I'm coming to file transfer sites late in the game (so to speak).
A friend wants me to transfer some rather large files (say, up to 500MB)
from his computer when he is away.
We have Logmein set up so that I can operate his computer.
Exactly what would I have to do to transfer a file to a file transfer
site and then retrieve it to my computer? What sites do you like? Assume
that he has no accounts like Dropbox.
I apologize for the very basic nature of this question.
Thanks.
Since apparently Logmein doesn't do file transfer in the free version
(assuming that's what you have), you could use Teamcenter, which I think
does. But to answer the question you asked: that depends what you mean
by "file transfer sites". If you mean things like Dropbox, then it is my
understanding that you do have to "open an account" (set up access) with
them in order to _up_load to them; I think most of them then provide a
web-based interface that handles the transfer. If you find one that
provides space but no easy interface, then you'll need ftp (file
transfer protocol) to do the upload; I don't know if there's any such
built into Windows 7, but if there isn't, there are plenty around - I
can only name two, Cuteftp and WS-ftp (the latter of which I use), and I
don't know if they work on 7.
If his ISP account includes any free webspace then he may already have
access to somewhere that could be used, though 500M may be more than is
offered.
Once the file is up, then in order for a different person to be able to
download it, they need to be told the link, and any password required
for access (no problem in your case as you'll be doing the upload by
remote); in the case of most of the sharing sites, it'll then just be a
matter of downloading via your browser. In the case of a plain
FTP-accessed storage area you _might_ need to have FTP software at your
end too. (Some browsers have at least FTP _down_load capability built in
- you just use ftp:// instead of
http://, at least that's how some of
them work - but if there's a password required, which there is likely to
be, the means of including that in the URL I have forgotten [and may
vary between browsers anyway].)
As others have pointed out, you may want to - unless you use a direct
transfer method that includes encryption anyway - encrypt the files
before transmission (whether direct or via some storage).
I'd say the preferred way of doing the transfer is 1. direct, 2. via
remote storage, 3. via email. There are utilities around which split up
(and reassemble - don't forget that aspect of course!) files into
smaller chunks, usually of user-defined sizes; they used to be (and
maybe still are) popular on the binary newsgroups with people who wanted
to post files bigger than would get through the system. Some of these (I
think rar might be one?) allow for some element of two-way communication
in which the receiving end can post a short summary file which in effect
lists the parts that haven't got through. At least one (actually two if
you include the old .zip, as that can make self-extractors) of the
utilities I've used make the first part into an executable, so the
receiving end doesn't have to have any reassembly software but just runs
the first part, though I don't think either of those had intelligent
ways of handling missing parts.
