If you have suitable access, the fastest way would be to tar and gzip all the files from the server (to create one compressed archive), copy that to the new server (use wget if you can, or FTP locally, then to the new server)
Then uncompress and un-tar on the new server.

If you are transferring *lots* of files, any FTP-type transfer will take forever with more than a few thousand files.

use wget if you can, or FTP locally, then to the new server

can you elaborate further on this?

I am not sure of the technical details but can you not use Ghost to move the files. I think that is one of the safest and fastest ways.

wget is just a program provided on pretty much all linux systems (I assume you are not on a Windows system)

You generally need root access to run it - I mention it only in that it will save you having to download the tarball to your local PC and then back to the server (i.e. it is a direct server to server transfer and will be twice as fast, plus you are not being limited by your ISP's transfer speed cap)

[gnu.org...]

Bear in mind that it is a non-secure transfer (as is FTP) - if you have sensitive data you'd be advised to use SFTP or SCP
[google.com...]

I am not sure of the technical details but can you not use Ghost to move the files. I think that is one of the safest and fastest ways.

i have no idea what ghost is, do you have a link?

wget is just a program provided on pretty much all linux systems (I assume you are not on a Windows system)

moving from and to a linux

You generally need root access to run it

i'm a bit behind on technical terms, but how do i know?
i'm moving from shared hosting with cpanel, public_html and www, tmp, etc. folders to godaddy deluxe linux hosting

Bear in mind that it is a non-secure transfer (as is FTP) - if you have sensitive data you'd be advised to use SFTP or SCP

i don't have any secure files that need to be moved :) just plain php, txt and html / image files

Norton Ghost. As far as I know you can back up from one server and then load to the other.

[symantec.com...]

Norton Ghost. As far as I know you can back up from one server and then load to the other.

a bit pricy to save a few hours of time :) thanks for the suggestion though

i'm a bit behind on technical terms, but how do i know?

If you don't know whether or not you have root access, then it's 99.9% likely that you don't.

Your best bet will probably be to ask your current host to create the tarball for you and place it in a public folder, then ask your new host to retrieve and restore the files.

a bit pricy to save a few hours of time

True but I once moved servers without it and during the move some files messed up. Since then any server move must be done with ghost for me anyway.