Sharing Made Simple: A User-Friendly Guide to Online File Sharing
Have you ever needed to send a file that was just too big to email? Whether it’s photos from your vacation or latest adventure, a presentation for work, or a video for a class project, we’ve all been there. Fortunately, online file sharing is here to solve that problem, making it easy to share large files quickly with anyone, anywhere. Today I’m going to show you how you can harness this technology to save time and avoid headaches, all without needing a tech degree.
In my early computer days, I walked a floppy disk down the hall to the person who needed a file stored on my computer. If they weren’t in our office, I mailed it. Then came internal email and peer-to-peer networks. If we couldn’t email it, we granted access to a certain location on our own hard drive to someone else. We shared printers that way, too. That was called a Peer-to-Peer network.
During that era, the term “file sharing” got a bad reputation from file sharing websites that hosted copyrighted materials. Musicians obviously didn’t like those sites, but the site owners didn’t take control of what got shared, and, as a result, a lot of malware was “shared” as well, and a lot of users downloaded malware got badly infected. Some sites were shut down by government actions, some shut down voluntarily. That’s a super-simplified synopsis, but there are still sites and methods to share files with other people without using email.
Popular File Sharing Services
Three of the most common platforms for file sharing are Google Drive, Dropbox, and WeTransfer. I often see Google Drive and Dropbox used by websites and online courses to store the files they’re using with the course. WeTransfer is a little less well-known, but still quite useful. In the next few paragraphs I’ll explain the key features, integration with other stuff, file compatibility, and any additional information I think you may find useful
Google Drive offers 15 GB of file storage before you run out of space, but that 15 GB is shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos (and let me tell you, photos will chew through that 15 GB mighty quickly). It integrates with the Google Office services, like Docs, Sheets, and Slides. However, despite being a Google product, the storage system supports a wide range of file types without needing the original creation software. Google Drive is very simple and intuitive to use, and you can use it from any device that has internet connectivity. Sharing files and folders is easy by right-clicking and selecting “Share,” or entering the email address of the person you want to share it with.
Dropbox provides 2 GB of storage for free, and you can upgrade in increments. In addition to storage, it offers file synchronization as well, ensuring that all of your files are current across all of the devices that access that Dropbox. Additionally, you can mark a file for offline access, so that you can use that file without internet access. Dropbox has a collaboration tool that will allow you to see who is viewing or editing a file from within Microsoft Office files. It also provides a 30-day history of each file, so that if you delete a file or need to back out of a changed file to a previous version, you can bring back the previous version. You can also generate a link to any file or folder in your Dropbox, and then you can share that link by email, chat, or text.
WeTransfer isn’t a storage account like Google Drive and Dropbox are; it’s just for sending a file to someone else. You don’t need to create an account to send a file, if your file is below 2 GB. It’s as simple as entering your email address, the recipient’s email address, attaching the file, and clicking Send. The Pro version increases the transfer limit to 20 GB, and it offers added features like password protection and pretty wallpapers. WeTransfer has an easy-to-use interface, it’s quick to upload and download, and provides a confirmation email when the recipient downloads the file, so you know they got it.
Security Considerations
Even though each of these providers does a decent job of security, you still need to take some responsibility yourself. Regardless of which file sharing provider you decide to use, you need to learn how to set who can view, comment or edit your files. You need to understand the options for sharing the links, including whether to set the links as public, require a sign-in, or if you can or must limit access to specific individuals. You should also explore whether the provider offers expiring links, so that you can limit the amount of time the file is available to view or download. This can reduce the risk of someone gaining access besides the person you wanted to have it
You should also use a strong password (“strong password” is a clickable link, by the way), and it should be a fresh, new password you’ve never used anywhere else, ever, ever, ever. If possible, your provider should require 2FA, or at least make it an option, and you should use it. Setting 2FA for the files you send may or may not be possible, but you should at least set it for your own account.
YOUR TURN
I did only profile three services, and there are many, many more. What’s the one you use, and why do you like it? Is there one that you’d stay away from? I’m actually genuinely interested, because I’m going to be offering file downloads of items, and I’d like to pick a good one.
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