How long does it take to upload files?

This will mostly depend on your Internet connection, and may also vary due to the time of day. You should also understand that uploading files is normally much slower than downloading, (see note about broadband speeds below).

For a typical broadband connection, uploads normally take around one minute per megabyte.

Multiple files

If you have a large number of smaller files, we do suggest that you use an archiving program such as WinZip, StuffIt or Tar to convert your files to a single archive. This will decrease overall size and simplify your upload.

For works such as websites and software applications, which often span multiple directories, this is especially important, and as this will also preserve the directory structure of the files.

Power management settings

Ensure that any power management options you have set will not interfere with your upload. Uploading files is not recognised as activity and your computer’s power management system may take your system to standby or hibernation, if this happens, the upload will stop and cause the session to timeout.

You can avoid this situation by ensuring that neither standby or hibernate will be entered during the upload time.

Dial-up connections

If you are on a dial-up connection, it is best to start uploading soon after you dial up, as some providers have a time limit on connections.

Audio Files

If you are uploading audio files, there is an audio files advice page with tips for uploading these types of files.

Our systems have a 2GB (2048MB) limit per file as uploads over 2GB are beyond the capabilities of most current web browsers. Please note that this is per file limit only, and registrations containing data over 2GB can be achieved by uploading several files within a single registration.

For large files, uploads are likely to take some considerable time, (i.e. several hours), to monitor progress, you may want to check your network activity to see how much data your computer is sending.

Most Internet links are ‘asymmetric’ and have limited upload capacity; typically about 1-2MB per minute. If you have over 300MB of data to submit it is normally easier and cheaper to submit your work on DVD with a postal application form.

Your Internet provider will typically quote figures like 8Mbps when they are selling their product. This does not mean that you can upload at that speed. Most domestic and commercial broadband users will have an asymmetric link, (the ‘A‘ in ADSL stands for ‘asymmetric’), with the download speed being much faster than the upload speed. In our experience ‘typical’ broadband connections have an upload speed of around 512 Kb/s.