Uploading and downloading

"Upload" and "Download" redirect here. For other uses, see Upload (disambiguation) and Download (disambiguation).
In Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Uploading images and Wikipedia:Database download.

In networks, uploading and downloading refer to the two canonical directions (corresponding to send and receive, respectively) that information can move, and further defines such data as being copied and compiled (indicated by the term "loading") to create a complete file, after a period of time. Downloading is distinguished from the related concept of streaming, which indicates a download in which the data is sequentially usable as it downloads, or "streams," and that (typically) the data is not stored.

To download is to receive data to a local system from a remote system, such as a webserver, FTP server, email server, or other similar systems. A download is any file that is offered for downloading or that has been downloaded.

The inverse operation, uploading, is the sending of data from a local system to a remote system, such as a server, or peer, with the intent that the remote system should save a copy of whatever is being transferred.

Download

The word's primary usage comes in the form of a verb. Increasingly, websites that offer streaming media or media displayed in-browser, such as YouTube, and which place restrictions on the ability of users to save these materials to their computers after they have been received, say that downloading is not permitted. In this context, "download" implies specifically "receive and save" instead of simply "receive".

Side load

When applied to local transfers (sending data from one local system to another local system), it is often difficult to decide if it is an upload or download, as both source and destination are in the local control of the user. Technically if the user uses the receiving device to initiate the transfer then it would be a download and if they used the sending device to initiate it would be an upload. However, as most non-technical users tend to use the term download to refer to any data transfer, the term "side load" is increasingly being used to cover all local to local transfers to end this confusion.

Remote upload

When there is a transfer of data from a remote system to another remote system, the process is called "remote uploading". This is used by some online file hosting services.