Where in Los Angeles can pay by the hour to use a really fast (T1) internet access so I can upload 5GB of files to a coworker?

March 4, 2009 1:51 AM

Are there any Kinkos, business centers, copy centers, cybercafes etc. in Los Angeles (downtown, silverlake, west side, ANYWHERE!) where I can pay by the hour to use a really fast (T1) internet access so I can upload 5GB of files to a coworker?

I need to get 5GB of video footage to my out-of-country editor tomorrow morning..my DSL upload speed is so freakin slow.. it'll takes 20 hrs... I can fedex a DVD overnight but that would also take 12+ hours..

I need to get the files to him ASAP!

posted by ronenosity to computers & internet (9 comments total)

For what it's worth, a T1 is almost certainly slower than your DSL. This is a semantic point, but T1s are 1.44 Mbps up and down. Naturally, a facility like Kinko's will have faster internet than that, but the upstream (which you need to send files, etc.) might be capped.

I'd suggest just searching for free wifi los angeles. There's sure to be someplace offering free or cheap Wifi nearby--Starbucks offers Wifi for nearly free, but I don't know if any 24-hour Starbucks are around.

Also, for your sanity, make sure you're uploading to a server and not to him directly, lest the transfer fail mid-way through, if it's not split up appropriately. Also, if you've been trying to transfer directly, the speed issue might be his download and not your upload, though that's unlikely.

Use something like Filedropper to quickly upload files and share them with just a single link, once you find a place with decent speed. (Do you know anyone with cable in the near area? Anyone at all? Library? University?)
posted by disillusioned at 2:03 AM on March 4

I would suggest a library or university. Both should have high speed connections.

Here in the UK local libraries have either a 10Mbps or 100Mbps connection to the internet.

And agreeing with the poster above use something like filedropper or a server with FTP so you can resume
posted by moochoo at 2:20 AM on March 4

The problem I see is that libraries and Kinkos and the like are very likely to have restrictive setups that essentially prevent you from running any of the software necessary for doing this sort of upload. Last time I went to Kinko's to use their internet, I literally couldn't use anything but the web: no ssh, no ftp, no telnet, nothing. Likewise, most libraries I've been to are similarly locked down; and they're not going to let you hog a terminal for two hours either.

And, based on a 150kbps upload speed, my rough calculations have 5GB transferring in about nine hours. That's assuming that you're getting nominal throughput the entire way--that the server you're uploading to is capable and willing to expend that bandwidth on the transfer. Upload speed is not solely determined by the rating given by the sender-side ISP.

If I were in this situation, I would burn a DVD and overnight it right now, even if I went looking for a fast internet connection. I know you explicitly nixed that idea. But, think about it this way: overnighting a DVD will certainly work with a guaranteed delivery time; dicking around with finding some internet may work, and may not, and may or may not take too long.
posted by Netzapper at 3:55 AM on March 4

"DSL" is usually actually "ADSL" - the 'A' stands for asymmetric (I think), which basically means that your upload speed will be slower than your download speed.

Why am I telling you this? Because I've noticed that many ISPs offer differently-priced packages for different services. If your router can handle it, you might be able to call up your ISP and explain what you want to do, and temporarily upgrade your service.

Of course, it might be a huge pain, but that's my idea. It might _not_ be a huge pain. Call and ask.

Are you sure your editor is going to be able to download this data in a reasonable amount of time?

Also: is there any way you can divide the 5GB into several chunks? Then you could upload each chunk from a different location (if you had some help) simultaneously.
posted by amtho at 5:03 AM on March 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

The idea of breaking up the file and sending from different locations isn't a bad one. You can use winrar or other apps like 7-zip to break up the file, then have different people upload at the same time from different locations

I also agree with Netzapper; I'd burn the DVD overnight a portable hard drive.

Only kinds of places that would have a high speed upload like you want would be a corporation or a university; here in MI the best thing to do would be to get onto a university network and upload from there.
posted by rmathew1 at 8:12 AM on March 4

Do Netzapper's DVD thing. If you don't have a DVD burner, put it on a cheap thumb drive and pop it in the mail or FedEx/UPS it.
posted by buzzv at 9:14 AM on March 4

Never underestimate the bandwidth potential of the US postal service.
posted by greensweater at 9:54 AM on March 4

Try using BitTorrent for its intended legal purpose.

Start a torrent from your home desktop computer connected to the DSL connection.
Copy the video data to a laptop and go to another location (friend's house, neighbor, anything) and start seeding it (continue the torrent) from that location.

Send your co-worker the .torrent file and he can download it from both locations simultaneously. His max download speed is going to be limited to how quickly both locations can cumulatively push data upstream.
posted by Ziggy Zaga at 11:20 AM on March 4

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions...but after calling around I found my perfect solution.

I found a virtual office location in LA that had a 10MB/s connection.. this allowed me to upload 6GB of data in an hour... all for $35/hr! That's cheaper than fedex.

ronenosity
posted by ronenosity at 10:54 AM on March 5