[Resolved] FTP functions - A general question

piersk

Say I have two seperate machines. One is a webserver and the other is an ftp server, and I want to use the webserver to upload and download files from the ftp server to my workstation.

When using the [man]ftp_put()[/man] and [man]ftp_get()[/man] functions does the file need to go through the webserver. i.e. if the file is large, then the webserver uses a lot of bandwidth.

Or, is the webserver effectively a proxy and the main chunk of bandwidth concerned with the moving of the file between the workstation and the ftp server?

AstroTeg

For clarity, what interface do you wish to use on the web server to have your workstation transfer files with the FTP server? Are you talking about a collection of web pages which shows you files you can download and allows you to upload? Or you thinking you ftp into the web server and have it proxy to the FTP server?

The proxy I am sure could be done. Some how. But I don't know how exactly (haven't spent any time researching it to see if its possible).

The web interface (and probably the proxy) would ding you on bandwidth. And its possible it could ding you twice if your bandwidth is getting metered from the web visitor and to the ftp server.

client with web browser <-bandwidth-> web server <-bandwidth-> FTP server

But it really depends on how your network and ISP is configured.

piersk

What I mean is that the webserver is used as a "front" (i.e. using PHP's FTP library) to connect to the ftp server. However, no files are actually stored on the webserver, simply uploaded and downloaded using the afforementioned library

AstroTeg

So the web server is transfering files to and from itself and the FTP server. You may still get dinged on the bandwidth. Depends on if FTP is getting monitored properly.

piersk

No, the webserver is transferring files between the FTP server and the workstation (or at least thats what i was hoping)

AstroTeg

Nothing is never impossible, but I don't believe you can easily configure a server to proxy another FTP server. You could mirror the FTP server. But that still means the file resides on the web server. In theory, you could try building your own FTP proxy server. But because the data flows to and from your web server, your bandwidth is still going to get chewed on. And the performance could be kind of sucky since you're adding a middle man to the transfers. Also you get into things like active and passive transfers which could make things more interesting.

piersk

Let me put it another way...

when using [man]ftp_put()[/man], does the local file have to be on the webserver?

AstroTeg

Originally posted by piersk
Let me put it another way...

when using [man]ftp_put()[/man], does the local file have to be on the webserver?

Yes, the file being uploaded must be local to the computer doing the uploading. You can get into crazy things like SMB networking where you map a path, but its unlikely your web server is on a local Windows network (or a network which would allow this to work).

piersk

Thanks. I think thats pretty much answered my question.