How do I send really large files to my wife

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Hi,

Me and my wife are currently in different states and I want to be able to send her a really large (700mb) video file, nothing nasty :)

How do I do this easily and for free. Is there just a way that I can log into her mac's ip address over the internet and plop it on her computer. We both have fast connections and I have a really fast upload connection on my end.

I have found a few sites that will let me do this but they want a monthly fee. I know there is a way to do this for free but I can not find it. What do I need on my end and what does she need on hers. She is by no means stupid but the easier it is on her end the better.

Thanks for any help in advance guys and lady's.
 

cwa107


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vansmith

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You could also look into something like Dropbox. I'm not sure if there is an upload limit but you can save 2GB of files for free.
 
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You could also look into something like Dropbox. I'm not sure if there is an upload limit but you can save 2GB of files for free.

Exactly what I was thinking.
 
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Dropbox or Wuala
 
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Skype, or post !

We both have the free skyp already. you can send files over that? Not small one, 701 mb ones. If so, how do I do it?

Thanks fella, This could be the way to go.
 

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I never would have guessed that Skype would have no limits on file transfer sizes. Nice find!

I like your original idea cwa of the FTP. Would this not save time as the wife would not have to download anything? For instance, with something like Dropbox, the wife would have to download the file and the husband would have to upload the file. I'm also guessing that the same problem would exist through Skype. With the FTP, only the husband would have to upload the file and there would be no downloading required for the wife. Would this not save time (assuming a decent connection between the wife and husband) - you're also cutting out the middle man?

I could be way off here so please correct me if I am wrong.
 

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I never would have guessed that Skype would have no limits on file transfer sizes. Nice find!

I like your original idea cwa of the FTP. Would this not save time as the wife would not have to download anything? For instance, with something like Dropbox, the wife would have to download the file and the husband would have to upload the file. I'm also guessing that the same problem would exist through Skype. With the FTP, only the husband would have to upload the file and there would be no downloading required for the wife. Would this not save time (assuming a decent connection between the wife and husband) - you're also cutting out the middle man?

I could be way off here so please correct me if I am wrong.

I did an FTP transfer to a friend with a Mac not too long ago. It was a rather large file (over 1GB) and it worked just fine. He basically turned on FTP and gave me a public IP address to connect to.

Now, the only problem I can foresee is that the recipient would need to give the sender a *public* IP. And if the recipient is on a router, using NAT, one would need to 1) find out what the public IP of the modem is... and 2) Configure port forwarding to forward any traffic on TCP/UDP port 21 to the private IP address of the machine that it's ultimately destined to go to.

Services like DropBox, Skype and others basically act like an intermediary, enabling you to bypass those steps, but the trade-off is a slower transfer (since it has to act as a middleman).
 
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If you want something stable and reliable take the 15 minutes to setup an FTP server.

Follow this How to Set up an FTP Server in Mac OS X Leopard | eHow.com if you can access your FTP within your network. Then register for a free account at www.dydns.com that will keep track of the IP your ISP gives you if it changes it will track it that way your domain will always route back to your home network.

Once you have an account turn on port forwarding on your router to forward port 21 to the IP address of your mac (tip: use static IP address for your mac).

Now your wife should be able to go to ftp.<your dydns domain>.com enter the local user account and password of your mac and gain access to the files you shared.

I have not tested this but it should work fine.
 

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If you want something stable and reliable take the 15 minutes to setup an FTP server.

Follow this How to Set up an FTP Server in Mac OS X Leopard | eHow.com if you can access your FTP within your network. Then register for a free account at www.dydns.com that will keep track of the IP your ISP gives you if it changes it will track it that way your domain will always route back to your home network.

Once you have an account turn on port forwarding on your router to forward port 21 to the IP address of your mac (tip: use static IP address for your mac).

Now your wife should be able to go to ftp.<your dydns domain>.com enter the local user account and password of your mac and gain access to the files you shared.

I have not tested this but it should work fine.

Hmmm.... that procedure sounds vaguely familiar, where might I have heard that before? ;)
 
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Hehe, sorry Cwa, I was more trying to emphasize that if you get an account with Dydns you don't have to remember the IP address your ISP gives you.

Sorry mate :)
 
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What a bunch of great Ideas. (I expected no less and was not disappointed) Thank you guys.
 
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I'm more than a little surprised that no one mentioned simply any old chat software (MSN, Yahoo, even iChat perhaps?) ... why go through all the trouble of setting an ftp or an account (even if free) somewhere when we pretty much all have that ready already

Plus, with MSN for example, if you're on the same network, the transfer should be ultra fast

And if that's something you plan on doing occasionally, you can find 2 gigabytes USB keys for less than $10 nowadays ...that's probably the fastest way to go :)
 

cwa107


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I'm more than a little surprised that no one mentioned simply any old chat software (MSN, Yahoo, even iChat perhaps?) ... why go through all the trouble of setting an ftp or an account (even if free) somewhere when we pretty much all have that ready already

Plus, with MSN for example, if you're on the same network, the transfer should be ultra fast

And if that's something you plan on doing occasionally, you can find 2 gigabytes USB keys for less than $10 nowadays ...that's probably the fastest way to go :)

I have never seen a chat client (any flavor) ever deliver a transfer rate beyond that of a dial-up connection.
 

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I have never seen a chat client (any flavor) ever deliver a transfer rate beyond that of a dial-up connection.
Agreed. I only use MSN and the transfer rate is horrendous. At least with the FTP solution, the connection is direct. With the MSN/AIM/Yahoo/etc. option, you have to go through their respective servers. That methods adds another middle man to the equation.
 
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Hmm well that might be related to your ISPs, i've never had these problems

I've used MSN for a long time now (both on Windows and Mac), and my transfers were always at my maximum upload speed
 
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As said before in the post; FTP or DropBox. Both working great for me.
Another choice - though it is not free(at least if it is large files and you want nice speed) is something like Rapidshare.
FTP is old school but really does the trick!
 

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