Transferring big files

[Matt Geier]

Hi Todd,

Have you considered using Google Drive or paying Dropbox for larger / business type access?

There are probably some additional resources you could utilize as well, such as a hosting company for file storage, or something similar.

Let us know.

If you’d like to connect with me to discuss this offline, feel free to contact me through The Cow and we can hook up!

I have some more resources you can utilize if you’d like to get some File Storage for purposes servicing those needs you have to address.

Matt Geier
(Video Networking Solutions Expert)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)
(Technical Video Industry Sales Consultant)

[Todd Terry]

Well actually we DO have a paid business DropBox account, but with 300+MB files it doesn’t actually transfer the files TO DropBox, just shares them in a folder own your own computer (you have to install and use the DropBox software and create a shared folder on your computer, you can’t send the files via their web interface). Same with Google Drive, I think (although I only used it once in the past). We don’t want to do that.

Maybe there is a more advanced (i.e. expensive) DropBox plan that actually transfers the files to them, but I haven’t investigated it.

I don’t really want to put a lot of time nor energy (and certainly not money) in solving this issue because it’s really the client’s issue, not ours (we gave them what they paid for, this was more of a “Oh, by the way, can you also…” thing)… and we’ve already bent over backwards for them and given them far more than they’ve paid for.

I’d say 99% of the time we can just throw files on our own server and it’s a non-issue… this is a one-time thing for a one-time client… and I’m now remembering what I didn’t like about YouSendIt, used it once years ago and they screwed me with an unauthorized “recurring” subscription charge that we didn’t even notice for a couple of years.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Kris Merkel]

Hi Todd, I use MediaFire Pro only when I have to. You can move files up to 2GB i think, and you can only pay for a month. If I have many large files then need to go to a client, I’ll upgrade my regular account for $10 move the files and then downgrade after the fact. The drawback is that your client will also have to have a media fire acct. which can get complicated. That is why I only use it if I have to.

I just uploaded some files 1.5Gb files to a clients shared google drive folder and that seemed to work very well.

Best cast is they purchase space and FTP the files to their host

“Think of everything in terms of building capacity.”

Kris Merkel
twitter: @kris_merkel
Product Manager, Flanders Scientific Inc.
http://www.shopfsi.com
Co-Founder, Atlanta Cutters Post Production User Group
http://www.atlantacutters.com

2.2Ghz MBP core i7
16Gb RAM
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AJA T-Tap
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[Michael Griggs]

I find YouSendIt to be fairly easy to use, though that’s through our studio’s paid account. You can upload/send many files at once (shift-click selections), or of course use the zipped folder approach.

The best free alternative that I’ve found when I send personal stuff is DropSend. Accepts files up to 2GB (unlike YouSendIt’s free-version limit of 50 MB.) But the free bit is limited to 5 sends/month.

[Todd Terry]

Well my GM tells me he was just able to get the files to go with a YouSendIt account that was fairly cheap and got the job done.

I told him to just make sure he cancelled the account soon… they’re the ones who took us for a few hundred bucks in years past by sneaking through a recurring subscription on an account that we didn’t authorize nor even remember that we still had. The amount was small enough that our beancounter didn’t even notice it, until we’d been stuck wtih two years’ worth of charges.

As I said, usually just dragging the files on our own server is a flawless and painfully easy way to go. But our drive capacity is a bit limited (we need an upgrade) and all these gigantic files would have stuffed it to the max and more. Hopefully we won’t need this again for quite a while.

Thanks all….

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Kevin Cannon]

Hi Todd,

We just encountered a similar situation, but our issue was that when the file was hosted on our file server, concurrent downloads (concurrent uploads for us) became frustratingly slow.

We’re using filesanywhere which operates similar to the other services, but has no file size limit (like the 2GB mentioned above) when you transfer via FTP. Similar pricing per GB, but we often will have one or two files that are larger than 2GB. And plenty of options in terms of tracking downloads, prefacing downloads with agreements, etc.

KC

Prehistoric Digital

[Dan Asselin]

I normally just use DropBox and cut my files into 275 mb chunks using an split-reassemble program. Works great…..inexpensive….slightly more time-consuming but not much.

Dan

[Todd Terry]

[Dan Asselin] “…cut my files into 275 mb chunks…”

Unfortunately dealing with a totally non-tech-savvy recipient on the other end who would be absolutely clueless about how to reassemble pieces, nor understand why I can’t just hand them what they need… which seems to be the case about 95% of the time.”

“What’s wrong? I can’t seem to get a picture.”

“Well, ma’am, that’s because that’s a toaster oven. Try tapping on it.”

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[John Davidson]

I’m sorry that you’re having problems with YouSendIt. That said, I really don’t know where we’d be without it. Best part of it is the desktop app and services in mountain lion. You just right click on a file and ‘send by yousendit’ and it’s out the door. To get files we have the yousendit dropbox link we send to clients and they can send us stuff if they don’t have their own account. This works for pretty much all our network clients.

Oh, and the custom business logo options are pretty fantastic. Client gets an email from us and there’s our big fat logo. I also set up a google apps account so that everybody in the office gets the same email if we receive a file from YSI.

Not trying to resell you on it – just letting you know how we use it.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Dan Asselin]

Actually Todd I was worried about that too. However I use a program called “HJ-Split” from Download.com. I also created a 2 line explanation on a file in Outlook that I can paste into any e-mail I send.

In the few times clients have asked for assistance I can generally get them to a stisfactory resolution in less than 30 seconds.

But i understand your concern because in our business PHD stands for “Push Here Dummy”.