Sharing Files over the Net - How Painless Can We Make it ?

 

Many of us who still use a pc will, sooner or later, find they need to share larger files with others. If these are more than ca 10MB in size, this can present problems.

The traditional, and probably still the most widely used, method of transferring smaller files to someone else is via an email attachment.

This has two associated problems…the first (and perhaps best known because of the trouble it can cause) is that all mail systems prohibit attachments above a certain size, and this limit can be as little as 5 MB or even less. Even a medium-sized Word document with illustrations or images within it can easily exceed this, and audio and video files will almost always be above the limit, unless they are very short.  

This results in 'offending' mail messages being rejected and not reaching their destination, something which is not always apparent to the sender. The other, and less widely appreciated, issue is that emails are eminently ‘hackable’ (see recent blog on the subject for more details), and thus confidential material such as personal details are at risk, and should never be sent by email without additional encryption.

There are other file-sharing methods available, but beware of cloud-based free apps which are offered widely for use online or downloading. These can, and sometimes do, appropriate and sell-on any data you consign to the cloud, with potentially catastrophic results if the files you send contain key personal data.

Is there a better and safer way of sharing larger files ?

Most of us with pcs, and everyone with an Android phone, will at some time have signed up for a Google account. Not everyone with an account appreciates that this comes with 15GB of free web storage space in the form of a Google ‘Drive’ (GDrive), which is often under-utilised and therefore an obvious option for transferring larger files via the cloud. You can access the webspace available directly using the Google 'Drive' app and upload/download files to & from it easily.

But how easy is it to use a GDrive to exchange files between correspondents ? 

The answer is…quite easy, once the system is properly set up. All that is necessary once this has been done is for both  correspondent and recipient to have access to a Google account and log into it whenever they want to access and share files (it doesn't of course need to be the same account !). 

As you might expect, there is some setting up to do before you can exchange files routinely. This involves creating a shared directory and assigning the necessary security permissions to your recipient(s). It needs to be done by the owner of the 'master' GDrive where the shared directory will reside. They then create a link to the shared directory which can be used whenever access is required by the recipient(s). The link automatically takes them to the Google ‘Drive’ app and invites them to log in if they’ve not already done so.

The security of the system is good - apart from the GDrive owner, only those assigned the appropriate permissions and having the link are able to access the shared directory.

I’d recommend anyone looking for a relatively painless and safe file-sharing experience to try doing it this way….you and your correspondents probably already have GDrives available – why not put them to good use ?

To explain how to set up a suitable system and start exchanging files, I’ve published a short step-by-step guide which I hope will be helpful. You can download it here.

Happy file sharing……

First published 20.3.25; Revised 22.3.35