3d FTP-pro - truly a multithreaded FTP client

Much to the respect of free software, I started to hunt down some freeware FTP upload softwares. I had tons of pictures to upload to my gallery and I wanted something that was better than Windows Explorer FTP. Its slow and clunky. I don't like it that much. After a lot of searching, I did manage to get a few softwares that claimed to be "Multithreaded." I used them and found that they were not multithreaded, or at least in my understanding of the word they were not multithreaded.

This whole thing intrigued me in trying to sort out the meaning of Multithreading and Multiple threads. Whats the difference? Well, Multiple threads is much similar to parallel processing where the job is chopped into various chunks and performed by different parts of the system and later combine to give one result thereby achieving a faster performance factor. In our case all those SWs that claimed were Multithreaded, were indeed multiply threaded - meaning a single file upload could happen in several chunks, wherein several chunks of the file could get tranferred simultaneously by the use of time slicing. Its good BUT still it is transferring a single file though and not multiple files.

So what is Multithreaded? According to me, a mutlithreaded FTP app is one that can have multiple threads to transfer multiple files at the same time. Each thread maintains its own TCP connection and does it own tranfer meachanisms. So if I initiate a 10 file transfer, with true multithreadedness I can upload 4 (for example) at a time (sharing bandwidth) and finish my job much quicker than what it would have taken to transfer one file at a time.

One may ask - how do you know parallel processing using multiple threads is not faster than multithreaded applications? The answer is simple - I do not know. I can only go as far as what I see on the screen and what works for me. I used all the SWs that claimed to be multithreaded, but not one of them matched the trial version of 3D FTP Pro's true multithreadedness both in terms of speed and ease of use. Check out the SW @ http://www.3dftp.com

It is definitely faster than all the other SWs I have used. As always the rule is - what is really good, is not free (not that all paid SWs are good), I paid about 30 bucks and got the SW and I'm enjoying uploading my pictures (each picture is about 4 MB) to my gallery on my Comcast account. A simple chart shown on the 3dftp's website shows that the SW makes other SWs eat dust.