FTP to copy ARCHIVE tables?

[Nick Sharp]

I am wondering if it is possible to copy an ARCHIVE table from one MySQL server to another using FTP? My (optimistic?) thought is to FTP both <tablename>.ARZ and <tablename>.frm from server A's /var/lib/mysql/<databasename> to server B's /var/lib/mysql/<databasename> under CentOS5.1 with MySQL 5.1.22 community edition from mysql.com

It isn't working for me so far. The two file systems seem identical but server B tries to repair the table, and fails.

The table is created weekly, and the FTP attempt occurs after that table's week is over. I want to be able occasionally to read the table on server B.

I expect I'm supposed to use mysqldump, but the tables are already about 3Gb in size, and I'd guess the dump would be some 4x that, which makes for a much bigger FTP than if I can just FTP the ARZ.

Economical suggestions welcome if FTP is a no-no (why?).

Oh, confession is good: the code inserting records into the table on server A is sloppy, and does not (YET) do a DBI->disconnect - is that perhaps my current obstacle?