SatSig topic:

ftp with Tooway

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Jul 15^th, 2012 at 1:28pm

Hi to all!
I am interested in learning from the experience of Tooway subscribers who do a lot of ftp'ing, for example placing files on their web hosting server, or other private server. Are any experiencing blocked ports (port 21 or other), timeouts preventing complete transfers of files, special configurations to get acceptable results? Also of interest is the Tooway pack you use with or without a public (fixed) IP and if without whether you might have tried using a dyndns or no-ip service?
Thanks in advance

Jul 16^th, 2012 at 1:32pm

As posted in a 'Tooway Problems' question earlier (some may not be relevant);

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"One thing you need to get used to with Tooway is the signal latency - essential there is much more of a pause before anything happens, but one data starts to flow it is very quick.

For example I use FTP to update my website. Used in the traditional method where each file is 'put' onto the host you'll find you can barely upload one file (small htlm/text) per 10-15 seconds as each command back and forth has a typical 750ms latency. Once you start to upload a large file the actual transfer speed is in the order of 1MB/s (i.e. 8-10Mbps).

The way around this is I zip up my website to a 90MB ZIP file and upload this in one go which is typically very fast. I then unzip the file on my web host (via an SSH connection) which then puts everything in the right place.

If I use conventional (per file) ftp to upload the site I'd be lucky to manage 90MB in an hour, whereas one 90MB file takes about 2-3minutes.

Using Tooway compared to ADSL/ LES/ MPLS etc takes a bit of getting used to and sometimes you have to think laterally to get an acceptable experience compared to how you used to do thing.

I accept all that Eric says w.r.t alignment which is critical and the above may not be a complete solution but as a fellow photographer who deals with large amounts of files online it struck a chord with your situation.

Your speedtests will show a throughput of 8-10Mbps (often much higher), but its the signal latency that gives an overall poor impression of the service compared to the 10-30ms latency of ADSL.

w.r.t the router comment, whilst they can go bad I suspect in this instance its more of a latency issue.

SECURITY ISSUE: Be careful when plugging your PC directly into the Modem (bypassing the router) as I do not believe the modem has any kind of firewall built in and thus your PC/ Mac will be exposed to 'raw' internet. Turn off ALL incoming connections before you plug it in via the Windows/ Mac software firewalls and make sure your a/v software is up to date - especially if its on Windows "

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So, basically FTP sucks on Tooway unless you can send your files compressed as one big file. Clearly this won't work for everyone as it depends on what control you have over the destination FTP server. I run tooway 10 and typically get a download speed of 1.4MBs down and 300kBs up which is excellent - once the data flows its brilliant, but lots of small bit of data (i.e. ftp commands) are very slow.

Jul 16^th, 2012 at 1:46pm

Whilst my first answer was addressing your FTP issue. To answer your second; my package (tooway10) has a dynamic IP, although I have not seen it change in many months (typical characteristic of DHCP, renew a lease whenever possible). I have not tried a Dynamic DNS tool etc as I don't host anything on my tooway, i.e. its all outgoing connections and therefore it doesn't matter if my IP changes (having said that I've had lots of problems with Netflix mis understanding which country I am in and thus a static IP would help).

Jul 16^th, 2012 at 2:55pm

Thanks very much for these contributions to my questions. Yes, I was aware of the latency issue and the advisability of encapsulating in a zip file. My previous short aborted use of Tooway (because of lack of support.. and I went up to Eutelsat level!) also showed that the variable IP changed very little over time, and I had a Mac (yes, me to) app that warned me when it did change. But I didn't try the DynDns service at time, and now a distributor I contacted says emphatically that it doesn't work. But maybe that's not exact, because he would have to block various addresses and ports. I'd like to hear of more hands-on experience...
Thanks again!

Jul 16^th, 2012 at 3:36pm

Why do you need a static IP? Are you planning on hosting with your Tooway? If you're only making outgoing connections a change of IP shouldn't matter (unless a firewall rule is set based on your source IP).

Jul 16^th, 2012 at 4:02pm

I actually have an ftp local server (dedicated iMac) on my LAN. My (WiMaX) Internet connexion has a fixed IP, but with only a 3 Mega down & 1 Mega up capacity. Loading files on the server by clients is acceptable, but horrendously slow for clients "pulling" stuff off the server. Hence the attractiveness of an 18/6 Tooway or even a 10/4. But giving clients a fixed address is essential. And okay, yes, Tooway does provide fixed IP packs but they're outside our modest financial means (three times more expensive.)
I appreciate your interest.

Jul 17^th, 2012 at 8:40am

Hello,

You might find its cheaper in the long run to rent a dedicated server from an ISP for your FTP site - that way you'd have a dedicated IP, symmetric upload and download and much greater bandwidth. For example I pay just £5pcm for my web hosting from Zen Internet which includes fully ftp capability. I don't think tooway is going to be a very satisfactory experience for uses as a FTP server.

It all depends on how many users, amount of traffic and their expectations.

Simon