Best Way to Transfer Large Files over the Internet

[zandre88]

Hey everyone!

I am extremely sorry if this has been answered previously but I couldn't find it when doing a search. Basically, I am just looking for some sort of service, software, or something that is capable of sending large files to another person via the internet. Whether it be by downloading or something like that. I have heard about DropBox and use that but the free service only allows up to 2GB of storage and there might be times I'd want more than just that much on there and money is tight so freeware is definitely preferred.

If there is absolutely nothing out there better than what DropBox does than I guess I can just stick with them but I just figured there'd be plenty of other options. I know e-Mail works great for small word documents, pdfs, etc but not for larger files because of size restrictions that most e-mail services impose. Not too mention it often times takes for freaking ever to even send a semi-large pdf file.

Something like Direct Connect like AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) had would be nice. I used that a lot when AIM was so popular and loved being able to use it to send such large files. Is there anything similar out there like this?

Any other suggestions, ideas, etc are greatly appreciated. As I said if at all possible I'd prefer freeware but if there is absolutely nothing out there that is free and provides a service such as AIM Direct Connect or something I guess I'd be willing to spend a small amount but I stress the word small. I, like so many others, are very tight on money right now.

Thank you so much!

 

[KSoD]

There is not going to be anything free that will allow you to tranfer larger amounts of data. SkyDrive is free and it has a 25GB limit, but you can only upload individual file sizes of only like 20MB. Your outta luck.

You might be able to do it if you had your own server and knew IRC really well. But there goes the free aspect. Cause using IRC will allow for direct connect and will do large files, I have gotten 4GB+ file sizes, but if the files are not hosted on a server with great uploading it will take you longer to use IRC than it would to just burn the file to a DVD and snail mail it.

Sorry but unless you can afford your own server, there isnt going to be anything that will allow you to do it.

 

[patonb]

setup an ftp site would be great....... Filezillas free.

 

[carnageX]

Split it up into multiple RAR or ZIP archives (in WinRAR you can specify the size of each split archive, and it will automatically split them into archives of that size). Then you can upload the individual files to somewhere like RapidShare or Megaupload (would only recommend this if its not sensitive data).

 

[zandre88]

Thanks for the advice so far. I've used WinRar before on many occasions so will think about giving that a shot as well.

 

[KSoD]

Just remember doing it that way will cause a file of 4GB to have around 400 parts to be 10MB each. That is a lot of parts to monitor as part 241 could get corrupted on the upload and you wont know it. So you will have to wait for someone to download all parts and extract them in order to find out if not only the compression process worked but the upload went flawlessly as well. You will also have to keep all parts on your drive till you get confirmation. If you delete it and then find out it is corrupted, you have to redo the whole thing. No way to just redo the compression and then upload that 1 part.

 

[office politics]

the best way known is to setup a torrent and have many ppl seed the download.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol)

 

[MyGodAL3X]

+1 for the ftp and the torrent idea

 

[KSoD]

Only issue with a Torrent, unless you start your own tracker you have to use a public one. So unless these are files you are willing to share with the world a public tracker is not the best idea. So at that point you are stuck with a torrent and a tracker but you still have to seed it to a few others. At that point your stuck seeding multiple people fragments of files and it will take you just as long to accomplish the task as if you would burn it to disk and mail it.

FTP is going to be the only real way, but even that will depend on the upload speeds.

 

[4P_Bulldozer]

It is really a matter of how much Data, what are your speed and privacy requirements, time, and cost.

• If you require privacy and speed then burn it on a DVD and send it by mail (not email, the old fashioned way) that is likely quicker than the combined upload and download speeds of both the sender and receiver.
• You can setup FTP on your Computer and then have the other person use a "Download Manager" so they can download at the highest speeds possible and restart if they loose the connection (an important consideration with extremely large files).
• You can use "Trackerless P2P" or F2F http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend-to-friend .

We need a bit more info before we can say which way would be best for your circumstances.