How long does it take to upload files

Ooops the last question:

Say you had 1GB worth of PDFs, and you zipped it to 970GBs, would it upload faster?

I assume you meant to say 1GB compressed to 970MB (not GB)...Yes it would be faster.

Yes, I did. Sorry. Thanks guys.

My other question is obvious, you can zip files on your computer (one advantage is it is harder to upload a folder full of files, etc. BUT, it would seem to ignorant me that the zipped or better put for uploading (compressed) while it takes less space wouldn't you still be sending the same amount of packets.

This who bit/byte thing drives me nuts.

No because when it compresses is brings from the file size and in turn it is less bytes.  

How zip compression works:
http://www.igeek.com/articles/Software/Compression.txt

Very helpful. This all stems from a backup program for an EMR called Amazing Charts. It backs up the SQL databases which are small after detaching them temporarily from SQL Server.

In the folder there is also a folder called Imported Items. Unlike the databases which grow about 1MB a month, your imported items (tiffs, pdfs, jpegs, etc) can get rather large quickly like 10GB.

The backup program can back up everything or exclude the imported items, which is what I do. I backup the other separately on top of using Acronis and Backup Assist for my server each night.

Everyone complains because the backup takes hours to backup EVERYTHING including their 10GBs and growing imported items. I keep telling them that while it can back up locally at a fair rate of speed, they are asking it to do quite a bit to compress the files and back them to the company's server in a short time.

Am I wrong here?

Yea, as Savone mentions, if you're going to upload something, the compression offered in zipping is favorable, as it does make what you need to upload smaller.

But even so, compression of a 10GB set of pdfs (and pdfs are hard to compress given they are compressed a lot already) could still leave a rather large file.

Bear with me, I am just trying to make sure I speak correctly to the user board and understand it myself.

Last question.

Again, as the group continues to bash the program which was not intended to be able to send large files upstream (even just sending them via ftp or whatever should take just as long.

But, I did a trial and I backed up the program which I made 4.7 GBs and the compressed encrypted file became 26,662 kbs which seems pretty good. But, this one person said it took two hours for a 1GB file to upload. Of course, his upload speed could be slower and the company's upload technicques could be different?

Yes, on a 1Megabit connection a 1GigaByte file would take over two hours to upload.

Thanks. Just to give a little more information on what is happening in real time. This is very exciting, lol.

I am uploading to the AC servers the 4.7GB file which compressed to the 26.6MB file if I did the calculations correctly. I am on a 1MB/ or 1Mb/s upload link.

It shows a transfer rate of 42kb/s (its terminology) and is now at 14.5 of 27 MBs after six minutes.

Thanks guys. I promise not to go all day with this. A good article would be helpful.

4.7 GB file compressed to 26.6 MB ??  That sounds odd, I dont think zip is that efficient.

whats your question?

4.7GB compressed to 26.6MB?
That's highly irregular, but much easier to upload in a short amount of time, as you are over halfway done in six minutes.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of article you would like?
One about compression?
ISP speeds?

I posted a good article on compression about 4 comments in. :)

Sorry it went from 4.7GB to 3.9GB. It took ~ 25 minutes.

I see what I did wrong. I added a very large file to the folder to make it the 4.7GBs. But, the program only backs up the six SQL databases and the .xml file which is about 32MBs.

So, when I moved the file to a folder considered part of imported items (items which one would import into the program and checked the box allowing it to be backed up, I got the above compression.

So, now I am uploading the ~ 4GB file to the server at 1.2Mb/s (my Roadrunner speed). This should take around 7 or 8 hours?

I know it seems I am going in circles. But, it is important that I understand this as no one that uses the program seems to. So, in effect, I will understand and will be able to hopefully teach up to 1800 doctors who, as you know, are pretty much computer illiterate.

Don't worry, there will be enough points to go around.

Yeah - 7 hours, 13 minutes @ 1.2megabits per second.

Just to reiterate,

File sizes are measured in Bytes.  Connection speed can be measured in both bits and Bytes.  You can distinguish the two by looking at the 'B' in the speed. A lower case 'b' indicates the measure of speed is bits and an upper cae 'B' indicates the measure of speed is bytes.  

There are 8bits in 1Byte.

1Mb/sec = 1 Million Bits/second   /   8bits = 125,000Bytes/second = 125KB/second

Your example:

4GB ( 4 gigbyte) file @ 1.2Mb (1,200,000 bits/sec or 150KB/second) = ~1.85Hours to upload (Hope my math was right)

Here's the math:

Just in case someone can dispute it.

4,000,000,000 Bytes / 150KB/sec = 6666.66 seconds/60 seconds = 111 minutes/60 minutes = 1.85 hours

The problem with your math FlooringPro is that you are dividing Bytes by Kilobytes in your equation.
You need to have them the same unit of measure before you start dividing.

Wow, I will have to look at that. Sorry about the delays guys, I am a doctor and get called away to make money and see patients every once in awhile.

I don't know why they ever came up with bits and bytes anyway. It certainly makes things confusing. Speaking of which, I am uploading my speed tests to make sure I am being accurate. Also, ironically, the jpgs came out to a total of 14 MBs but now is only 557KBs.

Jason,

You are absolutely on the money.  My math was incorrect.

Does anyone know what a typical zip program such as Winzip, PKZip, Winrar or XP Pro's native zip program can compress? Or are there different compression levels?

Last question, promise.