Move Those Big Files

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Lorne Fisher knew there had to be a better way.

When clients in Europe and South Florida alike couldn't easily download large files from his FTP server, Fisher was left in the lurch. Work ground to a halt, potentially dragging down projects and his professional image along with them.

So last fall, Fisher signed up for YouSendIt.com. The service allows users to upload large files or zipped documents up to two gigabytes in size. On the other end, recipients download the file without clogging their e-mail inbox or suffering through FTP woes. It certainly beats e-mailing files, he said.

"It was a pain in the butt. Anything over 10 megs either took forever or never arrived, and you never know how much their inbox can handle," said Fisher, CEO and managing partner with FishConsulting Inc., a Hollywood, Fla., marketing firm. "This has become my default large-file e-mail service."

Transferring large files to other users across the Internet can be a challenge at best, or impossible at worst. One common alternative -- overnighting CD-ROMs or flash drives -- can be costly and much slower than electronic delivery.

Even file transfer protocol (FTP) is not without its issues, as Fisher learned. Log-ins can be stymied. Files can get corrupted.

Enter file transfer services. Applications like YouSendIt.com, RapidShare.com, MegaUpload.com and others serve as a Web-based FTP of sorts. Here's how it works: A registered user inputs the e-mail address for himself and the intended recipients. He then clicks "Browse" to select and upload a file (including documents, art or graphic files or MP3 files, for example).

Recipients receive notification the file is waiting. They log onto the service at their convenience, click on the link, and download the file. The process is seen by many as more reliable than FTP. Transfer speeds are accelerated and the chance of file damage or corruption is reduced.

In fact, eight in 10 YouSendIt users appreciate the product's ease of use, and about six in 10 like the ability to track when recipients retrieved their files, said Ivan Koon, CEO of YouSendIt Inc. The company has 4 million registered users worldwide who transfer some 30,000 gigabytes of data daily.

"In small or big businesses, the majority of day-to-day operational processes are built around digital documents," Koon said. "Sending and receiving big files is definitely part of every document-based workload."

Most free services limit the number of times a user can tap the service, the number of files that can be stored at one time, or the total capacity of the documents uploaded. Files are stored anywhere from a week to 30 days from the last time they were accessed. Paid services typically have fewer limitations. Most offer password protection to access uploaded files.

Fisher signed up for the free service, and has found sufficient capacity for his needs. He still uses simple e-mail attachments for smaller files. But he uses YouSendIt.com several times a month to transfer large art and graphics files to clients throughout the United States and abroad. The service seems as secure as and more reliable than his FTP server, Fisher said.

Fisher occasionally follows up his transmission with a personal e-mail to recipients warning them not to delete the message, or to check their junk E-mail folder before deleting its contents.

"I use it so much, I would pay for an account if they stopped the free service," he said.

By Jeff Zbar
www.chiefhomeofficer.com