What route does a DL'ed file take?

Just to set the scene a little.......

I have a desktop machine that is connected to the net via ADSL. I then have
my laptop connected to the desktop via a wireless network. Now I use the
laptop mainly, with the desktop sat connected to the net being a gateway and
running P2P........

Say I want to download a large file using the laptop, but store that
file on the large HDD on the desktop? (still with me?) Does the file come
down the pipe from the ADSL, to the desktop, over the WLAN to the laptop,
then back to the desktop for storage? I'd imagine it does tbh, just thought
I may be underestimating the technology

Thanks muchly for your replies



Oli

You got it in one, the only workaround would be use remote control software
on the desktop, use the laptop to control it, VNC will do the job, or XP's
remote desktop.

--
Nathan D Higgins

Website: http://nathan.link9.net/
Email: nathan[at]link9[dot]net
Hosting: http://www.link9.net
WAP: http://wap.link9.net
[dot]NET: nathan[at]link9[dot]net

In article <bfc182$d0evj$(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> Just to set the scene a little.......
>
> I have a desktop machine that is connected to the net via ADSL. I then have
> my laptop connected to the desktop via a wireless network. Now I use the
> laptop mainly, with the desktop sat connected to the net being a gateway and
> running P2P........
>
> Say I want to download a large file using the laptop, but store that
> file on the large HDD on the desktop? (still with me?) Does the file come
> down the pipe from the ADSL, to the desktop, over the WLAN to the laptop,
> then back to the desktop for storage? I'd imagine it does tbh, just thought
> I may be underestimating the technology
>
Yes :-) You can easily show this by monitoring network usage - you'll
see that as the download arrives on the laptop there is corresponding
traffic back to the server. If you often make large downloads you might
want to install some remote control software like VNC so you can run the
download on the server and keep the traffic off your LAN. You could
even do this with a telnet server if you're happy using command-line
FTP.

In news:(E-Mail Removed),
Rob Morley wrote:

> In article <bfc182$d0evj$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>> Just to set the scene a little.......
>>
>> I have a desktop machine that is connected to the net via ADSL. I
>> then have my laptop connected to the desktop via a wireless network.
>> Now I use the laptop mainly, with the desktop sat connected to the
>> net being a gateway and running P2P........
>>
>> Say I want to download a large file using the laptop, but store
>> that file on the large HDD on the desktop? (still with me?) Does
>> the file come down the pipe from the ADSL, to the desktop, over the
>> WLAN to the laptop, then back to the desktop for storage? I'd
>> imagine it does tbh, just thought I may be underestimating the
>> technology
>>
> Yes :-) You can easily show this by monitoring network usage -
> you'll see that as the download arrives on the laptop there is
> corresponding traffic back to the server. If you often make large
> downloads you might want to install some remote control software like
> VNC so you can run the download on the server and keep the traffic
> off your LAN. You could even do this with a telnet server if you're
> happy using command-line FTP.

Is it not possible for him to request the download from the laptop but simply
request to 'Save As..' and then select a (shared?) folder on the server machine?

Or does this simply create the situation he's trying to avoid - ie file
initially goes to where it was requested from (2-way communication, as you
pointed out) and the 'Save As..' process would create an entirely separate bit
of LAN traffic?


--?
regards,

Mark

Mark Cherry <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> In news:(E-Mail Removed),
> Rob Morley wrote:
>
> > In article <bfc182$d0evj$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> > (E-Mail Removed) says...
> >> Just to set the scene a little.......
> >>
> >> I have a desktop machine that is connected to the net via ADSL. I
> >> then have my laptop connected to the desktop via a wireless network.
> >> Now I use the laptop mainly, with the desktop sat connected to the
> >> net being a gateway and running P2P........
> >>
> >> Say I want to download a large file using the laptop, but store
> >> that file on the large HDD on the desktop? (still with me?) Does
> >> the file come down the pipe from the ADSL, to the desktop, over the
> >> WLAN to the laptop, then back to the desktop for storage? I'd
> >> imagine it does tbh, just thought I may be underestimating the
> >> technology
> >>
> > Yes :-) You can easily show this by monitoring network usage -
> > you'll see that as the download arrives on the laptop there is
> > corresponding traffic back to the server. If you often make large
> > downloads you might want to install some remote control software like
> > VNC so you can run the download on the server and keep the traffic
> > off your LAN. You could even do this with a telnet server if you're
> > happy using command-line FTP.
>
> Is it not possible for him to request the download from the laptop but simply
> request to 'Save As..' and then select a (shared?) folder on the server machine?
>
> Or does this simply create the situation he's trying to avoid - ie file
> initially goes to where it was requested from (2-way communication, as you
> pointed out) and the 'Save As..' process would create an entirely separate bit
> of LAN traffic?
>
Yes - the laptop is doing the driving, and it has to have the data before
it can store it somewhere else. In order to save straight to the server
you need a process running on the server, but controlled (well,
initialised) by the laptop.

In news:(E-Mail Removed) .com,
Rob Morley wrote:

> Mark Cherry <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> In news:(E-Mail Removed),
>> Rob Morley wrote:
>>
>>> In article <bfc182$d0evj$(E-Mail Removed)>,
>>> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>>>> Just to set the scene a little.......
>>>>
>>>> I have a desktop machine that is connected to the net via ADSL. I
>>>> then have my laptop connected to the desktop via a wireless
>>>> network. Now I use the laptop mainly, with the desktop sat
>>>> connected to the net being a gateway and running P2P........
>>>>
>>>> Say I want to download a large file using the laptop, but store
>>>> that file on the large HDD on the desktop? (still with me?) Does
>>>> the file come down the pipe from the ADSL, to the desktop, over the
>>>> WLAN to the laptop, then back to the desktop for storage? I'd
>>>> imagine it does tbh, just thought I may be underestimating the
>>>> technology
>>>>
>>> Yes :-) You can easily show this by monitoring network usage -
>>> you'll see that as the download arrives on the laptop there is
>>> corresponding traffic back to the server. If you often make large
>>> downloads you might want to install some remote control software
>>> like VNC so you can run the download on the server and keep the
>>> traffic off your LAN. You could even do this with a telnet server
>>> if you're happy using command-line FTP.
>>
>> Is it not possible for him to request the download from the laptop
>> but simply request to 'Save As..' and then select a (shared?) folder
>> on the server machine?
>>
>> Or does this simply create the situation he's trying to avoid - ie
>> file initially goes to where it was requested from (2-way
>> communication, as you pointed out) and the 'Save As..' process would
>> create an entirely separate bit of LAN traffic?
>>
> Yes - the laptop is doing the driving, and it has to have the data
> before it can store it somewhere else. In order to save straight to
> the server you need a process running on the server, but controlled
> (well, initialised) by the laptop.

Okay, thanks. I've no idea how that last bit is done though....


--?
regards,

Mark

Mark Cherry <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> In news:(E-Mail Removed) .com,
> Rob Morley wrote:
<snip>
> > In order to save straight to
> > the server you need a process running on the server, but controlled
> > (well, initialised) by the laptop.
>
> Okay, thanks. I've no idea how that last bit is done though....
>
either: remote desktop like VNC
has the advantage that it's stateless - you can disconnect the remote
client and the server will still be running whatever you started.
However it does take over the desktop on the server, so it's not much use
if someone else is using the server locally.

or: remote command line like ssh
has the advantage that it does not interfere with local users (unless you
call a GUI app on the server from the CLI), but the disadvantage that you
can only (interactively) run CLI apps, and the apps will (normally) shut
down when you disconnect your client session.

or: use a scheduler on the server to run your apps
this is obviously no good for interactive jobs, but could be handy if for
example you wanted to run an ftp client - just run a scriptable ftp
client with the scheduler, and modify the script remotely to control the
downloads
The "at" command could be very useful for this sort of thing.