[admagic]

Recently I was bullied into creating a web business for someone, which revolves around rapid uploading of images and to a lesser extend video

One thing I have never fathomed

Is which numbers are critical in determining how fast images/files can be uploaded to websites - and whether it is a technology thing ( ie whether you can by pass standard ftp upload with some other "ultra fast" method)

So heres the issue..

What am I looking for in hosting specifications?
Is it a host or a technology thing?

I have many websites on a variety of hosts - but in this instance the client already has a 1and1 account.

Is that bad? or good?

Are godaddy, host gator, or others a lot better at this?

Any ideas?

[Jeewhizz]

To get the fastest uploads, you want the server to be as close to the user as possible. So, if you are targetting UK users, that's where you want the server - in a well connected good UK Datacenter. I'd recommend bluesquare personally, as that's where we have our servers, and it's v fast!

The limiting factor is the user's adsl - most are capped at aroud 512kbps (that's around 50kb/sec max). Some more expensive adsl connections get around 800kbps, but it's more likely to be business lines than personal.

Uploading over an SSL connection is going to add an overhead to each packet of data that's transmitted. Bog standard FTP is likely to be the fastest you'll get. Although a normal HTTP upload form would suffice.

[awebapart]

ADSL broadband is an important limiting factor for upload speeds. The A in ADSL is for asynchronous which basically means you get a different speed uploading to downloading, usually by quite a factor. If you have 8 Mbps download speed and 256 Kbps upload speed that means you are downloading 32 times faster than you are uploading. So although you might have great download speeds when it comes to downloding images and videos, uploading will be slow by comparison.

Another important factor is server strain - how many websites are on the server (and how many users accessing pages), all waiting and using up the main bottleneck on the server which is the server's bandwidth connection to the internet. You can normally tell a server strained in this area by the way website images are slow to download. Another way which sometimes works is to perform a reverse ip check on your domain to see how many other websites are hosted on the same server. Normally the cheaper more mass market the hosting plan, the more websites are stuffed on the same box, and therefore the more strain. Budget hosts who are trying to get as many websites as possible on the same server to maximise profits may also configure the server so that upload is slower (lower priority), to improve website download speeds. Server strain, a server with an internet bandwidth bottleneck, is usually more of a problem than geographic location - i.e. if you move from ultra-cheap mass-market hosting by 1and1 in Germany, to ultra-cheap mass-market hosting by 123-reg in the UK, you probably wont see much improvement in speed.

[RedEvo]

Originally Posted by awebapart.com

ADSL broadband is an important limiting factor for upload speeds. The A in ADSL is for asynchronous which basically means.......

I was pulled up for this once and corrected. I was told the A actually stands for asymmetric.

d

[awebapart]

Originally Posted by awebapart.com

The A in ADSL is for asynchronous which basically means you get a different speed uploading to downloading

Originally Posted by RedEvo

I was pulled up for this once and corrected. I was told the A actually stands for asymmetric.

Doh! Right letter, right meaning, wrong word! Silly mistake! Sorry.