Some help on hosting files?

Hi everyone

I am hosting some VF clips on my FTP server, and had no prob so far, but some people say that they can't connect to FTP on their comps and they need the links.

I was wondering where I could get some hosting sites to put my clips up for these people. I am willing to play reasonable amount of money for these clips if necessary /versus/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Or anyone know how to host these clips on my own comp but not using FTP?

thx in advance

 

did you ever get this straightened out? if not, some hosting tips:

1. ftp hosting - I'd say 90 percent of ftp hosting errors occur because people don't understand about passive mode. Basically it's either on or off. If it's on, and their settings are set to use passive mode, transfers are no problem. If it's on and their settings aren't set to use it, transfers fail. If it's off and their ftp program tries to use it, transfers fail. You get the picture. Basically explain to people (like in the message of the day, the text that pops up as soon as you connect) that they need to change the passive mode setting to fix most transfer problems. In most programs (e.g. bulletproof ftp or smartftp) it's under firewall settings.

If I had to recommend using only one setting, I'd say keep passive mode ON.
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If you have trouble that you suspect is on your end and not theirs, here are some ideas.

1. make sure you have permissions set for the folders people will be browsing and downloading from. You must manually specify not only the folder their home folder, but also specify that they're allowed to read and download the files in it. You should also specify download permissions for all the folders under the main folder (otherwise you might have a situation where they could download from /movies ... but downloading from /movies/vf/ always fails).
In my program there's just an "inherit subdirectories" checkbox that makes this easy.

2. This is a dumb one, but make sure they have the correct name and password if one is required and that they pay attention to capitalization. Make sure also that you save changes after making them.

3. Certain nazi internet services like comcast don't permit hosting an ftp server.

4. Your ftp hosting program might just suck. I strongly recommend Serv-U ftp server - it's super easy to use.

5. If people have trouble using ftp or don't wanna get an ftp program, you can post links in an IE friendly format. Let's say I'm running a server, the login is VF and the password is movies. The home directory is /movies and I want to link to a file that's in movies/VF/ ...let's call the file clip1.avi ...

ftp://VF:movies@myIPaddress/VF/clip1.avi

That would be a clickable link for people using internet explorer (and probably netscape).. they can just right click and save as.
To make things one step easier, there are services like dyndns.org that will give you a free ftp host name, so you can replace an ugly ip address with something nice and easy to remember like vf.dyndns.org ...

ftp://VF:movies@vf.dyndns.org/VF/clip1.avi

Lastly, if you get all this working and make it easy, prepare to be rapezored. This will eat up your bandwidth, your system resources, and it'll eventually destroy your HDD from the constant abuse. You're also inevitably opening yourself up to attacks by running any sort of file server... though the VF crew here seems mostly cool.


Other methods for hosting files:

IRC - it's pretty easy once you get it set up, and you'll have live help getting it going. It works great and is sort of easy to use (it makes use of DOS-ish commands but people can memorize commands like DIR and CD without too much studying). The downside is that people must be on irc to be able to use it and it's not as user friendly as ftp or http links.

Hosting via HTTP: - this can be done on your home computer, but it makes things so easy and user friendly that once again you run the risk of getting raped, resources-wise. It's pretty easy to make your computer a simple web server -download APACHE http server, follow the quickstart tutorial, then run the app which sits in your taskbar or systray. You don't need to have any html skills, you can present the files to people and their web browsers will render the movie directory as a bunch of clickable links. You CAN make an index.html to pretty things up if you want.

Hosting via filesharing progs - it's a nobrainer, but they need to have the same programs as you. Hosting in kazaa or winmx is straightforward (keep all your files in a specified share directory). Hosting in bittorrent would be a minor pain in the ass, but if you actually did it, it's a fantastic way to distribute files because the same people who are downloading your files are forced to use a little bandwidth uploading the same file to other ppl who want it. People automatically share with each other and it takes some of the bandwidth burden off your back.

 

^This post is very helpful.
<font color="red"> Read it</font> (Ooo, now did I say red or read or mean read...ho ho)
Ehem...
It would be great if we adventually got a huge VF bittorrent organization goin' on. No webspace is even needed for those, just Hard-drive space. Brilliant.

 

From my experiences, I find that the best way to host files is via a database. Run mysql (free), and store the files as BLOB objects. You then use perl/php/whatever as the client. It's offers far more security, resources, organization, maintenance, etc. advantages over a file system. Of course it takes a bit of a technical knowhow, but since you want to learn stuff, this is a pretty good thing to learn. And it really requires only the minimal of knowledge.

But a VF community file share sounds like a very nice idea.