I need to offer a 2MB file for download but can't afford bandwidth

October 9, 2008 6:53 AM

I need to offer a 2MB file for download, but I can't afford to pay for the bandwidth. We're talking up to 100,000 individual downloads. What are my options?

I'd rather not use sites like RapidShare because, although ostensibly legitimate, they only ever seem to offer warez or porn.

BitTorrent is an option but I really want people to click the link to download it from my website.

posted by humblepigeon to computers & internet (15 comments total)

http://drop.io Doesn't have the annoyances of rapidshare, is fast, free and customizable up to a certain point.
posted by ijoyner at 7:09 AM on October 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Rapidshare only provides bandwidth, not content. The users who upload to rapidshare determine what content is found there. Rapidshare is perfectly fine..

How much are you expecting unaffordable to cost?
posted by Quarter Pincher at 7:11 AM on October 9, 2008

Assuming the file got 100k downloads it would cost just under $35 to serve it from Amazon S3.
posted by sipher at 7:38 AM on October 9, 2008

200GB isn't a lot in terms of hosting bandwidth nowadays, unless you're expecting those 100,000 people to be turning up over a period of minutes or hours rather than days or weeks.

Set things up so you have a certain amount of control (i.e. you can change where the link to the file points) then try using some dirt-cheap hosting which offers terabytes of bandwidth no one can ever fully exploit (e.g. Dreamhost). If it struggles you can spread the load around a bit by changing or randomising the link.
posted by malevolent at 7:39 AM on October 9, 2008

You could do a paid-for account on YouSendIt (I know you said you don't want to pay, but it's a cheap $30, don't eat out for a couple of weeks), or get a hosting package from somewhere that would allow the bandwidth. 1&1 has a beginner hosting package with 300GB bandwidth a month for $4 a month (I think six months required, cheaper than YSI at that price, don't eat out one extra time a month)
posted by deezil at 7:46 AM on October 9, 2008

What about Amazon's S3? It doesn't have any skeevy connotations.
posted by bcwinters at 7:49 AM on October 9, 2008

I haven't looked at it closely in a while, it it seems the experimental Coral Cache is still operational and could do the job for you. The only downside is that tracking downloads is a little more complicated, but you could do it by linking to the coral cache URL via a temporary redirect on you server, or you could do it by instrumenting the link with some google analytics javascript.
posted by Good Brain at 7:54 AM on October 9, 2008

You could coralize the URL by appending .nyud.net.
posted by Tobu at 7:55 AM on October 9, 2008

Thanks everybody for your suggestions!

I guess one of the problems might be that, although I can buy bandwidth capacity cheaply, if I actually start to use it then the throughput bandwidth probably will be throttled, giving my users crappy 10Kb/s download speeds. I'd want to avoid that too as much as possible.
posted by humblepigeon at 8:04 AM on October 9, 2008

No reason you can't use a free file hosting solution. I've used a bunch of these sites but usually only for myself and friends. I would make sure there's no bandwidth caps (shouldn't be), the retention period is long enough (different for every site), and possibly privacy settings or anything else you need.

I got a free premium account at filedropper.com so I use that, but not sure of the retention period for non account uploads.

Previously mentioned drop.io looks ok. You can google "free file hosting" to find a bunch of other popular ones that might work for you.
posted by Kupo? at 9:07 AM on October 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'll third Drop.io. It's a great site that has always provided fast downloads, plus it's extremely easy to set up and control permissions and whatnot. Also, they tend to be much more professional and don't have the sleazy connotations or the annoyances that somewhere like RapidShare has.
posted by joshrholloway at 10:00 AM on October 9, 2008

S3!

Really.
posted by matthewr at 10:40 AM on October 9, 2008

nth S3. its cheap, fast and reliable. Come November, its going to be even cheaper.
posted by jjb at 11:05 AM on October 9, 2008

Create a torrent and let everyone else distribute it. Just make sure you're seeding it at the start.
posted by daveyt at 12:39 PM on October 9, 2008

Seconding the torrent....
posted by Arthur Dent at 5:07 PM on October 9, 2008