Once in a while, I’ll get that email.  You know the one, the one with the 50MB attachment.  Or I’ll get that phone call from a client as to why their massive emails keep bouncing back.  It’s no wonder attachment sizes have grown over the years.  With everyone and their mother packing a 15 Megapixel camera for daily use, it’s inevitable that email boxes get clogged daily worldwide.

So how do we solve this dilemma? In the old days of design we only had two options.

• Upload the photos to a FTP site
• Burn off a CD of the files and use a courier

Thank goodness it’s 2009 and we now have more file transfer tools at our disposal.  Want to know an easy way to get those source files from your client?  Here’s how!

There are many large file sharing sites out there these days, so what is secure?  What doesn’t require a doctorate to use?  There are many, but only one has made the grade for Trifox Designs.

RAPIDSHARE.COM

This easy to use tool allows for anyone to transfer a single ZIP (or RAR) file up to 200MB to anyone!  Just goto the site, upload your file, and they spit a URL right out to you that you can email your client.  All your client needs to do is follow the link and within minutes they have the files they need without the frustration of trying to email all of those files.

I mentioned the RAR format above.  For those who aren’t familiar, RAR files are just like ZIP files, but they can take files BIGGER than 200MB and break them up into 200MB chunks.   For example:

If I have a 600MB file.  So I divide it up into 3 files that are 200MB each.  Then I upload all three files to Rapidshare.

My client downloads all 3 RAR files.  Then when he/she opens the first RAR it will extract and put together all 3 files to make 1 single 600MB file!

Genius!

Some people may want privacy with their files.  They may not want anyone to be able to open their ZIP or RAR without a password.  With the click of a button you can ‘encrypt’ your ZIP or RAR with password protection so if someone get’s ahold of your file that shouldn’t, they won’t be able to open it without the secret password.

Using the solution above covers security, ease of use and more importantly allows for a higher degree of telecommuting.  So, next time you need to send a client a 50MB proof, send it via Rapidshare!

Your inbox will thank you for it!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 12:25 pm and is filed under News Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.