Speed of transfer

randy998 · Post by **randy998** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 10:05 pm

I was wondering. Why is FTP slower than an HTTP Download? Is there a way to make ftp transfers quicker? some registry hack etc...

Thanks

Randy

Brendon K · Post by **Brendon K** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 3:59 am

HTTP is coming from a specialized server process that is made to be extremely efficient (most likely, Apache as it dominates the market) and is optimized for quickness. An FTP program must first connect to the FTP daemon, which may sometimes work THROUGH the HTTP server, depending on the setup, therefore adding an additional task.

FTP may also be secured via SFTP, which can slow down the process as it checks for proper authentication.

It's not always slower, in fact sometimes it's faster. But, in my experience, usually HTTP downloads are faster.

Either way, whether I'm correct in my statements or not, there isn't really a registry hack to make it (FTP downloads) faster.

jeffd · Post by **jeffd** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 4:47 am

If you increase the size of your buffers it should help too.

Go to the advanced - connection settings of the site profile and increase the send to 4096, receive 16384.

If you go higher than 32k on the receive it can sometimes slow thigns down.