Experiences with FTP Sites?

[daddyo]

I'm looking for an FTP site that I can upload large files to and clients can download them with a password. There are a zillion of them out there. Any first hand recommendations?

[5E3]

www.Dropbox.com

first 2G is free

[Tonemeister69]

http://www.transferbigfiles.com

[Trout]

I'm looking for an FTP site that I can upload large files to and clients can download them with a password. There are a zillion of them out there. Any first hand recommendations?

Does your ISP offer free hosting space?

That is what I have been using the last 6 years. You get 250MB space per email address, up to 7 addresses.
That is generally plenty of space.

For an FTP client, I just use the one built into XP, very simple once you set up your account.

[daddyo]

Does your ISP offer free hosting space?

That is what I have been using the last 6 years. You get 250MB space per email address, up to 7 addresses.
That is generally plenty of space.

For an FTP client, I just use the one built into XP, very simple once you set up your account.
Thanks, all.

Trout
I'm kinda ignorant on the finer points of computers. Explain this to me as you would to a child. [sorry]

[MudPies]

Check out www.sendspace.com or www.megaupload.com as possibilities. You can create an account and as long as the files are active by you or an end user they will stay valid on the site. I use it to pass videos and song demos on to the rest of the band.

[daddyo]

Thanks all, so far.
To be specific, I need a site with online storage (not my computer), where someone can go at anytime and click on a link that I have provided via email and download files (.pdf and .dwf). I don't want to send any files. I bid on some work for Disney and they have a site like this (Disney in-house of course). But I'll check out all the recommendations.

[MudPies]

Thanks all, so far.
To be specific, I need a site with online storage (not my computer), where someone can go at anytime and click on a link that I have provided via email and download files (.pdf and .dwf). I don't want to send any files. I bid on some work for Disney and they have a site like this (Disney in-house of course). But I'll check out all the recommendations.

My links will do exactly that. There are plenty of options for what you want to do. Good luck. :)

[Mike Fleming]

Thanks, all.

Trout
I'm kinda ignorant on the finer points of computers. Explain this to me as you would to a child. [sorry]

Many ISPs provide server space. It may be for a website or storage or email or some or all of the above. It is usually accessible by FTP. You should contact your ISP and ask about it, or if you want to tell us your ISP, maybe some people here have the same one and can tell you about it.

If they provide you space and it's FTP accessible, there is usually a manager of some kind where you can set up FTP accounts. This is where you'd set up the account that you want to give to people. It's almost always very straightforward, like you create an account with a password, give it permission to certain folders, then you give out the link/username/password to people so they can access it.

Also do you have a website or use any other online service, outside of your ISP?

[clothwiring]

iDisk in a round about way. It's not labeled as FTP as far as I know, but it's the same concept. I use it for sharing some of my Web Desing and ProTools work with clients and friends. It works pretty good. And yes...it is there for PC as well (it's not just an Apple application).

[imissmj]

Depending on how cheaply you want to do this, you don't need to give your customers FTP access or use a generic sendspace type account.

What you would do is sign up at a hosting site and register a domain. Many will give you almost unlimited server space. So you'd have your FTP client and you'd upload the files to the public_html folder on your website. This is as easy as dragging and dropping files on your computer, you don't need to actually have a functioning website, it's just server space at a hosting site. It would cost you less than $10 a month probably.

Then you give them the link. www.yourdomain.com/filename.pdf

It's that simple. If you use Firefox you can even get the FTP add on that runs right in your browser, pretty slick.

As was mentioned, your ISP probably already offers something like this for free so look into that as well.

[imissmj]

I just noticed you also want password protection. Depending on the level of security you need, you could just password protect the PDF itself or use winrar or winzip and add password protection that way.

[5E3]

Thanks all, so far.
To be specific, I need a site with online storage (not my computer), where someone can go at anytime and click on a link that I have provided via email and download files (.pdf and .dwf). I don't want to send any files. I bid on some work for Disney and they have a site like this (Disney in-house of course). But I'll check out all the recommendations.
that is how www.Dropbox.com (http://www.Dropbox.com) works. You put the file in you public folder, Dropbox will give you a URL, mail the URL to whomever, they click on it and download the file.

Or, if whomever you are sharing with gets a Dropbox account, they can have your shared folder on their computer. You put something in your shared folder on your computer, it shows up in their copy of your shared folder on their computer as quickly as it can download.

Check it out. Very polished and easy to use.

I have private Dropbox folders on all of my computers for 'syncing' my own files, and I have a shared folder with a friend that I often exchange files with.

[Trout]

Many ISPs provide server space. It may be for a website or storage or email or some or all of the above. It is usually accessible by FTP. You should contact your ISP and ask about it, or if you want to tell us your ISP, maybe some people here have the same one and can tell you about it.

If they provide you space and it's FTP accessible, there is usually a manager of some kind where you can set up FTP accounts. This is where you'd set up the account that you want to give to people. It's almost always very straightforward, like you create an account with a password, give it permission to certain folders, then you give out the link/username/password to people so they can access it.

Also do you have a website or use any other online service, outside of your ISP?

What he said.

My ISP gives us with each email account 250M for storage space.
Generally you can find the info in your ISP's web site hosting area.

I only use my FTP client to upload, and maybe occasionally remove pictures.
When I want to send a link or post a picture, I just use the HTTP link. Like this
http://home.mchsi.com/~my_mcintosh_240/IMG_1361.jpg

for the picture below

http://home.mchsi.com/%7Emy_mcintosh_240/IMG_1361.jpg