FileZilla is a popular SFTP client for transferring files between your server and computer. Occasionally, you may need to transfer “hidden” or “invisible” files or folders, which start with a period (e.g.htaccess or.maintenance). By default, the FTP Client FileZilla is installed with minimal settings that limit the maximum allowed connection speed to the FTP server. But if you change a few things you can speed up FileZilla and increase your FTP download speed by over 2Mb/s. FileZilla (ported from Windows) is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. The FileZilla Client not only supports FTP, but also FTP over TLS (FTPS) and SFTP. It is open source software distributed free of charge under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Server is using filezilla server to host a large 17gb file. Client, running filezilla, can only download this file at maximum 50% of their true download bandwidth. Nothing we tried helped this speed.
Below you find a step by step guide, if you prefer you can watch our How to Limit the Number of Simultaneous File Transfers video tutorial.
Download FileZilla Client 3.53.1 for Mac OS X.
FileZilla/FileZilla Pro can run up to 10 file transfers – uploads or downloads – at a time. However, on slow or heavily-used networks and internet connections, you might want to decrease the number of file transfers happening at one time. There are three ways to do this:
- Limit the overall number of simultaneous transfers (uploads and downloads combined)
- Limit the number of simultaneous uploads
- Limit the number of simultaneous downloads
To change the number of simultaneous file transfers:
- In the main menu, click on Edit > Settings….
- Select Transfers from the menu on the left.
- Set a maximum number of simultaneous transfers.
- If desired, set a limit for simultaneous uploads and simultaneous downloads.
These options are still limited by the maximum simultaneous transfers setting; for example, if the Maximum simultaneous transfers option is set to 2 and Limit for concurrent uploads is set to 10, FileZilla/FileZilla Pro will still only allow at most 2 simultaneous uploads. - Click on OK.
The video tutorial below shows how to configure FileZilla and FileZilla Pro simultaneous transfers.
Video tutorial: How to Change the Number of Simultaneous Transfers
Tags: file transfers, Limit number Simultaneous File Transfers, simultaneous downloads, Simultaneous File Transfers, simultaneous uploads
Solution to slow FTP Server speeds (Filezilla and others)
Filezilla Maximum File Size
I recently found that despite having a 70Mbps (8.75MB/s) internet connection and a 1Gbps (125MB/s) dedicated server to download from, I could only seem to download from the FTP server at about 16.8Mbps (2.1MB/s) on a single thread. However over HTTP I could easily manage about 65.6Mbps (8.2MB/s) on a single thread. This confused me, as there should be no reason why the speeds should differ so wildly. I’d expect a little difference, but not that much.
After some forum discussions on Beta Archive regarding this (I looked into things after a user complained about slow speeds), a user told me that he uses IIS FTP Server with no such speed issues. This instantly told me that something wasn’t implemented or optimised properly on Filezilla and Gene6 FTP Server (the two servers I use). I started looking at the possibilities and quickly found the solution.
Solution!
The “internal transfer buffer size” and the “socket buffer size” values were set quite small on the server at just 32KB and 64KB. There is a notice that says too low or too high can affect transfer speeds. So I did what anyone would do… I bumped it up about 10 notches to 512KB on both of them! Instantly my transfer speeds hit 65.6Mbps (8.2MB/s), the same as I was getting over HTTP. Perfect!
More tests
Filezilla Max Transfer Speed
Filezilla Mac
I did a few more tests to make sure that I didn’t set it too high or too low, but it seemed OK. Going from 64KB to 128KB made the speed hit about 46.4Mbps (5.8MB/s). Better, but not good enough. 256KB buffer allowed me to hit 65.6Mbps (8.2MB/s), which is the maximum I’m likely to get due to protocol overheads.
Assuming that the buffer size doubling also doubles the speed, a buffer of 512KB should allow up to about 192Mbps (24MB/s) which really is more than enough for the things I need it to do. Given my connection is much slower than this, and broadband in the UK doesn’t really hit those speeds either, it should be plenty for now.
Filezilla Maximum Simultaneous Transfers
Filezilla Max Speed
Filezilla only allows a maximum buffer size of 999,999 (almost 1024KB or 1MB) so the maximum it should allow (again assuming that the buffer doubling = speed doubling) is about 384Mbps (48MB/s). Other software might allow higher so by all means use it if you need to.