I use CuteFTP and for the past couple of months my FTP client was connecting very slow. I would tell it to connect to my site and then I would go off and do something else because I knew it would take 20 to 30 minutes just to connect. Then it would take 5 or 10 minutes just to upload my first file.

I had talked with Hostony Support with them and everything seemed fine. CuteFTP was on the list of good clients to have. There was nothing wrong with the server. One of the technologists even checked the FTP connection on his computer, no problems.

WeEll, I just found out what it was and thought I would share it with you. Make sure that your transfer method is ASCII. Mine was set to Auto-Detect. You would not think that it would make that much difference, but it does.

Good tip!
Just be careful with image files (they are an exception to this rule) as they should not be uploaded using ASCII

Mines connects very quickly and I have it on auto detect but next time I'll be sure to do what you said for a lightning quick connection .