up-/download rate, for both small and large files. If you're experiencing high latency to your up-/download location and dynamic TCP windowing isn't available or broken, having multiple TCP data streams can dramatically improve your overall transfer speed. Obviously that only works (with FTP) when transferring multiple files, not just a single big one.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-27-2013, 01:03 PM:

It could be that whoever is running the server is using traffic shaping or per-connection bandwidth caps to limit the amount of traffic that one user can create. Depending on the server-side setup, you might be able to open multiple connections (in the same or different client(s)) to transfer multiple files at once.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 09-27-2013, 01:18 PM:

Scott. That's what it sounds like. It definitely is on their end. I downloaded files from somewhere else and it went much quicker. Since these are single large files, I will just have to deal with it.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-28-2013, 05:49 PM:

I used to use Filezilla...until a corrupted software update (upon transfer) caused two servers out of 8 to die. It was a couple of years ago and I heard similar stories about a generation of Filezilla that had issues (PC version). I switched to WinSCP and never looked back (version 4.19). Never an issue.

Posted by Bajsic Bojan (Member # 4928) on 09-29-2013, 01:44 AM:

Total commander, it's stable, have no issues. Interface is clunky but if you remember the Norton Commander of DOS fame, this is it.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-29-2013, 04:38 AM:

You are welcome for the recommendation, Steve.

WinSCP version 4.1.9 is indeed flawless. I'm not sure how easy it is to find anymore, but it's here if anyone wants to grab a copy. WinSCP is freeware.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-29-2013, 09:17 AM:

Yes indeed...it was another fine tip from Brad.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-29-2013, 11:57 AM:

quote: Marcel Birgelen
It beats the integrated FTP clients in recent Windows version hands down on may aspect. If you don't need those features, the one integrated in Windows is fine, but...

Point taken. A former workplace used FTP access for moving files to and from their servers when working away from the office, and I really appreciated the built-in Windows FTP. When shunting lots of small files back and forth, it removed the need to faff about with a separate client, and if you told Windows to remember your login credentials, you really could use the remote site just as if it was a folder on the local hard drive. However, I did once lose the connection half way through uploading a 500mb file, and had to start again when it was restored.

They then changed their system to secure FTP, and so I had to start using Filezilla because the integral Windows FTP doesn't support it. It's good, but slows you down a bit. And like Steve, I've had the odd freeze/crash in the Windows version of Filezilla. Never had any problem with the Ubuntu version, though.