Gone are the days when sending a picture to a friend or relative could take days or weeks. It is now possible to send a digital picture to all of your friends and family at once in an instant.
There are many different ways of getting a file or files from point A to point B, and the best way to do so is not always apparent to everyone.
Most people would find it simple enough to email a picture to a friend. But what ways are there to send a large 1GB file to someone who is simply sitting beside you? What do you do if you wish to send that same file to a relative in another country?
Email small files
For starters, email is definitely a good option for sending small files. Do keep in mind that there is often a limit on the size of an email that you can send so don’t count on being able to send more than 20MB in the same email.
It is also important to know that in the field where you put the recipient’s address in, you can add additional addresses so that the same email is sent to multiple recipients at once, if you so choose to.
Adding a file to the email generally involves clicking the “Attach” button. You can of course add multiple attachments; just make sure that you don’t go over the total file size limit.
Another point to keep in mind is that you can essentially attach one folder that contains multiple files, rather than adding each individual file separately. This can be quicker and easier for both the sender and the receiver. To do this you will need to create a “zipped” folder and simply put the files inside that folder. The folder can then be sent in one go and as an added bonus, it generally compresses the files to make the total file size smaller.
What about larger files?
If you wanted to pass along a large 1GB file to someone who is basically right beside you, using the internet would definitely not be the way to go. Here are some other options:
- One very simple option is to simply put the file/s onto a USB thumb drive, and let the recipient access the files from their own computer.
- Burning a disc is a possibility if you happen to have one.
- The same goes for an external hard drive, again if you happen to have one.
- If both computers are connected to the same modem/router which is often the case in most households (including wirelessly), you can share large files with each other over the network. You will need to make sure that appropriate sharing privileges are setup, so a quick Google check may be needed.
- There are of course other options such as using crossover cables and Bluetooth, so be sure to keep an open mind.
Now how to send that same 1GB file to someone in a different country?
You could of course physically post a USB thumb drive to them, but this would clearly take a lot of time, effort and you may not want to part ways with your own property.
One very popular option is using online storage. There are a lot of ways that this can be achieved, and many of you are likely familiar with Dropbox. Signing up at www.dropbox.com will allow you to upload large files to them for storage, so that you can access those same files from any computer or allow others to access those same files. Dropbox will allocate you 2GB of online storage free of charge. You will only need to pay for their services if you require more than that amount of storage.
If you’re interested in moving photos from your Android mobile device, you might find this article useful on the iiNet Blog “How to transfer photos from your Android device”.
While I am sure that many of you transfer files without even a second thought, I do hope that this was educational for some of you. If any of you have any tips or advice on the subject, please do leave comments below.