No More Blocked Attachments
Have you tried to move big files by attaching them to email? Are your attachments disappearing? With the advent of reputable and long-needed antispam services, it's getting more difficult to move large files with email (as well it should be; email was never designed to transfer huge attachments or executables). Many email servers will block executable files (ending in .exe), Access (.mdb) and even compressed (.zip) files. It's time to get with the program and use free services to send big files or pay a small amount for a business account.
In the olden days, we "Old Net Folks" used FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and there are plenty of free apps still around if you're willing to learn something new and your recipient can get permissions set up for this method of transfer. Figuring that (a) you don't want to learn anything new and (b) your recipient's sysadmin raises one incredulous eyebrow at the request, here are some free or low-cost ways to move big files around the Internet.
On the Web
YouSendIt.com offers both a free service (you can send one file, up to 100Mb per transfer) and a low-cost professional choice that is browser-based and easy to use. Don't be afraid to sign up: they don't spam you with junk. With our free service, we received fewer than 2 emails per month from them. Clever users will zip (or sit) their multiple files and send one via this service. It's a good idea with all such services to password-protect your files prior to sending.
SendThisFile.com offers both free and subscription plans. Paid users can send multiple files per session and have a password-protection option, but you can do that yourself in Word, Excel, or any other common application (see above, "learning something new"). They claim to be faster for paid accounts but if you're an occasional sender, it should work fine.
SendSpace.com has free registration and offers "points" that help upgrade to a premium account. This is the only site requesting marketing information (my age) on the free signup. In addition, they have a free desktop wizard and a great FAQ section.
FTP Clients
There is even a blog about moving large files. The blogger lists a series of file-transfer methods, from good old WS_FTP to the newer-fangled file transfer applications. We're happy with the OS app Filezilla. A straightforward GUI, it's the easiest for civilians to understand to move files to our servers, but it still requires hand-holding setup.
By Foot
Get a Flash key [aka thumb drive] to move files where driving is involved. Some people are still burning CDs to transfer files (especially clients with lots of photos) but we stopped doing that a few years ago. The digital mantra is "My Flash key is smaller than yours!"
Choose a platform and make it company-wide. That way, one set of documentation will work for everyone and you won't have to listen to the inevitable, "But I SENT that file to you yesterday!"
In the olden days, we "Old Net Folks" used FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and there are plenty of free apps still around if you're willing to learn something new and your recipient can get permissions set up for this method of transfer. Figuring that (a) you don't want to learn anything new and (b) your recipient's sysadmin raises one incredulous eyebrow at the request, here are some free or low-cost ways to move big files around the Internet.On the Web
YouSendIt.com offers both a free service (you can send one file, up to 100Mb per transfer) and a low-cost professional choice that is browser-based and easy to use. Don't be afraid to sign up: they don't spam you with junk. With our free service, we received fewer than 2 emails per month from them. Clever users will zip (or sit) their multiple files and send one via this service. It's a good idea with all such services to password-protect your files prior to sending.
SendThisFile.com offers both free and subscription plans. Paid users can send multiple files per session and have a password-protection option, but you can do that yourself in Word, Excel, or any other common application (see above, "learning something new"). They claim to be faster for paid accounts but if you're an occasional sender, it should work fine.
SendSpace.com has free registration and offers "points" that help upgrade to a premium account. This is the only site requesting marketing information (my age) on the free signup. In addition, they have a free desktop wizard and a great FAQ section.
FTP Clients
There is even a blog about moving large files. The blogger lists a series of file-transfer methods, from good old WS_FTP to the newer-fangled file transfer applications. We're happy with the OS app Filezilla. A straightforward GUI, it's the easiest for civilians to understand to move files to our servers, but it still requires hand-holding setup.
By Foot
Get a Flash key [aka thumb drive] to move files where driving is involved. Some people are still burning CDs to transfer files (especially clients with lots of photos) but we stopped doing that a few years ago. The digital mantra is "My Flash key is smaller than yours!"
Choose a platform and make it company-wide. That way, one set of documentation will work for everyone and you won't have to listen to the inevitable, "But I SENT that file to you yesterday!"
