ftp & rdc?

[Mike]

I am interested in transferring larger files between my laptop at work and
my xp pro box at home.
I use remote desktop daily without a hitch and have no trouble transferring
small files (but it is slow)
Large files, however, seem to be impossible using rdc.

I understand that xp-pro has a basic ftp server (ftp publisher)
functionality.
I want to avoid is messing up a perfectly working setup.
Do I need to open port 21 (for ftp)?
Am I correct in understanding that ftp'ing in to my xp pro box should not
need to involve
rdc?
Would appreciate any guidance (instructions on how to accomplish, security
precautions - the xp box is behind my router, etc.). Thanks!

 

[Mike]

well...I pressed forward...and succeeded. no need for response

 

[Bill Sanderson]

May I strongly suggest that you consider using a VPN connection, rather than
creating an FTP server open to the world?

 

[Mike]

Thanks for the suggestion. Will a VPN connection provide performance
capabilities which surpass file transfer using rdc? I was hoping (but so
far are quite disappointed) that an ftp server setup would provide speedier
file transfer times, and enable access to larger files than rdc. Two days
in it seems to be about the same level of performance (or lack of) as rdc
for file transfer.

Any tips, suggestions, faq's appreciated

 

[Bill Sanderson]

The basic limit to the file-transfer rate is going to be the slow-link in
the connection.

In a dsl<-->dsl connection, this will typically be the uplink speed at the
site from which the data is being moved. Remember that most 'dsl is aDsl,
where the "a" stands for asymmetric--meaning that the rate in one direction
is different from the rate in the other direction. Much aDsl is 128/768,
meaning 128mbs uplink speed and 768mbs downlink speed. So that 128mbs is
going to be the limiting factor in a bulk data transfer across a network
link between two machines on that same set of rated links.

Beyond that, folks have reported here that RD file transfer speeds are very
disappointing even compared to the basic capacity of the link--perhaps 40%
or so of the possible transfer rate. Speculation has been that it might be
the CPU load connected with encrypting and decrypting the data on the link
that has this effect.

An unencrypted FTP link ought to be pretty close to the best utilization of
the maximum link speed, I'd think, although I've never done any kind of
testing--I never run FTP servers.

A VPN connection adds the burden of encryption/decryption--nearly the same
code as is used for Remote Desktop's encryption, if this is a PPTP VPN. So,
it might be slower than FTP over an unencrypted link. Safer, however. I'm
not so much worried about the sanctity of your data--I'll leave you to
determine how much risk you can tolerate there--as about the relative
likelyhood of intrusions or defacement of your "server" machine. There are
very few weeks that go by without somebody posting that their FTP server has
a collection of oddly named directories that they can't figure out how to
remove, or that their disk space has disappeared, and they are unable to
figure out where it has gone.

So--do some measurements--figure out what the slow link is, and divide the
mbs by 10 to get a figure for Bytes/second. Come up with some data big
enough to get a good measurement with and try different possibilities.

There are lots of other possible bottlenecks besides the WAN link, but
unless the WAN link is very fast, they are unlikely to be the determining
factor in the transfer speed.