When you need to send piles (or gigabytes) of files, there are better and more friendly ways to do it than sending inbox cramming attachments. Here are a few that will make you popular with your unwitting recipient.
1. iDisk
iDisk is part of the Mobile Me service from Apple, which includes a me.com email address, 20GB of server space (upgradeable), syncing with iCal, Address Book, Safari and other OS X applications and iPhone services. iDisk can be used for backups, storage and file transfer via a public folder accessed with a browser. iDisk can also act just like a drive on your desktop. Don’t think of iDisk as a Mac app. It’s Windows friendly too.
Limit: 20GB Storage / 200 GB Monthly Data Transfer $109 CAN / year (twice the storage/transfer for $50/yr extra)
Cost: $109 CAN Platforms: Mac OSX, Windows More Information
2. Picasa
Picasa is Google’s photo sharing/storing/editing app.
Store and sort you photos on your desktop or phone and upload to online space with the app or browser.
Once online, you can share your photo libraries with email recipients and give them the option to download or comment on your photos. Great for sending clients or friends contact sheets to choose from.
Limit: 1GB (more available) Cost: Free (upgrade to 10GB for $20/yr). Platforms: Mac OSX, Windows, Linux
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3. FTP
FIle Transfer Protocol requires server space, like the one used to host your website. As long as you have username and password access you can use the space to up and download files and give others access for sharing. For security, it’s always a good idea to have a separate folder and user access for people that you don’t want to be able to poke around your precious HTML. If you only have one username or don’t have permission to create new folders, contact your web developer or hosting company.
Limit: Depends on server. Cost: see hosting company Platforms: All.More Information (Netfirms)
4. Ubuntu One
Ubuntu is a version of Linux (an alternative operating system to Windows or MacOS) that now includes a file sharing service called OneUbuntu. 2GB of space is included for free, with additional space available for purchase.
No extra software is required since all you need is a browser.
Limit: 2GB / 50GB Cost: Free/ $10 per month Platforms: Ubuntu
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5. gDisk
gDisk is software that turns your GMail account into a portable hard drive so you can always have your important files accessible accross the Internet.
Another way to make Google and GMail more useful!
Limit: Approx. 7GB
Cost: Free
Platforms: Mac with GMail account
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6. Box.Net
Another Free/Upgrade for a fee service, Box.net is also accessible from mobile devices app and has options for business applications.
An extensive and expandable service with a very impressive clientele list.
Limit: 1GB storage.
Cost: Free. Upgrades from $10/month.
Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, Blackberry
7. Accellion
Selling itself on the problems caused by email attachments jamming up email servers, Accellion is available as a service for business, small business and enterprise solutions. They also offer a level of security for all file transfers and storage options. At nearly $4000 per year, this is not an option to chuck a PDF your friend’s way when their email account is full. Designed for scalability, Accellion provides corporations from less than 100 users to more than 100,000 users with flexible deployment options that can grow from a single office to global distributed deployment integrating both on-premise and off-premise in-the-cloud installations.
Limit: 50GB Storage, 100GB Transfer Cost: starting at $3990 More Information
Good list of ways to send large files. I like yousendit.
Interesting and informative. But will you write about this one more?
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