Sharing large (multi-Gb) files with clients
- by Tim Long
I wasn't sure if this was the best place for this question, but I think it is squarely in the realm of the IT admin so that's the reason I put it here.
We need to share large files (several Gigabytes) with external clients. We need a simple way of reliably and automatically publishing these files so that clients can then download them. Our organization has Windows desktops and a Windows SBS 2011 server.
Sharing from our server is probably suboptimal from the client's perspective, because of the low upstream bandwidth of typical ADSL (around 1 Mbps) - it would take all day (9 hours for a 4Gb file) for the client to download the file.
Uploading to a 3rd party sever is good for the client but painful for us, because we then have to deal with a multi-hour upload.
Uploading to a third-part server would be less problematic if it could be made reliable and automatic, e.g. something like a Groove/SharePoint Workspace, simply drop the file in and wait for it to synchronize - but Groove has a 2Gb limit which is not big enough.
So ideally I'd like a service with the following attributes:
Must work for files of at least 5Gb, preferably 10Gb
Once the transfer is started, it must be reliable (i.e. not sensitive to disconnections and service outages) and completely automatic
Ideally, the sender would get a notification when the transfer completes.
Has to work with Windows based systems.
Any suggestions?
