Like the topic above states.
I’ve been meaning to ask this question for a long time.
Back in the day I was using ICQ to chat with various people.
ICQ had this handy little feature where you could upload a file (not matter how big) in realtime to the person you were chatting with.
Since then It’s really bothered me that I couldn’t do this without ICQ ( I don’t use this anymore).
I’ve googled around and there’s site called send-this-file and there’s x-drive, but have you ever tried to send a large file to someone who had to make an effort to receive it?
It’s slow torture in my case; I do all the work of figuring out a way and then they don’t want to cooperate with the method.
I’ve perused Cnet for a few file-splitter programs which is nice but what I’m dealing with is a teenage sister-in-law in Europe who will lose interest easily if this method isn’t practically effortless on her part. Which is why I’ve come to you guys for ideas.
I really like the idea of a real-time upload, even if it takes a long time. but if such a thing doesn’t exist outside of ICQ, then I guess I’m all ears.
This is only happening because I shot some footage on a video camera and burned it to DVD thinking this would be no problem in Europe.
Now I’m stuck facing the “large file question”.
If they are not going to co-operate, it will be hard.
MSN Messenger does file transfers. Whatever you do, they need to have some sort of client software on their end to download it. Firewalls and suchlike can make doing this sort of thing quite difficult. HTTP is the safest bet - your browser is the upload/download client.
I would suggest sticking it on a file transfer website and emailing a link, for the easiest win. And reduce the resolution and increase the compression on the file before you upload it, so it does not take so long.
Otherwise, never underestimate the bandwidth of a DVD in the post - and the ease of use, too. Just remember, Europe = PAL encoding.
My personal preferance is to just upload it to a site - like Sharebigfile - and mail someone the resulting URL download link. At the end of that, you only have to coerce the other person to click on the link and wait the time it takes to download.
This is probably a more streamlined solution than a simultanuous upload/download between the two of you, because if you do that, her download will be strangled by your upload speed, which is nearly always way slower. As an example, common ADSL rule of thumb is 12KB/S download per 1KB/S upload, meaning the download will take 12 times the time it should. (Unless your line is monstrous or SDSL, or she has a really sucky line anyway)
Ah, yes. Well, I’m actually thinking it was a different kind of incompatibility problem such as that of the very loose formatting standards involved with burning media or hey, maybe I was presumptious to think there was a DVD-ROM reader in the computer that is there. I just don’t know and none of my family has a real interest in techie-nerd stuff like that
But in any regard, you can rule out PAL as a reason, because computers have their own standards and they are quite a bit more liberal than those of broadcasting standards
**Yag Rannavach ** I’m not saying I’m taking your suggestion, but I’m always up to learn something.
What exactly is involved with your ftp server suggestion? How would I do this?
And lastly, you are aware that I’m building the file so that someone else on a different computer can view this, right? I’m not being smart; I’m just asking.
Thinktank, I was also about to suggest setting up an FTP server so I’ll try fielding your question. The upside is that all your SIL will have to do is enter an address in her web browser and click on the listed links in order to download your files. The address for such a connection would look something like this:
However, there are a couple of issues you have to consider before going ahead with this solution:
A fair amount of tech savvy is required on your part. If you’re not comfortable with opening ports on your router/firewall or setting up a dynamic DNS hostname on a webservice such as Dyndns or No-IP then this isn’t really for you.
Her download speed will be limited by your upload speed. Typical consumer net connections have much slower upstream speeds than downstream. If she’s willing to wait to download, then this won’t be an issue.
A couple of good, free and opensource FTP servers are WarFTP Daemon and Filezilla Server (this is what I use). Documentation can be a little sketchy but if you decide to give this a shot, I can try to help you out with a little more detail.
Computers are flexible and can cope with PAL/NTSC encoded video, but if you burned the video file as a DVD on to DVD-R media, they could play it in almost any consumer DVD player - no computer issues to worry about, but it would need to be PAL encoded.
You could also use SCP, but this will require an SSL connection, but this will allow you to copy files from one machine to a remote host as if the two were the same.
If it was me, I’d go with the DVD via snail mail. If you can’t talk them through the technical aspects of playing a DVD, then you’re never going to be able to tell them how to download a video file and get it to play.
I needed to do a similar thing and found this site
Basically type in your recipients email adr and upload a file, then hit the send button.
The recipient receives an email with a link to a website to download.
no reg needed for the basic, you can pay for sending up to 2gig files, secure delivery etc
edit to add, just read the OP again, the free limit is 100mb, so may no be helpful to you if your file is bigger than that.
I’ve found Google Talk excellent for sending large files between people with ease. It says it doesn’t have a limit size for transfers but I haven’t tested it. I can never get file transfers to work on AIM or IRC but Google Talk is as easy as pie. You can get it here.
If you are going to be spending a lot of stuff back and forth then you might want to check out FolderShare. One of my friends uses this to access stuff between his work computer and desktop. He also uses it to share episodes of his favorite shows with friends. I’ve seen him swap entire seasons worth of episodes using FolderShare.
Gmail will handle up to 20MB. Above that you can attach a file to a email and save the draft for a file larger than Gmail will send. You can then later on go back in and open the draft (and file from another computer.
I have done this to transfer large files from work to home.
You should be able to use windows file shareing, if your both on a windows 95 or higher.
Usualy the option of shareing a file is in the right click context menu.
Then give whoever your WAN IP. They can connect to this share via web browser by entering your ip with 2 “\” in front of it. (\000.000.000.000)
Also, Doing this on a large number of random IP strands can get you some very interesting stuff. ( though, mostly family pictures)
