Small problem I've been having is locally unpacking and uploading via FTP is incredibly slow. Some files are more problematic than others. jquery-ui-1.8.5.custom.min.js I've battling with several times and it just doesnt get uploaded, I get connection time-out and eventually it gets uploaded. I've tried this on several servers and all seem to behave in the same way. Unpacking on the server is never a problem but not all servers have cpanel or similar.

I use filezilla for ftp tried from both linux and windows. Not trying to place the blame on anyone just wondering if anyone else is having the problems?

Have you tried to use Active connection with fallback to PASV ?

Theres an option for Passive mode with fallback to active mode. Is that what you mean? Will try, thank you.

If I don't have SSH access, I FTP the .tar.gz file in one shot and use the hosting company's file manager to unpack it.. Much faster.

Even faster is SSH'ing to the host and checking out the version (from the 'tags' directory) from SVN. 20 seconds or less.