Two cities, one file share location

[tinpanalley]

Here's the situation but I have no idea where to start for making this possible, thought I know it probably is...

Two cities, two separate computers. I'd like to have some kind of network setup where I can drop big video and audio files somewhere for the other person at the other computer to see and download whenever they want. I have video files I'd like to be able to send to my parents without having to burn discs all the time. How big? 300 to 800MD each video asset. 3 or 4 of those at a time.

What options are there and realistically how long would a 400mb file take to upload and download? Both on cable internet 20 mbps down, 3mbps up.

Thanks.

 

[oppie1]

Easy answer.... Dropbox

Www.dropbox.com

 

[tinpanalley]

Well, dropbox seems pretty slow for uploading and downloading big files. I've tried. There has to be something faster than that.

 

[VirtualLarry]

There has to be something faster than that.

I would think that the bottleneck would be your internet connection at the two locations. If possible, get a nice FIOS 35/35 connection at each location.

 

[tinpanalley]

Oh really? Ok. My mistake then. Thought it had something to do with the amount of bandwidth controlled by dropbox on its servers.

Well, my folks actually have FIOS. So, it'll be faster for them to download?

I thought someone had told me that setting up a VPN would be better for sharing files like this?

 

[Nothinman]

Oh really? Ok. My mistake then. Thought it had something to do with the amount of bandwidth controlled by dropbox on its servers.

Well, my folks actually have FIOS. So, it'll be faster for them to download?

I thought someone had told me that setting up a VPN would be better for sharing files like this?

I wouldn't be surprised if Dropbox had some sort of throttling in place, but I've never noticed. Have you tested your upload speeds to any other places?

A VPN would work too but would be more difficult to setup properly and the performance will be less than your normal upload speed because of the encryption.

 

[VirtualLarry]

On my FIOS 25/25 connection (actually 30/25), I can download ISOs from DigitalRiver/MS at 3.6MB/sec. That's over a wireless N connection in the middle.

My upload in practice doesn't seem to reach 25, I've uploaded to a Comcast cable connection at 1.6MB/sec.

 

[tinpanalley]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dropbox had some sort of throttling in place, but I've never noticed. Have you tested your upload speeds to any other places?

No, I haven't. Was going to try SugarSync which is what I use.

 

[tinpanalley]

Ok, took about 30 minutes to upload 350 mb on SugarSync.

 

[tinpanalley]

I guess I'll try dropbox and see if there's a difference.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Those free services usually do limit you. I use sugarsync and never really noticed an issue...but I don't put GB worth of data on it.

Why not host a little box at your house, put your files there, let your parents FTP in/out of it?

 

[tinpanalley]

See, that's what I'm talking about. How do I go about learning about that?

 

[lsv]

I use dropbox to get files from home to anywhere I go for work. I've never had any speed issues. The application does contain bandwidth controls which allow you to throttle your upload, this is good since I don't want my 300meg projects to eat up my measly 220k upload and I throttle to 150k/sec. At work I up at max speed since our network has amazing QoS... I can easily max out at 5meg/sec up and down.

Dropbox auto downloads on all shared clients, so if you upload a 1gig file it will auto download to all other clients sharing that folder. It is limited to 2gigs of space for free accounts. You can get more space by having friends join the service and using a referenced link from your account. I think up to 3.5gigs?

Anyway it's awesome

 

[rsutoratosu]

See, that's what I'm talking about. How do I go about learning about that?

if you want the ftp way, the easy stuff is like filezilla
http://filezilla-project.org/download.php

have a box somewhere, at your parents or your place, have it run filezilla server

and the other machine runs the client, you open the port ono the firewall to map to the server, and on the client you ftp to that server..

 

[vshah]

you could also set up hamachi and create a network share on the other PC

 

[Nothinman]

Those free services usually do limit you. I use sugarsync and never really noticed an issue...but I don't put GB worth of data on it.

Why not host a little box at your house, put your files there, let your parents FTP in/out of it?

FTP is by definition a security hole and I wouldn't be surprised if your ISP filtered it inbound.

 

[Geofram]

You can create a YouTube account and upload the videos there. That's generally what I do to share with my parents. Make the account private and you're good to go.

If you don't like that option, you can look into other software; personally I have a Windows Home server, and the built in website there can play your videos for others to watch. That would also work for sending other types of files, but it involves setting up a 2nd computer and getting a copy of WHS.

 

[tinpanalley]

if you want the ftp way, the easy stuff is like filezilla
http://filezilla-project.org/download.php

have a box somewhere, at your parents or your place, have it run filezilla server

and the other machine runs the client, you open the port ono the firewall to map to the server, and on the client you ftp to that server..

That sounds really cool, but there's no way my folks can handle that. I use a boxee to access my shared content so they're getting one too. I'm getting them an external hdd with an enclosure so all they have to do is run from there. But to get them stuff I wanted something simple. They already use dropbox. Just thought a share with hamachi or something might be smoother.

Problem is that the last time I set one of those up, I'm almost certain that it messed up my network somehow. I'm not blaming the software, it must have been me obviously just not fully getting how to set up hamachi.