"Conduit" transfers between FTP Servers

[vecctor]

Essentially FXP allows you to transfer from one FTP server to another without copying files to your hard drive.

What I want to do is transfer them from one to another USING my computer as a conduit.

Here is an example:
serverA is an FTP server
serverB is an FTP server
Computer is the computer FlashFXP is on

I connect to serverA and serverB in the two windows.

I drag a file from serverA to serverB.

FlashFXP starts downloading the file from serverA and simultaneously starts uploading it to serverB.

Essentially it is just routing the information through the Computer.

I am CERTAIN I will get the following question about this post:

"That is dumb. Why would you want to do that?"

Well, there are two situations where this would be helpful:

1) Neither FTP server supports FXP transfers. In this situation you would have to do the following:

1. Copy from serverA to Computer
2. Copy from Computer to serverB

That takes two steps, the conduit feature would take only 1 AND it would be faster because you could upload and download at the same time. Internet connections have different segments for d/l and u/l, so using them at the same time would be more efficient and the overall transfer would take less time.

2) Connection from serverA to Computer to serverB is significantly faster than connection from serverA to serverB.

Not possible you say? Oh it definetly is for me.

Imagine this: serverA has an upload cap to servers outside of the LAN. serverB is outside the LAN. Computer is on the LAN and does not have this cap to servers outside the LAN.

If you follow that situation through, you see that:

a transfer from serverA to serverB would be slower than a transfer from A to Computer to B

-or-

a transfer from serverA to serverB is subject to the upload cap and a transfer from A to Computer to B is not capped!

So that is my feature request. In this situation it would use a small amount of HD space as a variable buffer for the file, and would transfer at the speed of the slowest connection.

Workable? Maybe.
Useful? Definetly.

[Joker]

1, since its not implemented, you could just setup an ftp server on your computer and some kind of "autotrade" for it, so when a file is completed on your system it automaticly uploads to the ftp server you want.

2, dont think many users would use this feature.

[vecctor]

Who would use this? Good Question.
There are two groups that I can see using this:

1) Most College Students

Generally Dorms have an upload cap because of programs like Kazaa. This makes uploading very slow. If you use the above example this is how it works out:

serverA = FTP on dorm computer (upload restricted)
ServerB = Some FTP on the internet (download probably fast)
Computer = a computer which is connected to the dorm networks closely but is also connected to the internet and NOT CAPPED. (i.e. a computer in a computer lab)


You would not be able to install an FTP server on the lab computer and also wouldn't be able to store files on it. (due to user privilage) You could run flashfxp, however, since it doesn't require you to install it to run.

***Joker: Your suggestion of setting up an FTP on the fast connection computer would not work because the fast computer isn't yours to setup an FTP server on. (see the paragraphs directly above)

The lab computer has a "local area" connection to the dorm networks because they are on the same campus - they are essentially on the same network. The lab computer also doesn't have upload caps in place like the labs. Therefore it is the perfect "conduit" to get things from your HD in your dorm computer to a server on the internet somewhere (since EDU's have great connections generally).

I can usually get an 800 - 1000k connection going from a lab to an FTP in my dorm. Friends of mine have had similar results at campuses all over. But my upload to the outside from my dorm never goes higher than 25k. I have friends who can't get above 5k uploads. If we could use a conduit to route the file through, we could increase our speeds exponentially.

Imagine being able to get on a lab computer and upload to an FTP on the outside at whatever speed it supported, rather than just what you could get in your room. It would take minutes rather than days.

2) Some Business Users

Similar setup as above. Some business's have restrictions in place for security reasons and this would get around them while still maintaining security. Only a few computers that have total access would be needed. This would be similar to sending an entire file though a proxy. All you would need is a few computers that don't have the restrictions and also don't have anything important on them that could be hacked.

I am sure there are more situations, but mine (obviously) is the top one. I know I am not the only student that has this problem, especially in the age of kazaa and other file sharing programs.

[bigstar]

We have considered this in the past, unfortunately this feature hasn't made it into a release yet.

[vecctor]

Fair enough

Thanks for the reply. Good to hear I am not the first person to think this might be useful. Maybe sometime you can throw it in a beta and try it out. Put me down for one copy of FlashFXP when you do!

Cheers