How to transfer a bunch of files over internet

[Richard He]

I need to write a course project of backup/restore. Could you tell me it is efficient to use RMI to transfer the file from local machine to the remote machine? Could you give me any clue how to transfer file using RMI?
Thanks a lot

[Michael Ernest]

Strictly speaking, RMI doesn't do file transfer. It serializes VM objects. And I would guess it's not terribly efficient to turn a file into an object just so you could pass it through RMI.
Is this an option in your project, or must you do it this way?
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Michael Ernest, co-author of: The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide

[Pedro Maia]

Hi!
What would you sugest to use for file transfer? I'm needing to transfer large files over the network at a small speed...
Possible situation:
several 5MB files over a 56Kbps line
Thank you,
Pedro Maia

[Michael Ernest]

An ftp or sftp program will suit your needs.
If your realy issue is performance, your problem isn't the right program or the right programming language: it's the bandwidth you have available.
There's nothing mysterious about transfer speed. Take your load size (e.g., 5 MB) and your network bandwidth (56 kpbs), and divide the former by the latter to get the best possible transfer time you could ever achieve. Then plan on getting about 70% of that, on a good day. That's all there is to it.
You can try compressing your data to create a smaller load, but if your files already exist in a binarized form you won't win significant savings. But that's it: smaller files, greater bandwidth. There's no silver bullet.