How to use FTP for fun, profit and testing speed!

The purpose of this mini tutorial is to outline how to use your Cogeco webspace to FTP files up and down as an additional means to measure speed and performance. Note that clientside factors (ie: poor PC performance) can and will impact true network speed results.

1. You need a FTP client, if you don't have a FTP client download one. Personally I like SmartFTP for Windows and will be using SmartFTP version 2 for screenshots, you can download SmartFTP HERE or Google about for one that you like

2. Once you have FTP client installed enter in the FTP address and your login credentials. For Cogeco FTP server it's

Address: ftp.cogeco.ca
Login: yourusername@cogeco.ca
Password: your password

If you're using SmartFTP v2 it will look like this,

3. Hit Enter after typing in your password and, if your login creditials are correct, you will be logged into your Cogeco webspace and will see something like this,

4. Now you simply drag and drop files to or from your PC, if you are using SmartFTP v2 you will be dragging and dropping to the area highlighted yellow in the screenshot below. Uploading means you are dragging a file from your computer and putting it up on the FTP whereas downloading means taking a file from the FTP and putting in on your computer.

4. You can monitor your speed by viewing the Speed tab in your FTP client, if you're using SmartFTP v2 your speed tab is indicated by the red arrow in the screenshot below and along with the graph you can monitor speeds in the areas indicated by yellow arrows. Typically it is best to use a large file for testing so you can monitor sustained speeds, you can also try using other applications (ie: peer-to-peer, streaming media, etc) at the same time to see the impact other applications will have on your overall throughput.

5. The End