They don't want to use Dropbox or FTP, so what else is there?

January 2, 2013 6:53 AM

Dead simple solutions that are not Dropbox or YouSendit or FTP for receiving large files from clients?

Sometimes a certain business needs to receive large files from various clients. We're talking 50 megs+ or so. Ideally, clients would simply be able to up up a webbrowser window, be they on Mac or Windows, drag the file or folder to that window and received visual confirmation that said file is uploading and when it's finished, something similar to a progress bar.

We're familiar with FTP, Dropbox and YouSendIt, among others, but those all involved creating an account first or using something complex in the client's eyes. Does a simpler solution exist?

posted by Brandon Blatcher to computers & internet (23 answers total)

Old school: fed ex (or courier if in town) a disk or thumb drive.
posted by TishSnave at 6:58 AM on January 2

We're looking for online solutions, if they exist, thanks.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:59 AM on January 2

Does it need to be simple for the receiver as well? The website you describe is certainly implementable without too much hassle. I suspect that there's an open source version of it sitting somewhere on the internet, but setting it up may not be dead simple.
posted by Phredward at 6:59 AM on January 2

How about http://barracudadrive.com/
posted by Obscure Reference at 7:03 AM on January 2

Something like ownCloud?
posted by kalessin at 7:03 AM on January 2

I suggest WeTransfer; it accepts uploads up to 2 GB, does not require registration, and automatically emails download links to whichever email addresses you fill in.
posted by gg at 7:04 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

I believe Box.com does not require login for the recipient. However, some of our older and some of our less tech-immersed (those who have trouble with email attachments) volunteers still couldn't use it.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:05 AM on January 2

Google Drive, if they're already using GMail.
posted by deezil at 7:05 AM on January 2

Google Drive, if they're already using GMail.

If they're not, you can set up a "clients" gmail account ([e-mail] or something) and give them the login/pass. Just make sure to clean it out between clients, of course.
posted by griphus at 7:06 AM on January 2

The most secure and efficient option is to have your webmaster set up a secure upload page on your website, and a script for automatically moving uploads from the web server to your local file server and then cleaning up after. Unless it's an option the client wants (some of ours really like using dropbox), third party upload services probably aren't a good idea.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:20 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

nthing wetransfer
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 7:26 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

Just to clarify, have you checked the YouSendIt Dropbox option with a Pro account? You can send a client a link to your YouSendIt Dropbox, and it will be a single non-registration browser page to upload a file up to 2 GB.

I just rolled through the steps to check your requirements:

1. No registration, just need to input an email address for the "From" field. Name, subject, etc are all optional. No second page.

2. Select a file, not drag and drop

3. Shows a progress bar and confirmation of upload.

I know it is an often overlooked YouSendIt feature, so throwing this out there.
posted by shinynewnick at 7:55 AM on January 2

Does it need to be simple for the receiver as well?

No.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:55 AM on January 2

You can configure an FTP folder that allows anonymous uploads.
posted by empath at 8:12 AM on January 2

You can also create a dropbox upload form here.
posted by empath at 8:13 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

If you want to delve into a lot of options yourself, you can check out the Wikipedia page: Comparison of file hosting services.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:42 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

Set up a page using Plupload. I believe it's used in WordPress. Large (multi-gigabyte) file uploads discussed here.
posted by jsturgill at 9:01 AM on January 2

nthing wetransfer
posted by misanthropicsarah at 9:14 AM on January 2

The project I'm on right now uses SugarSync. On the receiving side it's dead simple, go to a web site, click on the download button. I've gotten two downloads at about 140 MB each with no issues at all. Don't know what uploads are like.
posted by Bruce H. at 9:28 AM on January 2

We're using Sharefile right now. Dead simple on both ends: all the client needs to do is enter their name and email (optional, but you probably want this for tracking purposes on your end), then either drag and drop the file or use the standard open file dialogue. The client won't need to set up an account, and you can set up folders on your end so they don't have access to other files. It's a paid service where you're charged monthly though, which might not be what you need.
posted by yasaman at 4:34 PM on January 2

I used WeTransfer a couple of times. It was good.
posted by lalochezia at 4:38 PM on January 2

Amazon's S3 will work for this; it's a feature of their AWS suite. Super cheap for hosting large (or large numbers of) files. Buckets can be shared between users so that the clients can upload and the business in question can download. The web interface is simple enough and has progress bars.
posted by aheckler at 6:51 PM on January 2

WeTransfer works pretty well for immediate use, thanks!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:02 AM on January 3