Online storage and sharing

What do we do if we have a large file (like a PT session) and we need to send it to someone?

We have a few options:

We could burn it to a CD or DVD (or copy to a hard drive) and mail/courier it. But that takes time and what if it gets lost on the way?

We could upload it to personal web space using FTP or online file manager. But that’s a bit complicated, and uses your bandwidth, which might result in downtime for your site. If you don’t have a website at all that is not an option.

We could make a private torrent and share it that way, but if its just 1 seed and 1 leach, its not the fastest way. Some people are opposed to this technology as well.

The best way would be to upload it to a website that offers free online storage and file sharing. There are dozens of these sites out there, I’ve listed a few below that provide free accounts, and some of the limitations of the free accounts.

• www.Rapidshare.com – 100MB max size, long wait before DL, only 1 DL/100min, fast downloads
• www.MegaUpload.com – 1GB file size limit, lots of ads, 45 sec wait
• www.FileFront.com – Unlimited storage, 1GB max file size
• www.Uploaded.To – 250MB file size, 10 second wait before DL starts, slower speed than other sites, only 1 DL at a time
• www.YouSendIt.com – 100MB file size limit
• www.ElephantDrive.com – Unlimited storage, Java interface doesn’t always work, I haven’t been able to successfully share a file.
• www.XDrive.com – 5GB free, requires AOL account
• www.4Shared.com – 5GB free, only 1 download at a time, long wait before download starts

Megaupload and Filefront are my favorites, and I loath Rapidshare.

To get around the max file size limits you should compress the file with .zip or .rar containers. If thats still not small enough, you should try split .rar archives. After downloading each rar part you just have to select them all, right click and extract to recombine the file.

• rarsoft.com – WinRAR for Windows, RAR for Macs. FREE
  StuffIt Deluxe – For Macs. $79 (You can use Free Stuffit Expander to extract, but not encode.
• ALZip – For Windows. FREE

If it is .wav files you are sending, you may want to try compressing with .flac, a lossless codec which can be decoded back to wav without losing a bit of information.

• FLAC

If you have a favorite sharing site to add to the list, let us know in the comments.

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