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I have a set of audio/video files that I want to distribute to about ten people. There will be weekly additions to these sets of files. They are about 125MB total in size. What is the best method to get these files to these people? I found a lot of sites that want users to install some sort of spyware or crapware on their system in order to get the files (eg pando). Ideally, the user would just have a link on their browser they can click. I don't necessarily need these files to be protected from public viewing/downloading. What is a good method to use?

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  • You could try Dropbox, or bittorrent?
    – Phoshi
    Jun 20, 2010 at 18:29
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    @Phoshi - bittorrent isn't likely to be very useful if there's only 10 people who want the file (and who aren't necessarily going to be downloading it at the same time). The power of bittorrent comes from the network effect of having hundred or thousands of peers to share the download. Jun 20, 2010 at 19:02
  • Related (though not duplicates): superuser.com/questions/30204/… and superuser.com/questions/71065/easiest-way-to-send-20gb-folder
    – Gnoupi
    Jun 20, 2010 at 21:19
  • @therefromhere: 10 people with good uploads would provide a good download speed for additions, after the initial superseeding. I wouldn't reccomend it above dropbox, but I think it'd work decently.
    – Phoshi
    Jun 21, 2010 at 7:50

8 Answers 8

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Dropbox or AmazonS3, 125Mb isn't a lot of data anymore and the speed is limited by the users end connection.

Dropbox is super easy and free for 2Gb, Amazon costs very little see how to use S3

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    DropBox gives you 2Gig of space for free, so that's probably a good starting option. Jun 20, 2010 at 21:08
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    Plus in Dropbox you can put the files in your Public folder and the right click on the file to get a url that you can send to your users and they can download the file without having to have Dropbox installed. I'd recommend your downloaders do install Dropbox though as then when you share a folder with them any changes you make to that folder are automatically propagated to everyone, so the updates will just seem to appear in the end user's folders. Oct 26, 2010 at 1:41
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    One small issue with dropbox on windows. Since it's in the "My Documents" windows thinks it's on the C drive and so any drag to somewhere else on the C drive moves rather than copies. I've had users delete files on shared dropbox when they thought they were making copies. There is no way to share read-only Oct 27, 2010 at 15:31
  • Martin, on the contrary, dropbox does allow to "share read-only". instance: dropbox.com/s/cazew0u6nqhon40/profile all you do is what @Matthew said. Right click, get URL. Whoever wants the file, just go and download there. Adding more to the answer, 2GB is just for starters. You can get up to 8 free GB through referrals (250mb per new acc). Granted it shouldn't be easy it's still possible. 3GB ain't too hard. And dropbox have so many hidden useful simple features... It's just awesome!
    – cregox
    Nov 30, 2010 at 19:14
  • Yes you can publish the links - only to files in your 'public' folder. But you can't flag a file in a shared folder as read-only. Nov 30, 2010 at 22:20
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You can upload any filetype to Google Docs and share it there. It's easy to configure who you want to allow access (unlike just popping it up on a webpage).

(See the help docs)

The file size limits are:

Files that you store but don't convert can't be larger than 1 GB each. You get 1 GB of free storage for your Google Account, and you can purchase additional storage for $0.25 per GB.

Only stored files count towards the maximum limit. If you delete a file and empty trash, you get your storage back.

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Do you have any web space from your ISP? If this is more than 125MB (which it should be these days) then you can simply use that.

You could set up a simple page that lists the files and send that to your friends. If you call it something other than index.html or default.html it won't automatically show up on a random search.

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You could try 4shared, it allows 200 MB uploads and for video/audio and streams it right on the site for the end-user. They could also download it if you don't want it streamed.

For you, the owner, the site is pretty simple to use and manage files and folders and such, it's quite similar to the Windows explorer way of managing files.

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Microsoft Offers SkyDrive with a total space of 25 GB. The downside is that the max file size is 50 megabytes. There are ways to get around this with file compression and file splitting as described here. If you like video tutorials, this is a good one.

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    "The downside is that the max file size is 50 megabytes" Leave it to Microsoft to provide a less than useful service.
    – Moab
    Jun 30, 2010 at 23:38
  • It's aimed at backing up documents and photos for the average home user. I don;t know about you but most of my photos and documents are under 50MB.
    – Joe Taylor
    Jan 28, 2011 at 12:58
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Go to http://www.gigasize.com/ and just test a small file upload to experience how easy it is. They allow uploads of up to 300 MB without registration and up to 600MB/file if you are willing to give up your email. The downside of not registering is that you will need to save the download link as it can't be reached again. Their upload tool also support resume, so generally these days your biggest bottle neck is upload speed followed by download speeds of your friends. The rest are just all decent indeed.

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the Opera Browser, allows you to send a link to your friends with or with out a password to download the files. there is no size limitation. it also allows you to turn your computer into a server.

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Google Docs now always you to upload files to your Google Account, similar mechanics to Dropbox but if you have a Google account it is more centralized.

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