What's the best way to send files as a link for someone to download or FTP?

Have you checked Dropbox? It’s basically an online USB stick where you can share folders with other people and keep files there. And it’s free!

That’s cool – I just went to the site and watched the video. But does the person on the receiving end have to download the program too? Or can they simply click a link and download my files?

@zina I think they can just click a link and download as long as you have a folder setup to be shared between both ends. I think the program is only used to make the process of adding new files to your “dropbox” easier. Instead of going to the site you just drag them into the program and it automatically uploads them to your “dropbox”.

Cool. I’ll give it a try tonight and see how it works!

(Any other ideas still welcome… the more the merrier!)

Oops… the main file I have to send this week is 150MB, so it’ll be just over that. Just in case that effects any other answers.

You have 2GB on Dropbox :-)
and for every person you invite you get 250MB extra.

Or you could check this question, which was asked before:

http://www.fluther.com/disc/20482/best-and-easy-way-to-transfer-large-files-under-1gb-over/

How do I link to files in my Dropbox?
https://www.dropbox.com/help/16

I use yousendit.com for that purpose. The free version you can send up to 100MB. It stores your file on their servers and emails your recipients the link to download it.

@bvdshec17 Dropbox doesn’t necessarily have to be configured between both ends. Anything in your public folder can be accessed from a browser with no configuration on the reciever’s end.

I second Dropbox!

@noyesa Sure, but that would involve 2 people logging in with the same account, and you might not want to do that with someone else for safety reasons. I’m not sure though.

@bvdshec17 No, it’s a public link. When you put something in the Public folder in your dropbox, it becomes viewable to the world. You can right click it and obtain the public URL for the file and then IM/e-mail it to anyone and they can simply click on the link to download the file.

@noyesa Oh, alright! My mistake then :)

@noyesa What you described is true of the rest of your Dropbox folder. Only the public folder is accessible with no login.

And for secure sharing, you can share single folders with other Dropbox users, where they have to login in with their own Dropbox credentials.

Thanks everyone. I’ve set up Dropbox and put my files in it and it all looks good to go. The only thing that’s too bad is that you can only link to individual files in the Public folder, and not to a whole folder (with multiple files in it) within the Public folder. Just a little more hassle / not as aesthetically pleasing on the receiving end. Any ideas on that? Ways around it? This is in the situation of sending to a non-Dropbox user, so not the shared folder method as described above.

My second question is that when I control-click the file in the Public folder (on a Mac), “copy public link” doesn’t appear as an option as the directions suggest. Where can I find this?

By the way, I just went to my online Dropbox account and the “copy public link” doesn’t appear there either, so something’s definitely off.

@zina When you right click/control click the files in your dropbox, there should be a new option called “Dropbox” which is a menu. In that menu, there should be an option that says “Copy Public Link”.

Yes – it’s not there. Under “Dropbox” there are only two options: “Browse on Dropbox Website…” and “View Previous Versions…”

Right-click the files in the public folder on your computer (not the on-line files)
Dropbox -> “copy public link”

Yes, I know – “copy public link” doesn’t appear when I control-click (Mac) the files on the computer OR when I look at the menu to the right of the files online. I can’t figure what’s wrong that’s causing that option not to be there.

drop.io is an alternative.

Maybe the public folder is not “public”?

How can I tell if a file or folder is shared, public, or private?
https://www.dropbox.com/help/140

@zina You’re in your public folder, right? When I browse outside of my public folder I don’t see the option either.

Ok, I figured out the problem with the Public folder – I had put it in a greater folder within my Dropbox, and it occurred to me that maybe it needs to be immediately in the Dropbox to work. Sure enough, I moved it back and the “copy public link” option appeared. Mystery solved!

So I tried sending the links to my partner before sending them off. The PDF and Doc files are fine, but the WAV file appears in his browser as a sound file to play online – he has no option to download it that he can see. That obviously won’t work for the person I’m sending it to. Any ideas? I’ve searched the online help/FAQs/etc.

Thanks all for the help everyone – I’m happy with Dropbox in general and I’ll definitely keep using it, once I work out all these little kinks / things I don’t understand.

@zina A browser will try to play whatever it can, which these days includes audio and movie files and sometimes FTP links. Using File -> Save As might work, but you might instead simply store any WAV or movie files in a zip file, which the browser would save to disk.

In your browser right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac) and something like ‘Save Link As’ or ‘Download Linked File’ will save the WAV file instead of playing it.

@zina Glad I could help ;)

Thanks so much guys—- File->Save Page As… worked! (and zip was a great idea too!)

Done and done!