FTP problems

J

Janeybeans

New Member
Hi from a newbie :)

I'm looking for some not-too-techy advice please! (I'm not a complete technical dunce but not too technical please!)

I do work from home which involves downloading audio files over an FTP server. This worked fine until I changed ISP and now the transfer speed is stupidly slow (around 4.5kbps) even though I'm now on a 30mb fibre connection (previously was on a 2mb 'ordinary' connection).

The ISP have been good and have done lots of testing and whilst they did find a problem with what the FTP traffic was being marked as (causing slower speeds) they've fixed this but I'm still having the problem. They're now pretty much saying it's not their network causing the issue (even though I never had a problem until I switched to them).

So, when they do finally say this I'm still going to be left with the problem of downloading at 4.5kbps when we're talking fairly large files - the ones I've downloaded today have been small at 10-15mb. A couple of weeks ago I had 3 files that were going to take around 36 hours to download (luckily the company was able to convert them to a different format without losing too much audio quality (I have to type what's being said in the audio so quality is key).

What things could I check that *might* fix the problem?

I'm using Filezilla to transfer and am on Windows Vista. I've tried turning off anti-virus.

I've tried accessing the FTP using a different user account, which was used with no problems by other clients but got the same speeds.

Nothing at all has changed either at this end or at the company end EXCEPT for changing ISP so I'm at a loss as to what to do (other than bang my head on a brick wall).


Thanks in advance :)
 
Is it just transfers of mp3s that are slow? If you try a different large file over ftp from the same server and it's fast it's likely still an ISP problem.
 
Cromewell said:
Is it just transfers of mp3s that are slow? If you try a different large file over ftp from the same server and it's fast it's likely still an ISP problem.
Click to expand...

Yeah, maybe they're trying to pull anti-piracy BS by limiting download speeds for MP3 and other files.
 
I did wonder if it's because they are audio files (although not MP3, they're usually WAV or WMA. We've tried an video file but not a straightforward Word etc type file so will give that a go.

Will also try the other FTP client mentioned (I can't remember the one I tried before).
 
Hmmmm, right.

Have tested with Word documents. It's as slow transferring from them to me (and same on Cyberduck too).

However, when I transfer a Word doc from me to them, it's quicker, although still not as quick as it should be (going at between 20-30kbps rather than 4-5kbps)

So what does this maybe mean? Would it normally be quicker from me to them anyway so these speeds are right based on the overall slow speed.
 
If everything from them is slow it could be the amount of upload bandwidth available on their end.
 
We checked this before, the speeds at their end are Download 9.89Mbps and Upload 1.00 Mbps. This hasn't changed, i.e. it was the same when I was transferring files at faster speeds prior to changing ISP.

On Friday I'm going to try testing from a different house, so different computer and ISP. If it's fast then I know it's either my computer or my ISP. Just trying to eliminate different factors.

Personally, I can't see how it isn't the ISP as it's only a problem since I changed to them.
 
Done more testing.

I've just logged on to the FTP on my knackered old laptop (mainly knackered in that the screen is very dodgy and liable to black out without warning). Was pretty much just as slow (7kbps rather than 4kbps).

Tomorrow I'm going to go to my mum's and test on a) her PC and b) take my PC and test it there too.

Now, to my mind, if it's fast on either/both of those machines there, then it's the ISP here, right? What other possible reason could there be for my PC being slow here and fast there (if that's the case).

Not that I don't believe them when they say it's not their issue or anything...
 
Janeybeans said:
We checked this before, the speeds at their end are Download 9.89Mbps and Upload 1.00 Mbps. This hasn't changed, i.e. it was the same when I was transferring files at faster speeds prior to changing ISP.

On Friday I'm going to try testing from a different house, so different computer and ISP. If it's fast then I know it's either my computer or my ISP. Just trying to eliminate different factors.

Personally, I can't see how it isn't the ISP as it's only a problem since I changed to them.
Click to expand...

The speed doesn't necessarily have to change at their end for you to see less speed. If other people are using the FTP or they are hosting anything else, the available upload bandwidth for you will be less. 10Mbit down/1Mbit up is a bit of an odd hosting package, is it a home user?
 
Well it's a company but it's run from a home office, so maybe just has a home connection rather than business one.

One of the things we checked was whether anyone else was accessing the FTP at the same time as me and there wasn't. There have also been separately accessing the FTP at different times to upload files TO the server and they've not had any issue. The only person having the issue is me/here. This has also been going on for weeks, and it's always at exactly the same speed, it flicks around up to about 10kbps and then settles at 4.5kbps, it's very consistent how it goes.
 
It's certainly possible that you're getting throttled. If it's really impacting you and calling your ISP hasn't helped you can try switching. You mentioned testing the transfer from another location, how did that go?
 
Tested from different location today. As I suspected it was lots quicker, around 150kbps (on a 10mb connection).

I've also heard today from a friend that the company she works for has had ftp issues with the same isp, apparently something to do with bonding software.

So I've thrown the ball back in their court.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top