A smart way to send huge files

Nikita Kobrin · **Voice Talent** Joined: 10 Feb 2007 Posts: 5

I'm quite new to voice over business and this is my first post in this forum.

At the moment I mostly work as a freelance translator and interpreter. But it seems that different types of freelancers have many common problems. Perhaps the info I'm going to share could be of use for somebody here.

Many of us work now from home: we get jobs and send the results of our work via Internet. Even in Vilnius where I live I've got some customers whom I've NEVER met in person: they send me files to translate, I do my work and send it back to the customers and they then transfer the fee to my bank account.

Thus working from home often means getting and sending files. Sometimes they are quite large and this is where the headache begins: how to send them? By e-mail? Anything bigger than 1-2 MB is not recommended for e-mailing, I believe many of you know how troublesome it may be.

Many people use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) for transferring large files but to use this method effectively one often needs dedicated software and some knowledge of how to use it...

Thanks God nowadays we a have a smart way to send/receive huge (up to 4 GB!) files: special web sites can help you. Most of them are totally or partially free.

To use those web-sites you don't need extra software and/or knowledge. All you need is Internet connection, a browser and... a file to transfer. Wink

The scheme is simpler than elementary (there may be some variants from site to site but generally it looks like the follows):

- go to the web site

- via a special field choose a file on your hard disk you want to send

- enter an e-mail address of the person whom you want to send your file

- click Upload or Send It or whatever they call it

- after the file uploading the recipients you have specified are sent an email with instructions on how to download the file

Here are some web-sites of this kind which I've used and can recommend:

Dropload ■■■■□
Send any type of file up to 100 MB each. Free registration is required.

MailBigFile ■■■■□
Send any type of file up to 512 MB each without registration. When sending really big files may be unstable.

SendSpace ■■■■□
Send any type of file up to 300 MB each without registration. Somewhat slow but stable.

SendThisFile ■■■■□
Send any type of file up to 2 GB each. Free registration is required.

YouSendIt ■■■■■
Send any type of file up to 100 MB each without registration. Free registration is required if you need to send a bigger file (up to 4 Gb).

Please note:

1) Though the mentioned above web-sites claim to handle files up to 4 GB if you don't have really fast and stable Internet connection and need to send a file of hundreds MB I still would recommend to split your file into chunks of 30-50 MB. To do that you can use Chainsaw: A free file splitting tool or a similar app.

2) In order to avoid possibility of spam while registering at the mentioned sites (as anywhere on the Net though) don't use your main e-mail addresses - use disposable ones instead.

If somebody knows other sites for transferring large files please share your knowledge with colleagues in this thread.

NK

Joe J Thomas · **Voice Talent** Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 1521

Welcome Nikita,

I've used YouSendIt in the past - it works pretty well.

The concept is a good idea, but some people may have an issue with security. In that case, you can always encrypt the files with PGP or some other software (PGP's free, btw, under the GPL).

In any case, welcome to the forums. And thanks for the info Wink

Joe J Thomas
www.JoeActor.com

Chuck Douglas · **Voice Talent** Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 50

If you have internet access, then you probably have web space. Just post it on your web page with a password and give it to your clients. I do not see the reason for involving a third party to do this. I work with others who do this, but I can't understand why they use these services when you can just upload the file to your own page.

I have emailed .zip files full of audio as big as 10mb without problems. You just need a fast connection.

Chuck www.EmenceeAudio.com

Colin Campbell · Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2007, 21:19 (GMT) Post subject:

I set up my own FTP server. Currently I am using IIS that comes with Server 2003 but it's crap. This weekend I am going to try and setup FileZilla Server. It's free.

Kim Somers · Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007, 17:30 (GMT) Post subject: transferbigfiles.com

I use transferbigfiles.com Minimal ads. No membership. No costs. Option to notify when your files have been downloaded - which I've found VERY useful.