This week I received a CD from a client in Europe with Videos, Powerpoint Slides and PDF Files, all in all just about 80 MB. Imagine what went into this file transfer. It was a very costly and energy intensive process from the manufacturing of the CD to the shipment from Europe to Chile.
But, is there another way of transferring large files between computers? Yes, there are plenty of opportunities of free file transferring and sharing services on the Internet. I am using yousendit and dropbox.
With yousendit you can upload a file of up to 100 MB for free. You then enter the email address of the recipient who is notified by email. He or she can then download the file by clicking on a link in the notification email (It expires after one week in the free version!).
What if you have more than 1 file to send? Just zip the files, as long as it is less than 100 MB it's still free: www.yousendit.com
We use dropbox especially on clients' projects. When we need to exchange lots of files during a project, we create a folder on dropbox and give access to the people involved. You can upload up to 2GB for free in your account and can access the files from any PC. Dropbox also offers a client that you can install on your PC. Files shared with dropbox are then located in a special dropbox folder on your machine which is synchronized with your online account. If someone changes or adds a new file, it is automatically synchronized on the PCs of the people who share that folder. Awesome! You can set individual access rights: private, shared with other users, or even pubic.
This is a much more efficient way of working with multiple people on multiple files as sending Email attachments back and forth, or a even burn a physical CD. How often do you get the "latest" version of a xxx.xls by email which does not include previous changes. With this type of file sharing there is only 1 version and everybody is up to date. Learn more on www.dropbox.com
And please don't burn that CD!
Alternatives: Google Docs, Megaupload
