FTP: Download size anomaly

I have downloaded some file from an FTP site. I go to to the page on the site where the files are, and select (Iin IE) > page > Open FTP site in Windows Explorer. It does it, and then Explorer I highlight the files I want, select the copy icon and it copies them (in two batches because I got a timeout).
Copying finishes.
I check it by comparing the size of all data tranferred. It's usually the same to the byte. Today, the files on the FTP site total size 741,469,355 bytes in 1,439 files. Total size downloaded 1,485,501,361 bytes (1,488,502,784 on disk) in 1,439 files. I counted the number of files by hand in both cases, as well the machine total being the same for the files on my disk. Samples of 35 files give precisely the same size. Every file is between 687K and 1,187Kbyte.

The download size is usually about 350MB in total and takes about 1 hr. Today the download took about 4hrs. I did it twice to verify, with exactly the same result. I'm copying the files straight to a USB HD as usual.

So I go to download a bunch of files which are 740,000,000 bytes in size, and end up with what look like the same files only thet're 1,500,000,000 bytes in size.

Anyone any ideas ?

Dumb_Question
5.August.2012
Compaq Presario S5160UK DT261A under XP/SP3
Processor - Celeron 2.7 GHz
Motherboard - MSI MS-6577 v2.1
RAM - 1GB + 512MB (1GB +1GB max) DDR PC2700
PSU - Octigen 300W model 10270PSOTG ('upgraded' from original Bestec 250W PSU [in 2011?])
Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics card in AGP slot.

 

When downloading via FTP, the file size on the server, and the file size of your downloaded file may actually be different, depending on the file types:

• Binary files will have exactly the same size on the server and after the download.
• ASCII (text) files will have a different (most likely larger) size after the download.

If the downloaded files are smaller than on the server, then most likely the download has been interrupted, and is incomplete.

When downloading large files via FTP, it is usually better to use a dedicated FTP client than a web browser. I personally like http://majorgeeks.com/FileZilla_d4810.html

 

I got a similar result today, with uninterrupted download. The files I downloaded show as almost twice as big as those at the source (both determined by selecting all the files, and right clicking on any highlighted area and selecting 'properties'). The download was a similar size to the one I started this topic with.

This issue only seems to occur when I download source file that are in total 700MB in size, (and they result in a total size of 1400MB); when the total size is ~350MB the size of downloaded files is too to the exact number of bytes, the same.

I am downloading many files of ~1 MB. The download downloads exactly the same number of files. So I'm not downloading large files. But I will try your suggested method next time if the download is over as large.

Dumb_Question
9.August.2012
Compaq Presario S5160UK DT261A under XP/SP3
Processor - Celeron 2.7 GHz
Motherboard - MSI MS-6577 v2.1
RAM - 1GB + 512MB (1GB +1GB max) DDR PC2700
PSU - Octigen 300W model 10270PSOTG ('upgraded' from original Bestec 250W PSU [in 2011?])
Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics card in AGP slot.

 

One of the good things of using an FTP client is that you see the files and their sizes side-by-side after downloading.