(again) Slow FTP transfer

[Mjolnir]

For uploads, let me test for D/L, and also check this UploadBlockSize parameters.
Keep you in touch.

[Mjolnir]

Yes ! that's it !!! Poroblem solved with forced parameter UploadBlockSize !

Here the tests :

Without UploadBlockSize parameter in the wcx_ftp.ini file :
- Upload with TC to my distant Solaris server : really slooooowww !
- Download : fast

With UploadBlockSize=1460 (*) in the wcx_ftp.ini file :
- Upload with TC to my distant Solaris server : as faster as Filezilla FTP
- Download : fast (no changes)

(*) set it to the max value "seen" with WireShark for FileZilla "FTP listening"


Thank you all, it solves my problem... you should try this parameter hlloyge...


Last thing : should I increase the UploadBlockSize value to get beeter perf. ? (ie, which is the "better" value I should set ? keep the max value seen for FileZilla ?)

Edit on 15/09/09 10:13AM :

Answering to my own question : it's really not a good idea to increase this parameter to value <> 1460.
Expl. : I've set it to 1492 (like specified in the help file from TC), and restart my upload tests, analysing it with WireShark : all uploads are "double ones" : one with 1460, and another one with 32 bytes (><) ... to makes the 1492 bytes expected... oups, I go back to =1460 max !!!

Another Test : ok, now let's try with a power of 2 : UploadBlockSize=1408 (2^10+2^8+2^7) : argh ! I got as bad results as ones I get without setting UploadBlockSize variable... (verified with WireShark, I got some retry + 50% of traffic is 1460bytes, other is 1356 bytes !?!?).

Conclusion : this 1460 value seems "my" best one (tried on 2x distant system) on my local LAN.

WireShark informations for "UploadBlockSize=1460":
- Logs : 521172 679.076411 <IPSRC> <IPDEST> FTP-DATA FTP Data: 1460 bytes
- Detail #1 : Frame 521172 (1514 bytes on wire, 1514 bytes captured)
- Detail #2 Transmission Control Protocol, Src Port: 10205 (10205), Dst Port: 29642 (29642), Seq: 74375321, Ack: 1, Len: 1460
=> Relation between the 1514 bytes captured and the "message" len 1460 (1514-1460 = 54 bytes = Container size (~Header(s)) ???)

And (logicaly) the last question : is this 1460 value specific to my local LAN, or generic ?!?!?

[ghisler(Author)]

1460 is specific to Ethernet frames. Other methods like dialup are using different block sizes. You may try a large multiple of 1460, e.g. 1460x16=23360. Don't try too big (e.g. >64k), it may not work at all.

[hlloyge]

Well, I tried the setting, and with 1460 I got just a small increase, from 24 MB/s to 32 MB/s. When I increased it 8 times more, 11680, the speed reached 47 MB/s. Still, FileZilla reaches 68 MB/s. So, I doubled the numbers again, 23360, to reach 63 MB/s.
And then I went crazy and doubled the numbers again, to 46720, and it melted my hard drives, rebooted computer, crashed remote servers and fried gigabit switch... nah, just kidding, it reached 68 MB/s just like FileZilla did.
So... what a strange behaviour. It fixed my upload problems, and nulled my need for FileZilla for enormous uploads... mind you, this is local LAN gigabit connection, so these numbers might not work for ADSL/optical uploads.

[Boofo]

I've always had mine set to 8192, for some reason. I have no idea if that is the right setting for my setup or not.

[Sam_Zen]

I also got slow FTP problems when uploading.
Running XP, TC 7.50a, LAN-connection to ADSL modem.

I added the 'UploadBlockSize' in the wcx_ftp.ini file, with several values, but it didn't make any difference.
It's still a miserable 27 Kbps (KBps ?). So I tried Filezilla, but it appeared to have the same speed..

[ghisler(Author)]

2Sam_Zen
Maybe your upload speed is 300 kbps (kiloBIT per second)? TC shows the speed in kBytes per second, so the above would be about right. Upload speed is usually much lower than download speed.

[Sam_Zen]

I'm aware of the latter.
You're right, it says 27 kbytes/s, and I now recall making this mistake before..

[Spockie]

Isn't it possible to be adjusting UploadBlockSize dynamically? e.g. based on speed of transfer, which Total Commander obviously knows because it is displayed to user. I mean trying to increase UploadBlockSize and see if speed rises.

[Death_Master]

I also got speed problems while uploading.
Can you get ftp client code from FileZilla and put it to TC?
It will be a good solution for upload speed problem & for increasing functionality(it will be possible to transfer several files(parallel upload/download)& it will add sftp support(which is also important for me)).

[ghisler(Author)]

No, FileZilla is published under GPL, so it's not allowed to use their code. Have you tried to increase the upload block size?

[ismanpa]

Hello,

I do not have any settings in wcx_ftp.ini except for the stored servers I connect to.

Please help.

Thank you!

[karlchen]

I do not have any settings in wcx_ftp.ini except for the stored servers I connect to.
Please help.

Insufficient input in order to get any helpful answer.

Karl

[j7n]

Thank you very much for this helpful topic. Initially I publickly blamed the server for having a speed limit.

My transfers reached steady 70 kB/s on one server and 160 kB/s on another, while download was around a megabyte. After increasing the UploadBlockSize to 46720, I reach my overseas speed of 450 kB/s, same as FileZilla.

The reason why I was so confident about this being the server's fault was that the problem didn't occur while transferring files through my routers on my own network. Speeds reached 1 to 5 MB/s, which was normal speed.

I made a test now with an ancient Celeron 400 MHz computer running BulletProof FTP: 2 MB/s with the default block size, 3 MB/s with the large value.

The bottom line is that TC now works well again!

[Blight]

I encountered this issue myself and setting the UploadBlockSize to 46720 worked well.

The bigger question is, why is there not a way to choose a connection speed/type in the FTP's configuration page and have the 'UploadBlockSize' value set automatically based on the user's selection...

The default value (designed for dial-ups?) isn't very good.