Compress file on the file during FTP file download

[nccsbim071]

Hi i want to compress the file on the file during FTP file download. Is it possible to do that.
I have an application that downloads the files from remote FTP server as windows forms application using VB.net

Please help
Thanks

[nccsbim071]

Sorry for the title, it actuall is "Compress file on the fly during FTP file download"

[bhaskerlee]

Sorry for the title, it actuall is "Compress file on the fly during FTP file download"

Hi,
You can use GZipStream Class to compress a file.
Please refer
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.compression.gzipstream.aspx

Otherwise you can use "SharpZip.dll" for compressing
http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SharpZipLib/Download.aspx

[sknake]

Can you explain what you are really trying to do here? What type of file is this? Most file types don't do you any good unless you have the entire file downloaded, the exceptions being multimedia. However multimedia files are usually compressed for distribution so in this case I don't think it would make sense to implement compression on the fly.

There are three mechanisms for sending data over FTP: stream, block, and compressed. The compressed mechanism uses RLE compression. I think that may be what you're after? The protocol is old and as far as I know the original FTP RFC did not include compression logic, it was done after the fact. That being said I don't know how widely it is supported.

Serv-U offers what you're looking for:
http://www.serv-u.com/compression.asp

I'm not sure if you have to use their client/server setup though.

[nccsbim071]

Thanks,
Sknake, you provided a whole lot of information.

I solved my problem by using alternate method. I made a php page webrequest that will zip the files on the server and it gives me confirmation that file zip is successful.

And then i made a FTPWebRequest to download those zipped file and then unzip it on the local computer.

Any way i solved my problem.

[sknake]

Now that sounds like a good solution

Please mark this thread as solved if you have found an answer to your question and good luck!