File hosts are extremely useful if you need webspace to make the file available to a larger audience. On the other hand I never fully understood why someone would be using file hosts to share files with friends or business associates. The only two advantages that I can see are that no other programs are needed to download the files and that it is easy to use.
The disadvantages don’t justify this procedure in my opinion. First of all it is always a security risk to upload files to a third party even though you might take extra precaution and encrypt the files. Secondly it probably does not look that good if you send your business associate a download link to a free host. The alternative would be of course ordering webspace and paying a monthly fee for it.
If you already have a website with enough hard drive space and transfer limit you could use that. Single files can be simply uploaded to a new directory which should be protected with .htaccess to keep prying eyes away from it. The file could be downloaded as often as needed and deleted when the operation has finished.
Setting up ftp accounts would be even better but probably requires more knowledge and could be out of proportions if you only upload new files every now and then. The main disadvantage is of course that you would have to pay a monthly fee to host your files and that you can’t make the file available for a larger audience if you have a hosting account with restricted bandwidth.
I still prefer this method because it feels secure to control the files on your own server.
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You can also use your own PC with a simple file server (like http://rejetto.com/hfs/ for example).
If you don’t have a static IP, you can use dyndns services to bypass that. The management of such services are included in the HFS software.
Netking you are right, I completely forgot about tools like HTTP File Server.
”On the other hand I never fully understood why someone would be using file hosts to share files with friends or business associates.”
I can see another advantage to doing this.
If i want to send my 710mb video ;) ;) to more than one friend at full speed rather than my appauling upload speed AND only upload it once, then this would be the best way to do so.
Regs
Chris