FTP Passive Problems / Restricted Speed (Magaliesburg/Hekpoort/Rustenburg segment)

threegee

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
628
Reaction score
31
Location
Sandton
I wonder if anyone else in the Magaliesburg / Hekpoort / Hartebeespoort / Rustenburg network segment can confirm any problems with file upload speeds using FTP file transfer clients.

The problem seems to be specific to File transfer clients like FlashFXP, Filezilla, Transmit FTP (OSX) which all use passive ports (high port ranges) to transmit data.

When I do command line FTP uploads the files are transmitted at full HSDPA/HSUPA upload speeds but that is because command line FTP only uses the standard FTP Ports, Port 20 and 21. When doing the same uploads using any of the above FTP clients the upload speeds are restricted at 12.8 - 25.6 KB/s.

If anyone else in these areas can please test and feedback here please do. I've been on at Vodacom for months regarding this problem but they can never trace any fault, now I know why because when they seem to test using command line FTP.

I've tested extensively now using FlashFXP and Command Line FTP on the same computer and with command line I get 670 KB/s upload speed but with Flash FXP only 12-25 KB/s.

Filezilla is a free FTP client for those who want to test without buying any software and if you need a test FTP server to upload to please PM me and I will send you details via PM.

The problem only applies to uploading files to FTP servers, downloading from the same servers seems to work ok and speeds do not get restricted.
 
You'll find most ISP's prioritization of any ports that's not considered "default" is lower than those that are default. This includes 80/25/587/21/20/22/110 etc (I forgot the port number for DNS)

In FileZilla, just go to Edit -> Settings -> Click on FTP and choose "Active" instead of "Passive" mode.
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X