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Incredibly slow FTP upload speeds on Intel Macs with OS 10.5 (34 posts)

This is an archived topic. The information in it is likely to be out-of-date and no longer applicable to current versions of Fetch.
  • Started 15 years ago by vandee
  • Latest reply 14 years ago from Scott McGuire
  • vandee Member

    I've been using Fetch for years and recently bought two new Intel iMacs to add to my office. I still have my older G5 iMacs as well. We have an extremely high speed business class broadband connection and on the older iMacs that are running 10.4.11, our FTP connection through Fetch with them is absolutely super-fast with upload speeds of close to 300 kb/sec.

    However, on the new iMacs, which are Intel Macs and run OS 10.5, the FTP connection is insanely slow, with connections of less than 30 kb/sec (yes, 10 times slower). It starts out fast at first (like all FTP connections) but then very rapidly slows to a maddening crawl of 30 kb/sec or less.

    Anyone have any idea what this might be attributed to? Or anyone out there have the same problem? We are having to transfer everything to our older iMacs in order to upload, which is another huge time waste.

    Any help is appreciated.

    BTW, on the new Intel Macs, we have tried using both Fetch 4.0.3 (which is the version we have on the older iMacs) as well as Fetch 5.3 and the same slowness problem exists for both.

    [This message has been edited by vandee (edited 12-08-2008).]

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    We have not heard of any problem with such slow Fetch uploads on new Intel iMacs (or any Intel Macs), so we do not have an immediate solution for you, but we'll help investigate the problem so that hopefully we can find the cause.

    To begin with - much as we hate to ask this - have you tried uploading using the command-line FTP client, or another FTP program, to see if the problem is with any FTP upload, or if it's just with Fetch?

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • vandee Member

    Hi Scott -

    We also use Vicomsoft FTP Client and there's no speed issues with that application at all. We prefer to use Fetch because it's much easier but the speed problem is killing us.

    Thanks.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    Thanks for the additional information. We'd prefer that you use Fetch, too, of course! So we'll try to figure this out.

    The next thing we'd like to see is a transcript of Fetch uploading a largish file on one of the problem Macs. To do this:

    * Quit Fetch if it's running.
    * Open Fetch again.
    * Connect to your server.
    * Upload a file large enough to cause the slow transfer problem.
    * Once the transfer is complete, go to the Window menu, and choose Fetch Transcript.
    * Copy the entire contents of the transcript window, and paste them into an email message, and send them to:

    bugs at fetchsoftworks dot com

    Then for comparison, we'd like you to upload the same file with Vicomsoft FTP Client, and send us the transcript from that as well (to the same email address). (I do not have the newest version of Vicomsoft FTP Client, but in the version I have, you find the transcript by going to View menu, and choosing Show Transcript Drawer).

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • vandee Member

    Hi Scott --

    Okay, great -- we will do that. It's just so weird that our older Macs running Fetch on the exact same wireless network (and all in the same room, no less) run so fast while the new ones run so slow.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    Okay, thanks, we'll keep an eye out for the transcripts.

    Yeah, we're a little puzzled as well, but hopefully we'll be able to sort it out. (Unfortunately we don't have any of those particular iMac models to test on ourselves to see if it's something peculiar to those models.)

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi,

    I sent you a reply via email, but since I had not heard back, I wanted to follow up here.

    We received the Fetch transcript you sent, thanks. It shows no obvious cause for the slow speeds, but for the best analysis we need the comparison transcript from the command line FTP or Vicomsoft FTP. If you emailed that already, please let us know, because we did not receive it.

    I realize you may just be busy with other things, but I wanted to follow up, just in case.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • PhilNdenver Member

    I too am having a horrible experience with upload speeds. My current file is going up at 38kbps, and the download is around 4MBps. I'll give Vicomsoft a try. Bummer.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi PhilNDenver,

    Slow uploads speeds in Fetch only but not in other FTP clients are very uncommon, and as you see from above, we are always willing to work with customers to find out the cause of the problem and try to fix it.

    In order to best help you, we'd like some more information to begin with.

    Which version of Fetch and Mac OS X are you using?

    What model of Mac do you have?

    Do you see these slow upload speeds only on one Mac (if you have more than one)?

    Do you see slow upload speeds to just one server, or all servers (if you upload to more than one)?

    Sorry, I know that seems like a lot of questions at once, but these are all important pieces of information in order to help us figure out what is going on.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • PhilNdenver Member

    Thanks Scott, I have Comcast coming out today to determine if they are the problem. After that I will continue my testing. I'll let you know what I discover.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Phil,

    Okay, please do let us know what you find out, and if we can be of further assistance.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • vandee Member

    I'm still having this issue. We just had to replace one of our G5's with a new Intel because the G5 finally died and now the upload speeds for it are crawling. 30 kb/sec and even less. It starts off fast (around 250 kb/sec) but as the file goes, it incrementally drops into the low double-digit range, 20 to 30 kb/sec

    The other G5's are fine. All the Intels are slow as molasses. Same version of Fetch on all of them.

    This is SO frustrating.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi vandee,

    Is the new Mac another Intel iMac, just like the others?

    And is it still the case that Vicomsoft uploads at full speed on all the Macs where Fetch suffers from slow upload speeds?

    If that is still the case, if you can send us comparison transcripts from both Fetch and Vicomsoft uploading to the same server on the same machine as described above (previously you sent us only a Fetch transcript), we will investigate.

    If transcripts form Vicomsoft uploads are not available - or Vicomsoft uploads now have the same problem - please let us know and we will try to figure it out what other information we can gather to help us figure out what the problem is.

    We really would like to try our best to figure out what's going on, but we need additional information.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • interstellar Member

    I am also have upload speed issues at 10% of test speeds. Spent an hour on the phone with the TELCO guys trying to figure out why the problem.

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi interstellar,

    We can try to help diagnose the problem and see if we have any advice.

    To begin with, do you see slow upload speeds to just one server, or all servers (if you upload to more than one)?

    Are the slow uploads a new problem, or is this the first time you've tried?

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 15 years ago #

  • PhilNdenver Member

    Scott,

    I apologize for not getting back. The Comcast Cable folks came out, and determined that my modem needed a firmware update. Then, all was just fine again. Thanks. I really like Fetch. Great Software.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Phil,

    Thanks for the followup, we're glad to hear that the problem is fixed.

    And thanks for the kind words!

    Best,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Hoony Yoo Member

    Hi, I'm having this issues... too
    My ISP's supported 100Mbps speed(upload/download)
    download speed is great~
    but upload speed is.. 10% of download speed
    I see slow upload speeds to all server(My Private servers, ISP servers...)
    what's the problem...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    Hi,

    What upload speed to you see when you go to speedtest.net? And what speed do you see with Fetch?

    Thanks,

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • jplechago Member

    I am also having speed issues. Basically my download speeds are 10% of what they should be. I rely on my DSL speed for my business, so it's killing me now.
    I have a MacBook Pro, Intel.
    Thanks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    Hi jplechago,

    What speeds do you see at speedtest.net, and what do you see with Fetch?

    Thanks,

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Hoony Yoo Member

    Thanks, reply..
    I test on many FTP clients...
    (Classic FTP, transmit, fetch...)
    i see 8Mbps upload speeds when i test on speedtest.net(download speed 81Mbps..)
    and I see 7~8Mbps with classic FTP,transmit,Fetch...
    I use greate speeds On Windows XP(up/download 80/80 Mbps)

    Edited 14 years ago #

  • jplechago Member

    I have not yet tried speedtest.net. I'll give that a shot next. One thing that I did discover was that my DSL had a speed cap on it. In other words, I have about 500kb/s for web surfing, but only an eighth of that for downloading and uploading. Apparently this is a policy for DSL so that the lines aren't congested. This would explain why my speed tests give me much faster results than my downloads with Fetch. I learned this from a tech support person at AT&T internet. Anyone else heard about this?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Jim Matthews Administrator

    Hoony:

    One thing to watch out for is that Fetch and other FTP clients report speeds in bytes per second, while ISPs and speedtest.net report in bits per second. There are 8 bits in a byte.

    jplechago:

    I hadn't heard of ISPs capping things like that -- very interesting.

    Jim Matthews
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • lieiti Member

    Hi, just wondering what are normal FTP upload and download speeds? I am averaging about 50 KB/s download and about 55 KB/s upload. Is this where it should be? Seems slow to me wait-wise for files. Takes about 1 minute to download a 4 MB file. Is this right?

    Macbook Pro 2.4 w/ 4gb RAM
    Fetch 5.3.1 client
    OSX 10.5.8

    Accessing an iMac 2.4, running 10.6.1, OSX FTP server (no extra server software installed)
    Using No-IP DNS (free service)

    Connects perfectly, shows files quickly in Fetch, just seemingly slow transfer speeds

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi lieiti,

    There really aren't "normal" FTP upload and download speeds. The speeds each person will see will be different, because they depend on the speed of their Internet connection, the speed of the Internet connection of the server, how much priority the server gives to FTP connections, and how busy the server is. Fetch tries to transfer data as fast as your Internet connection allows, but those other factors may result in slower than the maximum possible speed.

    So it's hard to say if those are the speeds you would expect to see or not. We'd need some more information to make a guess as to whether what you're experiencing is reasonable. What kind of Internet connection do you have? I assume the server you are connecting to is somewhere else, that is, not in the same location as the Mac you're using Fetch on?

    Another thing to try is to download from a different server and see if you see similar speeds. You can connect to our server, ftp.fetchsoftworks.com (leave the username and password blank to connect) and try downloading one of the files there and see if you see similar speeds.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • lieiti Member

    After testing with your FTP:

    Download speed: 200 -220KB/s - MUCH faster
    Upload speed: 50 -60KB/s - about the same

    I have high speed DSL at both locations- home and office (iMac server is at the office) , and both are within the boundaries of South Florida. Both locations use a advanced wireless Westell router provided by AT&T, but my office also has an Airport Extreme in bridge mode and does not control DHCP or the WAN IP.

    Any suggestions to increase my FTP download speed?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi lieiti,

    Do you have identical DSL connections on both ends?

    If so, then remember when you are downloading from the server, it is (in effect) uploading to you. Since your upload (outgoing) speeds appear to max out at about 50-60 KB/s, then the server's upload (outgoing) speeds probably do as well (since it's on a similar connection), which would mean that you can only download from that server at 50-60 KB/s, because that's as fast as it can send data out to you. Our server has a much higher outgoing speed, so it can send data to you much faster, which would explain the difference you see in download speeds.

    So I think the next thing to do would be to find out what the official upload maximum speed of your office's DSL connection is, and see how that compares to the download speed you are getting from the server. If they are comparable, then the only way to increase your download speed from that particular server would be to put the server on a faster connection.

    And please keep in mind that Fetch uses a different unit to measure speeds than ISPs do - you need to multiply the number you see in Fetch by 8 to compare it with the ISP's speeds, so 50-60 KB/s (kiloBYTES per second) is equal to about 400-480 Kb/s (kilobits per second).

    Let us know what you find out or if you have further questions.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • lieiti Member

    Well, according to a speakeasy speed test at the office I'm getting:

    Download 6361 kbps
    Upload 429 kbps

    So I guess it is correct when you multiply. Is this the limit of DSL, because I think I have the fastest package. Should I go with cable instead?

    Also, is SFTP much slower than FTP?

    thanks for the help.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi lieiti,

    Yes, based on those numbers, it looks like the slow download speeds you're seeing from your server are caused by the limited upload speed of its DSL connection.

    You should contact your DSL provider and see if there are any faster options; I don't know if faster DSL upload speeds are possible. Most cable companies do offer Internet packages with faster upload speeds, up to 1000-2000 kbps, but again, you'll need to contact your cable company to see what options are available in your area. (Be careful when investigating, some cable companies advertise their speeds using a special fast speed that is only available for very short transfers, not the true maximum speed for long transfers. Ask what the true overall speed is.)

    No, in most cases SFTP should not be slower than FTP. In theory it can take a little additional time to encrypt the data for SFTP, but computers these days are fast enough that they can encrypt faster than the data can be sent, so it doesn't actually slow the transfer down. And for transfers that involve many small files, SFTP may be faster than FTP, because of differences in the way files are transferred.

    I hope this helps, please let us know if you have further questions.

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #