FTP vs HTTP

Question

Using EW, we have stopped using FPSE (HTTP) to publish our files to our server (our WPP is phasing out support for FP). We now use FTP.
Publishing using FTP is a total bind. What used to take 3 minutes with FPSE (a site with many thousands of files) now can take many hours.
Whenever we hit the Publish button, the hard drive spins for what seems an eternity before anything actually happens. Then it seems to take forever getting itself prepared to actually transfer the files - then the file transfer speed is a joke (like 1KB/sec).
Is there any fundamental difference between using FTP and HTTP? Does ahyone have any suggestions to speed this up?

Tx.

Mart

Answer 1

This seems to be an issue on some machines and not others, and my guess is that it is anti virus program related.
I do not have that issue at all.

However, some people have reported good resul;ts using a 3rd party ftp program such as cute ftp,
or one of the others.

Do you have EW set to publish *Changed pages only*? It is an option in remote web site properties.

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FrontPage MVP

Answer 2

Steve

Yes, I always only publish changed pages. I'll try with the AV disabled and see what happens. Have tried FileZilla and it does seems quicker, yet not as quick as what EW used to do using FPSE. Just to give some specifics - the site I'm talking about has around 25 000 files of which around 50 change every day. EW using FPSE used to update the site in around 2-4 minutes. FTP-ing can take many many hours.

What I suppose I'm really asking is: does EW do different things when FTP-ing as opposed to HTTP-ing.

Mart

Answer 3

The difference between http and ftp is the protocol used and the port that the web is published to.
http uses port 80, ftp uses port 21

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FrontPage MVP

Answer 4

Stabes said:

Steve

Yes, I always only publish changed pages. I'll try with the AV disabled and see what happens. Have tried FileZilla and it does seems quicker, yet not as quick as what EW used to do using FPSE. Just to give some specifics - the site I'm talking about has around 25 000 files of which around 50 change every day. EW using FPSE used to update the site in around 2-4 minutes. FTP-ing can take many many hours.

What I suppose I'm really asking is: does EW do different things when FTP-ing as opposed to HTTP-ing.

Mart

Wow, 25,000 files. Makes me wonder if it would help the program's performance if you convert a lot of the folders to subwebs so the program ignores those folders? I imagine there must be a lot of folders with contents that don't change or seldom change. Or perhaps a lot of files that could be put into such folders.

Also, would you email me at my blog: blogs.msdn.com/anna so I can contact you directly? I'd like the team to work with you and your site for testing purposes since publishing performance is one of the areas we're currently investing in. We need good real world scenarios like yours to test with.

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http://blogs.msdn.com/anna

Answer 5

Hi Anna

Sure will.
Subwebs? Is this the same as a Subsite? I will happily do that (as there are some folders that never get changed). I haven't done this because I seem to remember reading somewhere that the whole subsite/subweb thing was discontinued, or was no longer supported. If I'm wrong, good!

Mart

Answer 6

EW has a concept of subwebs that relates to how it manages the files (not to what the server thinks that section of your website is).

Right-click on a directory in EW, and "Convert to web", and you'll have a site that EW will manage and publish separately, ignoring it when you publish your main web.  To edit/publish the subweb, double-click the folder, and EW will open a new instance of itself.  Make sure the Remote Site Settings point to the correct directory level, and change and publish just this section of the web.

Very handy for getting EW to ignore things like storefronts and blogs when you are publishing your site, or for breaking up a very large site into more managable sections.

Answer 7

Hey Kathy,

Would you email me through my blog? I want to ask for your feedback on some things.

thanks!

Anna 

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http://blogs.msdn.com/anna

Answer 8

Thanks Kathy. I have now converted many folders to subs. We'll give it a go and see what gives.

Mart

Answer 9

BTW, would marking a file as "Don't Publish" have the same effect ie. will it have the effect of speeding things up.

 

Mart

Answer 10

It should.  "Don't Publish" is handy for things you really don't intend to publish (thumbnails, notes files, not-ready-for-primetime stuff, dwts if you don't want them on the host, etc.).  A significant difference is that "Don't Publish" is turned on and off file-by-file, while "Convert to Web" will cover an entire directory.