With each passing year digital images and video get larger and more people want to share them. There is increasing need to easily share via email and I’ve found myself wondering what the different options are and what’s the best way to share large files.
As an alternative to email here are a few other ways to send files: you can upload media to Facebook or even use Google Docs to store files. If you just want to send them to someone without cluttering your shared spaces however, or want to avoid posting to you “cloud” space because then you have to remember to delete them later or you’ll be wasting space email is still the way to go and Gmail is one of the best.
Here are a few tips on how to easily send large files over the web via email.
- using Gmail you can send files up to 10MB in size by default, if your files are just over 10MB you can compress them into a .zip to save space, you can also put several files into a folder and then zip the folder for convenience so you don’t have to attach files individually, however you can’t send executable or other potentially harmful files
- using a website called YouSendIt you can email all types of files up to 2GB in size and even set special restrictions on how long the file is available for download, how many times it can be downloaded, you can even set a password on it and track when it is accessed
- programs like iPhoto for Mac have a built in Share menu that includes email but limits your options and size just like Gmail, this option is good for quick sending without too many steps in between but size is still limited
So I’m obviously a fan of YouSendIt and they offer a free plans that allows users to get started right away sending files up to 100MB. I’ve found the tool to be so useful that I now subscribe to a monthly plan for $9.99 which offers the 2GB maximum file size and have even begun using it at work and sharing it with friends who can upload their own files to my space.
Another alternative to use to send large files over the internet is http://www.mailbigfile.com/. It’s a fast, simple and secure way to send your precious files when they’re too large for e-mail. Best of all, it’s free to use!