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I work remotely and have 44GB of media files that I need to send back to my office. There are lots of free services out there that can handle up to 2GB, but I haven't seen talk of anything larger.

We both have 50mbps+ connections, so I would rather not mail physical media (though, that is an option). Bittorrent is blocked at my corporate headquarters. We have an FTP server, but the per-user cap is 10GB. I use Citrix, but throughput is throttled to 3mbps. (44gb @ 50mbps = 4 to 5 hours... @3mbps = 5 or 6 days.)

Any suggestions appreciated.

Windows 7 and Windows 2003 Server are the OSes Involved I have tried JetBytes and it is blocked by our content filter

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  • 6
    Given the size of the files and the speed of your connection posting the disk would be quicker.
    – ChrisF
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 11:39
  • 20
    Obligatory: xkcd.com/949
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 13:12
  • 3
    PERSONALLY, I would just mail physical media for something this large; especially if it's important.
    – Shinrai
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 14:26
  • 8
    There is a similar question on ServerFault: Transfer Files from US -> UK Datacenter. Most of the answer should apply.
    – jwernerny
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 15:12
  • 24
    "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurling down the highway" :)
    – Earlz
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 15:49

20 Answers 20

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5

Perhaps you could run an FTP server on your machine and have somebody there FTP into you where no size limits are in place. For your windows setup, Filezilla is a server that should get the job done. If you are behind a router or firewall you may need to forward port 21 or whatever port you decide to your machine.

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  • This is a great idea! (I can't believe I didn't think of it myself.) Unfortunately, after testing, my ISP prevents me from setting up an FTP or Web Server
    – Brien Malone
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:57
  • 2
    @Brien did you try a non-standard port? Your ISP may just be blocking port 21. You could try some crazy port like 2100, 21000 etc. But it is also possible they may be detecting and killing the actual FTP packets :(
    – Aaron Silverman
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 17:38
  • 1
    You know what? I was mistaken. I wasn't using PASV. As soon as I set up the FTP server to use PASV, I was all set! I ended up using your answer with the Network Admin's blessing. I was able to transfer at 650kbps which was pretty much the full measure of my 5Mb upstream and transferred all 44gb in about a day and a half. Green check for you - and thanks again for the suggestion!
    – Brien Malone
    Commented Oct 24, 2011 at 21:44
  • Glad it worked out!
    – Aaron Silverman
    Commented Oct 25, 2011 at 17:12
38

Talk to IT at the office. You've got a legitimate business need (I'm assuming -- if this is your MP3 collection you're on your own ;-) ), they should be willing to work with you on a viable solution. Maybe that will be raising your FTP limit, setting you up with SSH access, or something completely different.

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  • SFTP may be the way to go here
    – Broam
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 13:42
  • 3
    Yes, this is not a question for us.. it's for the IT department of your company. There are dozens of ways to do this (FTP, SFTP, SCP, rsync), but the IT department will be the one to decide which one needs to be done.
    – user606723
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:37
  • Agree with the suggested answer, disagree with the commenter. I'm trying to find self service solutions. I've known the senior network admin for a decade - he could make an exception. I'm trying to operate within the rules.
    – Brien Malone
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:54
  • 10
    The tragedy of professional life is that the most pragmatic solutions are almost always the least interesting. +1 anyways.
    – Jordan Bentley
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 18:51
  • Well, it's like asking for medical help on the internet. Pretty much every answer is: "go see a doctor".
    – polemon
    Commented Oct 29, 2011 at 9:48
18

in case this is on Linux, this is very easy:

Use rsync over SSH in a screen session to move the files:

rsync -aPvzl media/ my.home.ip:destination_folder

Start this in a screen session, so you can attach to it while at home.

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  • 3
    There are rsync clients and servers for windows too. You may or may-not need to install cygwin first depending on which one you use.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 13:53
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    Can this be stopped and resumed from any place? Copying 44GB of files over Internet can take days and something can happen in the middle of the process...
    – Ivan
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 11:20
  • I had to move around 70Gb earlier this year and that was the exact method used, the only difference was it was between two servers so there was much better connectivity in terms of upload speed than most standard connections.
    – Nicholas Smith
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 11:33
  • @Ivan: Yes, it can; you need the -P (or --partial) option, though. The example already has it.
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 18:11
17

Possibly use a file splitter and joiner.

Split it into smaller chunks and use the free services, then piece it together.

Personally I would just physically mail it.

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9

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway. [Andrew S. Tanenbaum Computer Networks, 4th ed., p. 91]

FedEx that data. It is hard these days to keep our minds open to the idea that the internet is not the ONLY way to transmit information.

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  • fedex was built for this situation
    – Jake Berger
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 19:45
8

If you're only sending to one person, bittorrent is inefficient and slow for this. Sadly, the easiest option might be if you can set up a web server at your end so you can download it via http.

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  • 1
    and with HTTP, use some kind of download accelerator.
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 13:15
  • 1
    @Journeyman: When there's only one source, download accelerators are only as useful as BitTorrent (that is, not at all).
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 14:54
  • 1
    they do help resume downloads too. i've also found axel speeds things out, even with a single source
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 15:10
  • Unfortunately, I'm using a home ISP (Cox). They prevent home users from setting up web servers and ftp servers.
    – Brien Malone
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 17:02
  • 2
    @Brien - from their perspective, it's all port 80. You'll likely find that you get away with it if only the one client ever connects.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 17:45
3

I assume that the 44GB is already compressed with RAR, as your question states.

Your 44gb @ 50mbps = 4 to 5 hours. means that you'll leave your office without usefull internet for 5 hours, since you'll use all their bandwidth, and I'm not sure that is correct.

And double check if the link is really that speed, 'cause it might be assymetric: you can download 55Mbps, but not upload. So your 5 MBps could be even slower.

If I were you, I'd go to any local store and buy 3 or 4 flash drives, each of 16 GB. Use any zip tool you like (I recomend 7Zip) and compress the data splitted in those flash drives, and be happy. I'd change the .RAR to .7zip compression, depending on the data it compresses better.

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  • 4
    Or go out and get a 500 GB portable hard drive. You don't have to worry about splitting the file, and it might even cost less then 4 times 16 GB flash. Plus the transfer will be way faster.
    – Kibbee
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 15:11
  • You are absolutely right. My upstream is 5mbps.
    – Brien Malone
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:51
  • @Brien upload of 5Mbps (bits) will mean only 500kBps (kyloBytes) upload, it will take much longer... flashdrives or portable hard drive is a good way to go
    – woliveirajr
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 17:03
3

Split into 9.5GB chunks and dump onto the FTP.

In linux: 

split -b 10200547328 [filename] [filename]-chunk

In Windows: No idea – probably WinZIP / WinRAR can do it, with compression off (for speed) and set span archive number = 5.

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  • 4
    7-zip'll do this for free.
    – music2myear
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:46
3

Burn it to BlueRay disk and mail it.... Seriously I ran into this one time and setup an HTTP port 80 service using php that chunked out the file into small parts and sent them this way. maybe you can find something that does this same thing.

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2
  • One double-layer or two single layer.
    – e100
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:35
  • Presumes that they have Blu-Ray on their side... unfortunately, they're behind the tech curve by several years.
    – Brien Malone
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:57
2

If your employer doesn't have more fine grained QoS tools they might not be able to relax the 3mbps during the day without it causing problems for the rest of the office.

A few years ago when a new MSDN downloader outsmarted my employers bandwidth shaper a handful of subscribers doing concurrent downloads left performance painfully slow for the other 800ish users of the connection. You might have to do your bulk upload late at night when no one else is using the connection.

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1

The easiest non free option may be Aspera.

http://asperasoft.com/en/products/client_software_2/aspera_point_to_point_7

With this software you can max both 50mbit connections. I use to transfer 50gb/day over 45mbit connections and it would take a few hours.

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  • Hm! Not familiar with this one. Asperasoft.com isn't blocked by our content filter, so maybe there is a shot!
    – Brien Malone
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 16:59
  • 1
    I'd strongly advise against trying to max the connection out during working hours; as mentioned in my answer doing so would make the network run very slowly for everyone else in your office.
    – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 17:16
  • under settings you can specify bandwidth limits.
    – pablo
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 20:15
1

If you are running windows then yintersync could be a solution for you. It uses rsync as its backend but adds lots of extra functionality such as scheduling and sync on connect. It also sends an email report so you know if it has worked ok.

I currently use it to sync 1.6TB of VHD files over the internet without problems.

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1

For files larger than 2GB, consider using http://www.filehosting.org/. It's the only service out there that I found that advertises no file size limit. You'll get ads no end, but it gets the work done.

See also http://www.bestcovery.com/best-free-file-hosting-services for a list of free file hosting services.

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1

I suggest HFS (http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/).

From website:

Description You can use HFS (HTTP File Server) to send and receive files. It's different from classic file sharing because it uses web technology to be more compatible with today's Internet.

It also differs from classic web servers because it's very easy to use and runs "right out-of-the box".

Access your remote files, over the network.

In other words from the client you can upload a file, to the server running hfs, using a simple browser.

You can split with 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org)

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1

I think you're going to have to speak to the sysadmin.

Obviously the sysadmins there control the network heavily, and they may not want you pushing the rules. If download is limited to 3Mbps, check the upload speeds; they may be much slower. Your transfer might take several days if you stick to network policies.

I assume that the file you want to transfer is a large video file or other data which can't be compressed without degrading quality, otherwise compression would be your best friend here.

Assuming you actually had 5Mbps upload ability (which is probably not the case), 44GB transfer at 5Mbps, divided by 8 bits, which is about 0.625 MByte per sec. Times 3600 seconds (one hour) that could transfer at most 2286MB. After 20 hours, 45720MBytes, or about 45Gbytes would have uploaded.
Assume some 10% speed loss, and that would be about 22 hours (if everything works smoothly and nonstop) and you monopolize the network for that much time, so you probably need to use a decent file transfer software.

You could split it to 10 DVDs, then ship by Fedex or UPS, but that might take about the same time.

Since the other side has 50Mbps download, they can download much faster, but that wouldn't matter much.

Another option might be Adrive.com will allow 50GB backups for free, and allow you to share it.

If network policy allowed access to www.megaupload.com (which I doubt) you could sign up and upload it all at once. Free account, but you will need to split the thing into some 50 small pieces, use the megaupload file manager, and upload them all there.

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0

How about sending it via Instant Messenger to one colleague you trust, e.g. via Skype?

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If either of the machines can accept incoming SSH connections, you can try SCP. If worst comes to worst, you could just use netcat (windows version at http://joncraton.org/blog/46) and see if you can find a non-filtered port.

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Try using something like http://justbeamit.com/ - drag your file into the browser, give your friend the URL and then it negotiates the transfer.

I strongly recommend you encrypt first if it's something you don't want third parties having.

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Bittorrent is blocked at my corporate headquarters.

if office have at least one open to Net port, you can try start local tracker on this port with encrypting traffic and create torrent with your single tracker in list. I don't think admins use the signature analyzer on border to block bt-traffic

80G HDD by snail mail still is more easy and robust way

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-1

Use bittorrent. uTorrent has an option to send large files.

Good luck.

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  • 1
    OP did say bittorrent is blocked, so not an option for them to use.
    – Nicholas Smith
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 11:29
  • its true. but they can try it anyway. probably it is not so blocked ;)
    – robermorales
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 22:07

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