Emailing Big Files is a Pain
Have you ever wanted to email a large file, only to find your victim's email servers reject the delivery because the attachment was too large? -- most limit you to 5 to 15MB. Have you had problems where the receiving email does not allow executables or other types of programs, fearing a virus, and you have to spend a lot of time hiding your uploads in a renamed-zip-file? Has your outbound email attachment been quarantined, never to be found?
Adobe's SendNow Service:
All of these email problems are avoided with Adobe's File Transfer service called "Adobe SendNow." Link at bottom of article. You can send up to 100MB free (up to 2GB if paid service) to multiple recipients. Recipients are notified by email when the file is ready and they click a download link, bypassing their email server.
Adobe has both a free and paid service. The paid service has additional features, which a business might find useful. Here is the pricing information as of 2011.10:
I've found the free service adequate for most of my needs, especially for those one-time file transfers. I often use this service to send files to myself, say from home back to the office.
Using the Service:
The Sender (you) creates an Adobe account. Registration is simple: Give an email-address, a birthdate (in case you loose your password), which country you live in, and agree to the license agreement. Registration and confirmation takes about a minute.
It works like this: Login, upload a big file, click Send, type a destination email address. Super-easy, very handy. Compliments to Adobe for designing such a simple interface. Online help and videos are available, but you won't need them. Recipients get a simple, uncluttered email with a nice download button and they do not have to register in order to use the service. You can send a file to yourself to test.
Upload speeds:
I have not timed the upload speeds, but on the surface, they are nothing to brag about. As with most port-80 uploads, this is not a speed-demon. If you are uploading 100mb files, expect a leisurely file transfer. I invite your comments on this topic.
Why not a Traditional FTP Service?
Keyliner also uses a standard FTP service for reader-downloads (See Drive H-Q, Keyliner reviewed here). With this, downloads are initiated by the recipient (not by you) and they can download at any time, essentially without your direct knowledge or permission on Public files. Contrast this with Adobe's product, where the sender (you), initiates the file-transfer and the sender controls who gets the file.
If you need to send a single file, to a small, selected group of individuals -- sending as a one-time event -- use Adobe's SendNow. For both the sender and the receiver, SendNow is faster and easier to use than a standard FTP server, but there are limitations. The free-account's files only stay around for 7 days and the file can only be downloaded up to 100 times. Contrast this with some of Keyliner's FTP files which are downloaded 100 times per day by people I've never met. If you have numerous people who need to retrieve the same file, an FTP service is probably the better option.
Keyliner has needs for both types of services. I recommend this product.
Related links:
Adobe SendNow
Drive H-Q Keyliner Reviewed
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