OT: FTP/File transfer recommendations

[Walter Biscardi]

I had my webmaster set up a discreet FTP site for all our media and our clients simply go to our website and use the Client Login section to retrieve the files. No FTP or server addresses for the clients. I just send them an easy User and Password information and they can pull the file down using any standard browser, Windows or Mac.

Works really well and my clients love the simplicity of it.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Jeremy Garchow]

Another vote for a website from me. We simply use our website and email links to our clients with password protection. You don’t even have to have a website, you can just use the interface it provides.

There are some really killer hosting package deals out there these days for super cheap and lots of storage.

Jeremy

[13]

This can be done with a simple .mac account.

You can set it up to so that people can access your .mac public folder from a web browser on ether a mac or windows.

[Max Frank]

Gents,

Thank you for taking the time…

Here is my concern, and correct me if I’m wrong…

I need to send my client to his clip, and his clip only.
If I have a ‘public folder’ whether on .mac or my own web’s FTP, won’t he be confronted with ALL the clips that are hosted in that folder – and then he’d have to sift through them to find his clip to download?

Isn’t this how these public folders work?

Thanks for the guidance.

Wayne

2DP G5, 3.5GB RAM, FCP HD

[13]

if that is the only file you put in it then that is the only file he will see

[Walter Biscardi]

[zrb123] “This can be done with a simple .mac account.

You can set it up to so that people can access your .mac public folder from a web browser on ether a mac or windows.”

This I would NOT recommend. This is how we started out and Windows people had a heck of a time trying to access the .mac accounts. I could not even access it half the time from a Windows machine. That’s why we switched over to our own website.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Walter Biscardi]

[Wayne K.] “I need to send my client to his clip, and his clip only.
If I have a ‘public folder’ whether on .mac or my own web’s FTP, won’t he be confronted with ALL the clips that are hosted in that folder – and then he’d have to sift through them to find his clip to download?

Isn’t this how these public folders work?”

On my website, I have a separate folder for each client. Each folder has a unique user and password to access it. I set this up and send it off to the client. This way the client only sees / accesses their own files.

If you want to see how it works, just go to my website and click on Client Login in the upper right. At this point it asks you for a user / password. As I said, my clients love the simplicity of this and we’ve had zero problems since we switched over to this last year.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Jimmy Brunger]

What we do is upload the clip in a zip file to a locked area of our website (i.e: you can’t navigate to it unless you know the EXACT url of that filename) and then we just email them a link of the actual file itself to click on and download straight from the email.

That saves them trawling through all their jobs/versions of each job in their ‘client folder’.

Just get a fast server, a decent ftp client (I use Flash FXP) and lots of webspace. We’ve got several GB and it wasn’t that expensive.

We tend to put a disclaimer on each email stating that their clip will be held on our site for 3 months, in which time they can either view directly from our server or d/load a copy to their HDD.

[Max Frank]

Thanks for the feedback, gents.

Wayne

2DP G5, 3.5GB RAM, FCP HD

[Neil Ryan]

“I’ve found the service at Mediamax/Streamload to be unreliable — and yousendit.com kills the files after 2 weeks, even on the premium service”

Amen to MediaMax/Streamload – gave them plenty of chances to improve their service but have dropped them. Grossly unreliable.
We have been using
https://www.box.net/
and found it absolutely reliable.
Worth a try, if you’re a disgruntled MediaMax user.
Only thing I’m not sure about is how long a link to a shared file lasts. It wasn’t specified in their FAQ but you could email them and ask.
There are pros and cons to running an FTP as you are seeing in this thread. So far, its been too hard for us …

And as an aside, if clients’ want permanent access to a file – irrespective of how it is hosted; FTP or other – do people charge for that service . . . ?

Neil.