Admin’s Toolbox: Sending large files by email
We have all seen this: You want to send a multi-megabyte file to someone, but most mail accounts and mail servers don’t work with files beyond a few megabytes. But there are some website services that come to the rescue: They enable you to send large files. The solution: You upload the file to the service website and simply mail the download link to the recipient.
My personal favorite is You Send It for its ease of use and speed, but there are also a few other options - here is a (incomplete) selection of these services:
| Service | Registration | Filesize | Storage Time | Cost |
| You Send It | Optional | Up to 100 MB | 7 days or 25 downloads | Free (ad-supported) |
| FileFlyer | Optional | Up to 400 MB | unknown | Free (ad-supported) |
| MediaFire | Optional | unlimited | unknown | Free (ad-supported) |
| Megaupload | Optional | 250 MB | until unused for 30 days | Free (heavily ad-supported) |
| esnips | required | 1 GB per account | unlimited | Free (ad-supported?) |
| dropload | required | 100 MB | 7 days | Free (ad-supported?) |
Of course these services should be used with caution when it comes to privacy and security related files. Anyone who guesses the download URL of your uploaded file can access the file! All services mentioned above don’t offer file security with user accounts of some sort in their free offerings. So for sensitive information it is a good idea to encrypt your file(s), e.g. using WINZIP’s encryption for zip files.