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badtz · May 6, 2003, 10:23 PM

When I try and send files to my brother via iChat, the transfer is very slow. [we're trying to transfer an iDVD project file, 3 gigs]

Is there a faster method of doing this transfer? What's the fastest?

Thanks for any help.

nforcer · May 6, 2003, 10:57 PM

No idea what type of connection you have (I have 56k and would never try such a feat) but if you have direct access to the comp, hook up a firewire cable between the two and startup in target mode and transfer the file to the other.

If firewire is not available, I would just burn an actual DVD and transfer it over that way.

If you don't have direct access to the comp, maybe just put the file in your public folder and turn on websharing? Or enable FTP access to the comp? Or host a private Caracho server and have him get the file that way?

I think almost anything is faster than using an IM client to transfer files.

Sarc · May 6, 2003, 11:05 PM

you can use TCP/IP over firewire (available from ADC site) or just plug them directly using an ethernet cable.
if both computers are "Pros" you can use a cat. 5e or cat6 cable and get 1Gigabit transfers ... quite fast.

gralem · May 6, 2003, 11:09 PM

Originally posted by Sarc:
you can use TCP/IP over firewire (available from ADC site) or just plug them directly using an ethernet cable.
if both computers are "Pros" you can use a cat. 5e or cat6 cable and get 1Gigabit transfers ... quite fast.

It is *MUCH* faster to follow a previous response and use FireWire Target mode (instead of firewire networking). Hold T on keyboard while booting one of the machines. This machine will then become an external firewire drive to the other machine, once connected via firewire.

But I don't know if what this person is talking about is with computers connected in the same room. If not is same room, burn/mail dvd.

---gralem

badtz · May 6, 2003, 11:25 PM

forgot to mention

we're both on broadband.

i'm in LA he's in SF

i'm trying KDX @ the moment, but the stream is only @ 5kbps!

danielb0101 · May 7, 2003, 12:12 AM

Broadband: DSL for home users are actually ADSL. A stands for asynchronos, meaning the downstream is much, much faster than upstream. Same with cable connections.

Meaning you can download files much faster than you can upload them.

badtz · May 7, 2003, 01:12 AM

.. yes, but is 5kbps the cap?

Angus_D · May 7, 2003, 01:51 AM

iChat is NOT good for transferring large files, it seems to try to load them all into memory first. Or at least it did when I last tried. You could try File Sharing over TCP/IP, or something like that.

As for your upstream bandwidth, depends on your ISP... 5K/s sounds a bit slow, though. Here in the UK max upstream on all ADSL connections provided by BT Wholesale is ~30K/s (256Kbps)

badtz · May 7, 2003, 02:38 AM

~30K is what I was expecting [@ least] also.

:X

nforcer · May 7, 2003, 02:51 AM

Originally posted by badtz:
forgot to mention

we're both on broadband.

i'm in LA he's in SF

i'm trying KDX @ the moment, but the stream is only @ 5kbps!

Burn and mail. The latency of snailmail might be large (~24 hours in your case) but do not underestimate its bandwidth

GENERAL_SMILEY · May 7, 2003, 04:48 AM

FTP if you have to transfer digitally - one of you open up an FTP server, the other log in and DL with Speed Download or some other multithreaded DL app.

Still Mail would be faster I think, 3GB is alot.

Good luck.

Mithras · May 7, 2003, 06:10 AM

Try this:

Drop the file into your /Library/WebServer/Documents folder. Turn on Apache.

Tell him to open
http://your.ip.address/thefilename

and leave it open for a few days

badtz · May 7, 2003, 06:12 AM

i would do it thru ftp, but there's no good FTP server prog. for OSX.

& by using the ftp server that's in OSX, you need to create another user account on your mac, which i would prefer not to do

maybe i SHOULD just snail mail it

mindwaves · May 7, 2003, 09:25 AM

Moving to the Networking forum . Thanks.

Powaqqatsi · May 7, 2003, 10:00 AM

Originally posted by nforcer:
Burn and mail. The latency of snailmail might be large (~24 hours in your case) but do not underestimate its bandwidth

I second that.

Langdon · Aug 6, 2005, 01:39 AM

BUMP.....

I am in the same situation. The file is not 5 gigs but it is about 80 megs.
The person in question has very little knowledge of computers and she is on a PC.
I have the file zipped and it is ready to go but I can not email it because of our email service does not allow any attachments larger than 15 megs. So is there anywhere I can upload the file and she can download it that will later allow me to remove it? Or does anyone have other ideas?

ghporter · Aug 6, 2005, 06:26 AM

Langdon, there are a couple of options you can go with. The first one depends on what ZIP program you have, and whether it supports spanning. With spanning, you tell the program the maximum size of zip file you want, and it generates a multipart zip file with as many pieces as needed to accomodate the total size of material you zipped. If you choose a 14MB size, you would wind up with four files... Stuffit Deluxe does this, but it costs $79 direct and it would probably take you as much time to get the program as it would to mail a CD.

You could look into a free web hosting service that supports at least 80MB of server space, then put the file there for your firend to download. The upload-ceiling issue discussed above is still there, but at least your friend could get at it, and downloading from a web site is pretty user-friendly.

Langdon · Aug 6, 2005, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

You could look into a free web hosting service that supports at least 80MB of server space, then put the file there for your firend to download.

who gives that much space anymore and would have the ability to upload that large a file to?

Krusty · 09:26 AM

Originally Posted by badtz

i would do it thru ftp, but there's no good FTP server prog. for OSX.

& by using the ftp server that's in OSX, you need to create another user account on your mac, which i would prefer not to do

maybe i SHOULD just snail mail it

Just web serve it though Apache web server. You can drop files into your Username/Sites folder and he can access it by simply browsing to http://yo.ur.ip.address/~yourusername/ and then right-click to download the file. Easy as pie and I use it instead of FTP all the time. Just make sure to get rid of the index.html file that lives in there (or rename it "indexold.html" or something so it doesn't default to a web page and when he browses there it will show up as a file directory. If you actually have a site that you're hosting, then just make a subfolder and called "files" or something and it won't affect any webpages you are hosting.

wingchuner · Aug 6, 2005, 11:53 PM

just use BT(bittorrent). because it will send it in pieces and if you happen to lose a connection you don't have to start all over again. it's simple, download the program, create the torrent (create your own tracker or use a public one [h*tp://tracker.prq.to/announce]) send him only the file and seed it on your end and let him leech on his...BT was actually created for this type of thing, it just happen to turn into one of the most popular p2p apps.

Krusty · Aug 7, 2005, 09:26 AM

wingchuner, that's probably the best idea yet. I just re-read the original post and see that he's talking 3gb of data here. A fail-safe method like BT is probably his best option.

legacyb4 · Aug 7, 2005, 12:22 PM

In a pinch, use:

Yousendit.com

You are still limited by your upstream bandwidth, but you can upload files up to 1GB in size; the recipient will receive a download link that is valid for something like 7 days before the content is deleted.

Originally Posted by Langdon

BUMP.....

I am in the same situation. The file is not 5 gigs but it is about 80 megs.
The person in question has very little knowledge of computers and she is on a PC.
I have the file zipped and it is ready to go but I can not email it because of our email service does not allow any attachments larger than 15 megs. So is there anywhere I can upload the file and she can download it that will later allow me to remove it? Or does anyone have other ideas?

legacyb4 · Aug 7, 2005, 12:27 PM

Better than a webhost for a one-off file transfer.

Free, no registration, support for HTTPS upload/download
www.yousendit.com

Registration required for more functionality (longer download window, secure download, etc.)
www.dropload.com
www.sendthisfile.com

Originally Posted by Langdon

who gives that much space anymore and would have the ability to upload that large a file to?

Langdon · Aug 7, 2005, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by legacyb4

Better than a webhost for a one-off file transfer.

Free, no registration, support for HTTPS upload/download
www.yousendit.com

Registration required for more functionality (longer download window, secure download, etc.)
www.dropload.com
www.sendthisfile.com

Thank you.

I tried two of them. yousendit was slow to upload. I use Menumeters to monitor my network traffic and when I used this site it would spike at about 120kb/s and then drop down right away. But there were many minutes at a time where I would get no upload activity at all. After about 15 minutes I gave up and stopped the upload.

I ended being very happy with dropload. It took about 5 minutes to upload the file and it was a steady upstream of about 130kb/s