Free group/file-sharing site

May 18, 2006 10:00 AM

I'm looking for a group file sharing, discussion web site...

I'm trying to keep a few people from college in touch and want to find a group web site that will allow us to message/email like yahoo/google groups, but I want to share photos/movies as well. Since our discussion/material doesn't need to be seen by anyone else, invite-only membership is also necessary. Most of the group sites have forums/mailing lists but lack the file sharing portion. Is there anything that does what I'm looking for that's free?

posted by kookywon to human relations (5 comments total)

To clarify, existing solutions (google groups, yahoo groups...) have file storage limitations that won't work for us. We have lots of photos which means that yahoos 20MB limitation won't work. Also the movies might be too large to fit google groups limitiation (1MB/file) but we could break them up for yahoo's (5MB/file). Lots of storage with a 5-10MB file limit would work.
posted by kookywon at 10:11 AM on May 18, 2006

Orkut
posted by empath at 10:15 AM on May 18, 2006

You can set this up yourself without too much trouble. Find a decent web hosting company (you should be able to get one that lets you do what you want with lots of storage space for $5-10/month; see the AskMeFi archives for lots of past discussions on recommended hosting companies). Make sure the host supports PHP - which most do. Then, go to PHPBB.com, download their free forum, install and configure it (it's insanely simple, and the site has lots of forums to help), and then you're off and running. You can set security, allow uploads, etc etc etc.
posted by robhuddles at 11:10 AM on May 18, 2006

If you follow the phpBB route, however, be aboslutely certain that you are staying up to date with security releases and updates. phpBB is one of the most targeted web apps for spammers and crackers alike.
posted by rabble at 1:44 PM on May 18, 2006

It seems to me that there's no need to have everything included in a single website.

Why not use myspace (no flames please) as your means for communicating in general. You and you friends can make your profiles viewable by "friends" only -- so it's private. It's easy, especially for folks who may not be heaviliy into computers.

I don't know what photo and video limits apply to myspace directly, but I'd just put my photos up on FLICKR and provide the link to my friends on my myspace page. FLICKR is an excellent photo hosting website. And it's free.

As for videos, there is plenty of free webhosting available for that too. Upload it somewhere that satisfies your space needs and provide the link via your myspace page again. Zupload (500 MB limit per file), Putfile (25 MB limit), YouTube (100 MB limit) are but a few free webhosting sites.

And if you really really want to keep things private get one or more accounts at esnips. You get a gig of space for anything. And you CAN upload more than 10 MB per file, just use the special toolbar. I've used esnips many times -- including for uploading videos and music. It's great.
posted by bim at 5:37 PM on May 18, 2006