FTP Speeds Slow?

mikelyons50 · Post by **mikelyons50** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:38 am

I am new to using Core FTP server and after some confusion on my part took the easy road and used the mini server to transfer some files to my brother. We both have broadband and yet I notice the transfer speed seems very slow compared to when I download from a site like Download.com or Gamespot.com, etc. which I think uses HTTP to download files I choose? I run a nice little program called Sysmetrix that puts a bar on my display with basic system info it polls including Net In and Net Out so I have a ballpark idea at least of transfer speeds ongoing with whatever I might be using.

I notice that when I download say a game demo that can be quite large, over a gigabyte in size sometimes that the speed seems far faster than this ftp transfer is. I have Comcast for my ISP and live in New England, USA if that matters. A game demo download like that will sometimes hit 1 Megabyte per second I think it is and often runs around 300 to 500 kbps.

I notice my NET out is never getting much of 50 kbps and correspondingly my brother reports his download is running about that speed.

Why is that? The mini server is not configurable beyond name, password and port and the port is open in the firewall here and it is working. He can download from other sites much, much faster and yet direct from me is slow as molasses for some reason.

Is this just the nature of the beast here? Is fpt slow by its nature? Am I doing something wrong unknowingly or is there anything I should check or configure within Windows XP to make the transfer speed faster?

Would figuring out the regular coreftp server yield better results?

If speedtesting reveals I can upload at 256 Kbps is there some reason I cannot transfer at this speed at least?

Any education about fpt speeds would be most appreciated. Thank you very much.

mikelyons50 · Post by **mikelyons50** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:17 am

Thank you very much. Now it makes sense to me. A limit imposed by Comcast had not occured to me and I was mixing up my byte and kbytes, etc. a bit I noticed as I reread my own post. I do get about the normal max for a home cable internet consumer it seems. Buggers!

It will be sweet when there is more bandwidth. Of course, then our files will probably be overly large for the bandwidth again accordingly...

Lyster · Post by **Lyster** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:30 pm

I just posted somewhere else but thought I would add to this one as well.
I'm getting a tiny 28kbs but have just tested my connection which should give me 220kbs...
I have up-ed the buffer sizes to 8092 each but haven't noticed any difference...

Any ideas or updates?

Cheers...

kahorton · Post by **kahorton** » Mon May 12, 2008 1:22 am

Since I had seen Comcast mentioned in this note, I figured that I would provide some information, and test results.

Awhile back, I had read that Comcast was planning to increase the uplink speeds in some areas. I had not been notified of an increase, but did find out that my uplink speed had increased after I reset my MTA in order to update the provisioning (I have Comcast Digital Phone). Otherwise if you have a modem, you may have to power cycle the modem in order to update the provisioning.

I have read that the uplink speed may be in excess of 1 mb/s with the standard tier, and 2 mb/s with the higher speed tier. I have the higher speed tier, and see uplink speeds of 2.5 Mb/s in speed tests. The previous uplink speed was 384 Kb/s, and 768 Kb/s for each of the respective tiers. These are both home service tiers, I do not have any information on business tiers.

I ran several upload tests to the Comcast FTP site, I saw an upload speed of 275 KB/s. I then tested with 2 other FTP sites external to Comcast. One site, in the same state which I live, had an upload speed of 275 KB/s also. The other site, located across the country, had an upload speed of 180 KB/s.