Segmented Downloads - Any Plans?

[Phixion]

Hello,

I was wondering whether there were any plans to add support for segmented downloading? I love FileZilla but the lack of this feature has forced me to try alternatives... none of which I like!

I currently use 10 threads in FileZilla but often don't hit my maximum download speed, whereas I do with segmented downloading.

There's a serious lack of free/open source FTP clients, there's an even bigger lack of free/open source clients that support segmented downloading, I'd love to see this feature implemented.

Regards

[xeon]

Hello,

I was wondering whether there were any plans to add support for segmented downloading? I love FileZilla but the lack of this feature has forced me to try alternatives... none of which I like!

I currently use 10 threads in FileZilla but often don't hit my maximum download speed, whereas I do with segmented downloading.

There's a serious lack of free/open source FTP clients, there's an even bigger lack of free/open source clients that support segmented downloading, I'd love to see this feature implemented.

Regards

Something is very wrong if you're needing that many connections.

Are you having this issue with a specific server or all ftp servers?

I'd be more concerned about resolving that than asking the filezilla dev to implement something to work around the problem.

[botg]

Never. There's no need for it. If you think segmented downloads are beneficial, you are merely trying to work around an underlying problem which needs to be fixed instead.

[Phixion]

It's a well known problem:

http://weathermap.ovh.net/

There's huge strain on the OVH network between certain countries at the moment. Something which I have no power in fixing... I can only wait for them to fix it their end.

Filezilla gives me a few MB/s at most with 10 threads, CuteFTP with Segmented download turned on maxes my 120mbit connection - that's a huge difference if you ask me.

And as I said, there are very few FTP clients that offer this, none of which are free. I can't see how it would hurt, if people want to use the feature at least it's there.

[botg]

So by using more connections you are stealing that bandwidth from other users.

[Phixion]

Oh my... are you for real?

I pay monthly for a certain amount of traffic... I'm not "stealing" anything.

Congestion on their network is their problem, not mine, as long as I'm paying for the service I can use my allowed amount of traffic however I choose.

I'm still trying to figure out how a request of a feature turned into someone telling me how to use a server I pay for...

[dr4k4th]

I know this is a bit of an old post but I figured out a solution that would get around this.

You can always split the file if you have access to the server. Use your favorite compression tool and say split the file into 100MB pieces. Now when you download, you tell Filezilla to download x files at a time.

I hope this helps.

[cochese]

The only way I can reach my max upload speed (5Mb/s) is to use multiple TCP connections, each connection only gets ~50KB/s. I've been doing it the same way dr4k4th suggested but I tire of all the extra steps. My search for a client that supports segmentation lead me to this thread and I just wanted to show some interest in hopes segmentation might be reconsidered. Thanks either way!

[dbkarm]

I use iGetter for Windows and performs quite well

[topbanana]

I too really, really would like multipart/segmented downloading...

Downloading a few files from my sftp server nicely utilizes my connection's throughput.

But downloading one file is soooooooooooooooooo slooooooooooooooooooow.

Please can you give us the option.

[topbanana]

Never. There's no need for it. If you think segmented downloads are beneficial, you are merely trying to work around an underlying problem which needs to be fixed instead.

It sounds like you've only ever used FTP in ideal conditions...
Can't a site admin limit the connections from an IP address?
Are all ftp servers on the internet busy public servers that would genuinely suffer from too many connections?
Perhaps there are a few people that are working with ftp servers that they or their company owns. Perhaps they might be on networks that they own too.
Perhaps some of us need to download some files as quickly and simply as possible.

It's 2012... Our internet connections are now nice and fast... we mostly don't saturate our connections now, we often see the speed of the servers the other end... now we see how slow FTP can be... But we can also see how to overcome it, by downloading many files in parallel, or splitting them (PITA!)... and we also see other FTP software making this so easy and transparent by enabling multi-part/segmented downloads... Leaving Filezilla crawling along near the back of the pack...

I just want to log into my FTP server, download the file as fast as my link allows, disconnect and get on with other stuff...

FZ is almost perfect, which is why we love using it... But it's just missing this one, very important feature... And it's bemusing/saddening that it was coded in many years ago...

[botg]

It's 2012... Our internet connections are now nice and fast...

Fast connections require fast software. On both ends! Just fix your server's configuration or install a better server, than you too can benefit from your fast internet connection.

we mostly don't saturate our connections now, we often see the speed of the servers the other end... now we see how slow FTP can be... But we can also see how to overcome it, by downloading many files in parallel, or splitting them (PITA!)... and we also see other FTP software making this so easy and transparent by enabling multi-part/segmented downloads... Leaving Filezilla crawling along near the back of the pack...

Even at 300ms latency FileZilla can saturate a 100MBit/s connection with a single connection. I'm not going to implement some crude workarounds just because some other component in your setup cannot handle modern networks.

[topbanana]

OK i'll add that we often see the latency/slow links in the route to our servers too...

I'm getting 330ms pings... which is crap... I'm in NZ, my server is in France... the trace shows 15 hops with big pings getting to Oz and in the USA. I can't go and lay my own fibre...

I have vsftpd as the server,
FZ as the client
SFTP as the protocol

If i split a 1GB file on the server and transfer it with an increasing "Maximum Simultaneous Transfers":

1 = 100-300 kB/s - fluctuating a lot
2 = 500-700 kB/s - fluctuating less
3 = 1000 kB/s - fluctuating less
4 = 1200 kB/s - little fluctuation - Link Speed of my ADSL
...
10 = same as 4...

This is very typical.

This shows that increasing the number of transfers, i get better download speeds...

If i have to log into my server and faff around splitting files in rars... surely this puts more load on the server???
And that take time and effort.

FZ should be capable of dealing with less than ideal network conditions... Like the other uglier FTP clients are...

[botg]

If you download files from your server using FileZilla, how are the speeds in that case?

[topbanana]

If you download files from your server using FileZilla, how are the speeds in that case?

FZ=Filezilla
Filezilla was the client used in the above test.
And the results represent what I've seen as long as I can remember... I'd often have a few files to download... So have had it set to 3 for ages.
But single files haven't saturated my connections since we've had descent adsl speeds.