High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In computer networking, upstream refers to the direction in which data can be transferred from the client to the server (uploading). This differs greatly from downstream not only in theory and usage, but also in that upstream speeds are usually at a premium. Whereas downstream speed is important to the average home user for purposes of downloading content, uploads are used mainly for web server applications and similar processes where the sending of data is critical. Upstream speeds are also important to users of peer-to-peer software.