protected function _getAbsoluteRemotePath($path = null)
    {
        if (null === $path) {
            return $this->_startingpath;
        }

        $path = str_replace(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, '/', $path);
        if (null === $parse_url = @parse_url($path)) {
            $parse_url = array('path' => $path);
        }

        return ('/' === substr($parse_url['path'], 0, 1) ? $path : $this->_remotepath.'/'.$path);
    }