Okay, I admit it. I am confused by the
terms upload and download. I know I should understand them, but I
don't. I know upload and download deal with computer data transfer,
but I'm never quite sure which direction is which. I usually just use
both words to cover myself such as, “I'm going to upload these
pictures, or download them, or whatever.” I am confused and I think
it's finally time to get myself straight.
I asked one of many experts around me,
Wally, to help. He said that they were such basic terms
that he hadn't thought about explaining them before. But he tried
anyway using the floor and a high shelf to help me visualize. I
listened to his explanation and thought, “So simple. So very
simple.” I thought I had it and wrote down the definitions with
examples.
But then Ward read what I had written
and he told me that I was still confused. So I didn't have it. He
says it's better to think of it as a client/server relationship. And then he proceeded to tell me things
about restaurants and UPS stores to help me understand. When I tried
to repeat back to him to make sure I understood, he said
I made sense, but I was wrong.
So I thought about both Wally and
Ward's examples for a while and I think I finally have it. Let's only use two devices in
my explanation: my personal computer and the Internet. We will call
the computer the initiating device or the client and the Internet the server. If the computer
asks for data and gets it from the Internet that would be
downloading data. Or if the computer sends data to the Internet like
a picture to Facebook or Blogger that would be uploading. In other
words, if data is coming to the computer/client/initiator then the
data is being downloaded. If data is being sent away from the
computer/client/initiator, then it is being uploaded.
Now it starts to get confusing when you
add peripherals like your camera or phone. I think throwing these into the mix has been the complicating factor for me all along. Depending on the device,
the computer or the device could be doing the asking for the data
transfer so there could be either uploading or downloading going on.
And if the data goes back and forth from peripheral to peripheral, I
understand that sometimes there is no name for that—neither
uploading or downloading.
So there you have it. Downloading and
uploading. So simple. So very simple. Or not.
