MediaFire with 50 Gigabyte free cloud storage, desktop client
MediaFire is one of the largest file hosting sites that is still standing after the Megaupload fallout. The service is especially well liked by users who download from it, as it does not force users to go through lots of hoops - like artificially limited the download bandwidth or only allowing one file download in a certain time frame - before downloads can be started on the site.
A MediaFire account gets you certain privileges in terms of hosting files on the service's servers. All free users of the service for instance get 50 Gigabyte of free online storage that they can fill with their own data. What's remarkable in this regard is that the download bandwidth and number of simultaneous downloads are not restricted.
The maximum file size for free account owners is 200 Megabytes, which should be large enough for all file types but video files. What you also get with a free account is online document editing and viewing, 15 one-time links per day that you can share, and general file and folder sharing.
MediaFire's service is not a cloud synchronization service like Dropbox, which means that you need to select the files and folders that you want to upload to the servers manually. You can either use the web interface to upload files, or the MediaFire Express client available for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu Linux.
You need to link your account in the program before you can start using it. Once that is out of the way, you can drag and drop files and folders onto the dropzone to upload the data to your online storage. MediaFire Express displays options to view the uploaded files online or get links pointing to the files from the interface.
You can view some document formats right on the MediaFire page, including Microsoft Office documents or pdf documents. Other formats, such as php can only be downloaded and not viewed online.
What free users need to know is that their data may be deleted after a certain account inactivity period. What this means is that files and folders remain in the account for as long as it is active. According to MediaFire, the usual time is anywhere between 150 days to 300 days before an account is marked as inactive. Users receive emails five days before that is happening to inform them of the consequences.
Paid users get additional features. For $9 per month, they get 250 Gigabytes of online storage, a maximum file size limit of 4 Gigabytes, no account expiration (for as long as the paid account is kept), an advertisement free environment, backups, statistics and a host of other features.
If you are looking for lots of storage online, and do not need synchronization features, then MediaFire's offering may provide you with what you need in this regard.
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What they consider by saying “inactive”? I can just login in my account one time by month, and that makes it active?
I have been using this client since last 5 days. Works well, I am impressed.
>> “…files and folders remain in the account for as long as it is active…”.
So, what constitutes “activity” ,
in order to keep the MF acct active ?.
Will simply login and logout
every 90 days (for ex.),
be enough to keep it active?
Yes that is correct.
I forgot I have a free account, which I last accessed on Aug 08, 2011. And, guess what? My (very few) files are still there! Thanks for the “reminder” about this great service.
I agree, MediaFire is the premiere file sharing service at this time. Even free users get full speed downloads, unlike Rapidshare, the other premiere service. Most of the rest of the file sharing services are utter garbage.
Keep in mind, though, that free users do NOT get SSL secure file transfers. You only get that with the $9 Professional or $50 Business Class service plans. So don’t upload anything you’re really concerned about being “sniffed”.
That is why everyone should be encrypting their files before they upload them.
It doesn’t matter what cloud storage service you use or if they give you SSL uploads or not… ALWAYS Encrypt Your Files before you upload them to what ever service you chose by what ever method you chose.
I never understood how other filelockers can compete. Besides having a gorgeous interface, I get high speed downloads with no waiting time. I absolutely love Mediafire:D