Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Sending Larger Than 2GB Files

In an age where the terabyte rules, and I’m sure we’ll be moving into petabytes and exabytes any second now, it sure seems like a pain in the ass to get a 5GB file sent over the web.

YouSendIt is the reigning online file transfer company, but they have a 2GB single file limit.  DropBox is the favorite of Lifehacker and their ilk, but they also have a 2GB single file limit.  Even Microsoft has sky drive, and while they have a 5GB cloud capacity, they sport a COMICAL 50MB file size limit.  Most FTP options also have a 2GB file limit.

So what do you do when you need to send an 11GB file to someone on the other side of the country (or planet)?

This week I found two decent options.  One is to torrent the file (who knew it was for more than just stealing?!), and the other is through Skype.

There is a pretty decent tutorial here on how to create a torrent file using uTorrent (free program).  You simply create the torrent file (which is basically a sort of map for the recipient to find your computer and the specific file), and then send that torrent file to your recipient.  Your computer then feeds the file to the recipient (using a torrent program like uTorrent) over an internet connection.   I highly suggest using the forced encryption mentioned in the tutorial, especially if you are on Comcast.  The one thing the tutorial fails to mention is that you will absolutely need to set up port forwarding on your router (for the port you designate to work with uTorrent).  This is easy to do and a simple Google inquiry for port forwarding on your specific router should get you going.

The easiest way, however, to send a large file is to simply open up a Skype conversation with the recipient, and select “Conversation” from your menu options at the top of the screen, then “Send” then “File.”  Yesterday I sent an 11GB file.  It took around 11 hours over a Comcast connection.  Not exactly speed of light, but at least the file got there.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thru managed file transfer allows companies to securely send and store files of any size in the cloud.

My company uses it and it’s great.

http://www.thruinc.com/products-services/managed-file-transfer/