Issues with Deploying Silverlight application through vs2008

All,
I have a silly question. I have worked on this for a few hours and have a work-around, but it isn't elegant. I am seeking some direction from this forum. My issue is around deployment.

I have setup the project as a Silverlight project hosted within an asp.net page which allows me to gain access to the asp.net deployment model in vs2008. I have used this approach on several projects without issue. This is the first time that I am deploying via ftp though.

However, when I go to deploy the project via ftp and enter in the information into the vs2008 dialog box to connect to the server, nothing it transfered to the webserver. The vs2008 environment says that the project is deploying, but after 15 minutes, nothing has happened and no files appear on the server. It appears that the files are just not making it up to the website - although no errors are thrown. I have confirmed with support that my username and ftp location are correct.

As a work around, what I ended up doing was deploying the project to my local file system. I then used vs2008 to open the website vs. the "Silverlight project" above. When the website was opened from the filesystem, I could then ftp that solution up to the server via ftp with no issues.

What isn't clear to me is why I need to go through that incremental step of deploying to the file system? Why can't I just deploy the Silverlight project straight to the server via ftp? Have others had this issue? Is there a work-around or am I doing something silly?

Thanks,

Steve Chadwick