The Real Deal: Folder encapsulation

Folder encapsulation

I need to send folders in email a lot and the easiest way to do it is by compressing the folder. All I really need is to encapsulate the folder inside of a file. I am tired of waiting for the compression. Does anybody know of a program (preferably free and open source) that will do this and maintain the folder hierarchy? If not, what is the fastest compression algorithm?