Multi-Part (Accelerated) Transfers

You can greatly speed up the transfer of large files using multi-part transfers. A multi-part transfer divides large files and sends the parts over multiple FTP sessions.

You can only use multi-part uploads with servers that support the COMB command, such as GlobalSCAPE Secure FTP Server and EFT Server.

To perform a multi-part download

  1. Connect to a remote site.

  2. In the Remote pane, click the file you want to transfer.

  3. In the Local Drives pane, open the destination folder.

  4. On the main menu, click File > Download Advanced > Multi-part Download, then click one of the following:

To perform a multi-part upload

  1. Connect to a remote site.

  2. In the Local Drives pane, click the file you want to transfer.

  3. On the main menu, click File > Upload Advanced > Multi-part Upload, then click one of the following:

  • Very large files can take time to combine, so you might have to refresh (F5) the screen after a large multi-part transfer to see the resulting single, combined file on the remote server.

  • You can quickly gauge the effectiveness of the transfer by highlighting that item in the queue pane, and clicking on the small plus sign + next to the item name. The item will expand to show you all parts of the transfer with the average speed of each part.

  • Multi-part transfers are not very effective for smaller files.

  • Multi-part downloads do not occur for sites that do not support resume downloading.

  • Multi-part transfers are not very effective within your own network.

  • Multi-part transfers are not very effective for modems slower than 56kb, because most FTP servers can at least transfer at that speed.

  • Multi-part transfers do not work if the FTP site does not allow multiple simultaneous connections from the same user or IP address.

  • Due to added overhead on the processor of a server when generating encrypted transfers, multi-part downloads over SSH and SSL can be ineffective and are not recommended.