Sending large files on line

[Dadam]

Good evening,

This is a quite techie solution but way back when, the internet had and still has, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and SFTP (Simple File Transfer Protocol).

If either you or your son is so inclined to do the setup this could be the way to go.

You will probably need to do some reading to understand it, but this is a direct way of transfering files using IP addresses, FTP servers and all sorts of scary things. But at the end of the day the file is moved from your PC to his without a third party being involved.


Bye

Ian

SFTP is Secure FTP, or more accurately Secure Shell FTP as it goes over the same port as SSH. I really wouldn't recommend exposing an FTP server online unless Andy and son really know what they're doing with internet security. Will also have to open the requisite port (22) on routers/hubs both ends. They'll probably also have to generate certificates and key pairs.

Much easier and more secure to use one of the many cloud services designed for exactly this use case. If it was me I'd use google drive or dropbox. Life's too short unless you have a professional need to mess with stuff like this.

 

[icowden]

At the moment the issue is mainly upload speed, which is probably because I'm on the cheapest available broadband. Today it said 2gb would take about 8 hours. Even allowing for this to speed up over the upload that's a long, long time for a couple of five minute videos.

Yup. To make it work using file transfer you'd want fibre optic broadband with either a generous upload quota or unlimited with no throttling. As a comparison, I'm on fibre and get a 26mb/sec upload speed. So 2Gb would take me about 78 seconds assuming I got the max (often the service you are using is the limiting factor, although services like Google Drive allow 45Mb/sec, 3 files per second and up to 750gb upload per day).

 

[markemark]

Visit a local internet cafe? Use 4/5g which is massively faster?

 

[si_c]

Yup. To make it work using file transfer you'd want fibre optic broadband with either a generous upload quota or unlimited with no throttling. As a comparison, I'm on fibre and get a 26mb/sec upload speed. So 2Gb would take me about 78 seconds assuming I got the max (often the service you are using is the limiting factor, although services like Google Drive allow 45Mb/sec, 3 files per second and up to 750gb upload per day).

Got to be careful here, most broadband speeds are quoted in bits not bytes. So a 26Mb upload speed is actually around 3MB/s before accounting for overhead (around 10%). This equates to an upload time of between 10 and 15 minutes. Not significant perhaps, but with very large files this can be exaggerated. As noted above 2GB is not a particularly huge amount of video in playback time even at 1080p60 so if editing large projects it's probably better to post it.

For reference data transfers for large projects are often transferred using a courier as it's quicker to move high capacity storage devices than it is to transfer over the internet even at commercial link speeds.

 

[Fastpedaller]

I've used Wetransfer to send up to 25 jpeg files and it used to take about 20 minutes - since we were put on 'partial' fibre (fibre just to the box in the village, the typical time is 2 minutes. I realise video files will take longer. I've only ever used the free Wetransfer, and it's easy to set up.... why not try it for a file and see if it works?

 

[Andy in Germany]

I've used Wetransfer to send up to 25 jpeg files and it used to take about 20 minutes - since we were put on 'partial' fibre (fibre just to the box in the village, the typical time is 2 minutes. I realise video files will take longer. I've only ever used the free Wetransfer, and it's easy to set up.... why not try it for a file and see if it works?

I did: it sat there for a very long time then announced it needed eight hours.

 

[Fastpedaller]

Wow - fair comment. They must be very large files or slow broadband.

 

[markemark]

My 5g download is often between 100 and 200Mbs

 

[si_c]

Have you looked at Resilio Sync? It used to be called bittorrent sync - I've not used it in a long time, but it's likely to be useful for big files as it uses Bittorrent. You can share a folder on one machine and it will synchronise between any computer it is shared with. The advantage to this is that it goes machine to machine, without needing an intermediary service.

It's freemium in use - i.e. the basic product is free, but you can pay for better features, not too expensive either, around £60.

 

[AndyRM]

Have you looked at Resilio Sync? It used to be called bittorrent sync - I've not used it in a long time, but it's likely to be useful for big files as it uses Bittorrent. You can share a folder on one machine and it will synchronise between any computer it is shared with. The advantage to this is that it goes machine to machine, without needing an intermediary service.

It's freemium in use - i.e. the basic product is free, but you can pay for better features, not too expensive either, around £60.

Want to be careful with them I think.

 

[Willd]

We use Media Shuttle at work, a 206MB file took a couple of seconds. Not sure what access you can get as an individual though

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good evening,

SFTP is Secure FTP, or more accurately Secure Shell FTP as it goes over the same port as SSH. ........

The 1984 Request For Comments for the Simple File Transfer Protocol :-)

https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0913.txt

Bye

Ian

 

[Pat "5mph"]

You'd probably need some kind of protocol to make sure you weren't working on the same file at the same time.

During lockdown I did a brief stint of home based call centre work: we used Microsoft Teams to work on files simultaneously. You can see on your screen what the other person is doing.
Teams goes with Office 365 apps, it's all done in the cloud.
Maybe (probably!) there is an equivalent for video editing?

It would be less "sending" the file, more downloading and then re-uploading the file.

With a cloud based software, one would only have to upload the one time.
I had a quick Google @Andy in Germany, there seem to be a few options for what you want to do.

 

[Dadam]

Good evening,

The 1984 Request For Comments for the Simple File Transfer Protocol :-)

https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0913.txt

Bye

Ian

Entirely different protocol. I admit I'd never heard of that one but that's because it's historic and obsolete. The initials SFTP now refer to the protocol designed from the ground up to transfer files using encryption and auth from SSH. https://www.sftp.net/sftp-vs-ftps

 

[lazybloke]

Simple ftp isn't obsolete if you want a device to boot its operating system from the network.

Admittedly a niche application these days, but I've done it with linux as well as the
windows pre-installation environment.

Sorry, It's irrelevant to this thread.


I'd use any cloud service for sharing large files, most of us have access to one already via our phones.