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Help ! Slow Upload Speed (4 posts)

  • Started 16 years ago by burningrolls
  • Latest reply 16 years ago from Scott McGuire
  • burningrolls Member

    Hello,
    I am experiencing slow upload speeds. Fetch is showing me 29-30 KBPS in the main Fetch window. At first I thought it was my ISP or Server Providers. I have checked the Broadband speed using Speedtest.net and am getting 2598 KBPS download, and 346 KBPS upload. This checks out with what I am paying for from the ISP.
    I also checked with my server provider (WebFusion) and they state that they do not restrict upload speeds to their servers.

    Is there any setting in Fetch that restricts the upload speed ? Why would Fetch be this slow when the real-life line tests are so much faster ?
    Thank you. David

    [This message has been edited by burningrolls (edited 10-26-2007).]

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi David,

    One important thing to be aware of when comparing Fetch's speeds with the results of a speed test, or the speeds your ISP promises, is that Fetch reports speeds in kilobytes per second (KBps), whereas speedtest.net is reporting, and your ISP is advertising, speeds in kilobits per second (kbps).

    8 bits equal 1 byte, so the numbers you see in Fetch will appear to be smaller than the other numbers. You have to multiply the number you see in Fetch by 8 for an accurate comparison. So, you are seeing 29-30 KB/s = 232-240 kb/s, which is a lot closer to the result of the speed test.

    Even if your server provider is not limiting speeds on the server, FTP servers usually do not provide more than 80-90% of the maximum speed of your connection at best, because the servers are busy uploading and downloading files for many different users and don't give any one user priority, so they are often don't provide the maximum possible speed for your transfers. On the other hand, speed test servers are designed to give maximum priority to the test, so that you know any slowness is a result of your network, not the server.

    So, I think the speeds you are seeing when uploading to that server sound reasonable. Different FTP servers might be slightly faster. I know - because I have to upload often over a similar connection - that despit this, the uploads can still seem irritatingly slow.

    Please let us know if you have further questions or concerns.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • burningrolls Member

    Hi Scott,
    Thank you very much for your most excellent explanation. Very much appreciated !

    I think I will have to find an ISP in the UK that has a faster upload speed then. I am having to deal with 100MB's of data at a time, and its literally taking hours !

    Just out of interest..why does Fetch report in Kilobytes when the ISP industry use Kilobits ?

    its very confusing : KBps or Kbps....Is there anyway of changing this in Fetches preferences ?

    thank you very much. Best wishes, David

    [This message has been edited by burningrolls (edited 10-26-2007).]

    Posted 16 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi David,

    You're welcome.

    Actually, I'd say kilobytes is more of a standard - for instance, both Safari and Firefox report download speeds in kilobytes, as do most other FTP clients. And the Mac OS X Finder reports file sizes in kilobytes (well, until your files get so large they start getting reported in megabytes instead), so reporting kilobytes per second is a better match for the size you'll see displayed in the Finder after the files are downloaded.

    It's really the ISP industry that are the odd ones out - they probably like kilobits better because it makes the numbers bigger!

    There is not a way to change the unit Fetch uses to display the progress, sorry, but thank you for the feedback, we will consider it.

    Please let us know if you have further questions.

    Best,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    [This message has been edited by ScottMcGuire (edited 10-26-2007).]

    Posted 16 years ago #

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