Do you ever need to send large files to customers? Say large data sheets, or scans of engineering drawings? It can be a problem. Some large files are just too big to e-mail. Also messages with attachments may be rejected by your customer’s e-mail server, or relegated to the junk mail box.
I’ve discovered a free solution that works just great. It’s called Dropbox. Dropbox is a free service that allows you to make file backups “in the cloud”. You can set up a free Dropbox account that gives you access to 2 GB of on-line storage. You can pay for additional storage. Here’s where it is really slick. Download a small program from the Dropbox site (Windows, Mac or Linux), and a Dropbox folder will be created on you computer. Any file you copy to the folder is automatically backed up on-line. If you have more than one computer, load the software on all your machines, and the Dropbox folders on all your machines are kept synchronized.
So how does this help send large files to your customers? Sign into your Dropbox folder using your favourite web browser, and you can create shared folders. The program will automatically send an e-mail to your customer with simple instructions to allow them to download the file.
Try it out. Its free and it works great.