What is the best way to share large files
I see a lot of file hosting recommendations lately for files that are larger than 1 Gigabyte and I was always wondering why the writers thought that this was the best way to share those files. Uploading large files to a file hoster has several advantages - but also disadvantages - which I would like to outline in the following paragraphs.
The advantages can be described in the following way: The user who is sending the file only needs to upload it once and makes it available to all other users that receive the download link that points to the file on the hoster's website (if that is supported of course). Downloads may be faster for users depending on how the file hoster handles that. Some limit traffic to free users, while others may limit the number of downloads in a certain period of time, or have no restrictions at all in this regard.
Disadvantages however outweigh the advantages in my opinion. First of all there are privacy issues. I would not upload personal files to a third party website even if they are password protected. It happened in the past that file hosters took their websites down because they miscalculated the traffic costs and possible earnings which meant that all files hosted there were.. gone.
They usually have a time or download limit and remove files after that limit has been reached. Uploading a 1 Gigabyte movie of your latest holidays takes some time and it would not be nice if not all of the recipients where able to download the file in time. Nothings better than uploading the file again, eh? Wrong!
There are several ways to share large files that are more reliable. The first, and really the best way that I can think of, is to simply burn the files to CD or DVD and hand them to the person who wants them. This takes care of the middle-man and is the preferred method for that kind of things. Similar options exist if Flash drives or other removable media are available as they can be used for that purpose as well. The advantage of this method is that you do not have to upload or download files to share them.
Another option would be to upload the files to your own webspace. I have a dedicated server that has 320 Gigabytes of space and it would take a few seconds to create a new directory and a ftp account on that server. This would mean that you have to upload the file once but it would stay there for as long as you want and there would not be privacy concerns associated with it.
Offering the files as torrents is another possibility. This is a great method if you got a lot of recipients. Sharing takes longer however and you will upload more Gigabytes this way. Still, no privacy concerns and the possibility to stop and start seeding the torrent at will are positive arguments.
Still another possibility is to run a local ftp server or file sharing client such as HTTP File Server which enables you to share any files you select from your local PC. This means however that your PC needs to be up and running so that others can download the files.
My favorite way is to burn them on disk followed by my own upload spot on my dedicated server. I don't like using file hosts at all.
How are you spreading large files?
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Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.