Comparison of file hosting services

A file exchange service is an available via the web browser online space to mostly be able to exchange very large files easily and securely with other users.

In addition to a browser, no additional program must be installed on the local machine. In most cases, the user of the website file transfer service must register once. Then he receives a login and password. He can log in to the service and upload your local files on the server. Recipients must log also generally and download the file ( s) on their local computer down.

Data transmission is almost always encrypted via https. How many files can be stored and how much disk space can be consumed varies from provider to provider.

Functions

The variety of vendors support different features. Examples:

• Automatic e -mail notification for the recipient, if files have been set for them.
• Notification if certain files have been deleted automatically. For example, if the sender wants the uploaded files are automatically deleted after a certain period of the file sharing service.
• Automatic conversion of specific file formats ( such as an image file from the transmitter was uploaded as a jpg and can be downloaded from the receiver in gif format. ).
• Allocation of access rights to individual directories, directory trees, individual files and file groups. In this way, the user is shown only that to which he has access.

Areas of application

• Files can be transferred using programs that support the WebDAV or FTP Internet protocols. Most programs are considered to be not very convenient for this purpose. Frequently there are problems with security measures, especially in business.
• The transfer of large files by e -mail often fails because of the technical limitations of the e -mail infrastructure of the company or the provider. With file-sharing services via the Web browser transfers are possible of up to 2 GB file size.