USING A WEB PAGE FOR FILE TRANSFER
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by Gordon Woolf*
Files can be transferred as email attachments, but this method
has some major disadvantages:
The files are much larger than they need be, because of the
conversion system used by email, and therefore take longer
to transfer. There is also a tendency to find that, just
when a file is needed urgently, someone else has sent an email
with a huge attachment that is ahead of the one you want.
There are ways of logging on to the email server and
selecting what you want to download, but the method below
avoids the need for this.
The ideal way to transfer files via the internet is to use
what is known as the File Transfer Protocol, or FTP, and an
FTP transfer program such as the Shareware CuteFTP
(there are many others). Unfortunately, not all internet
service providers offer a free or low-cost FTP facility.
However, they do almost all offer web space.
Such web space is not secure, in the sense that anyone
who knows the file name can log onto a page, but, provided
a transfer page is not linked to any other page, and the
filename is known only the sender and recipient, it acts
almost as a password. And, in any case, files for transfer
should remain on the system only for long enough to ensure
that they have been received at the other end.
A typical transfer web page might be setup as follows:
Times May 5 pages
Hello Jim...
This is the file: pp29-30.pdf You
should be able to download this by right clicking and selecting
save as file or save target as...