FTP is great, but when your looking to send files quickly over the network you may want to look at the commands: scp, rcp, and pscp. The use case scenario my friend Chuk brought up is the initial load of a project with many dependencies that were quickly retrieved from the internet but pushing to the hosting server is slower. On a Mac or Linux box you just need to get to the terminal to use the command and on Windows you just need to use Putty. The links below will show you how to use them:
Linux
SCP – Secure Copy
http://www.hypexr.org/linux_scp_help.php
RCP – Remote file copy
http://linux.about.com/od/commands/l/blcmdl1_rcp.htm
“-C option for compression should also be used to increase speed. The effect of compression, however, will only significantly increase speed if your connection is very slow. “
Windows to Linux
pscp – PuTTY Secure Copy
https://community.freescale.com/thread/220596
Other reasons for your file transfer being slow could be a slow connection to the server which if you can upgrade your connection, routers and internet connect to gigabit or better you’ll remove some of these issues