Using FTP to Send Large Files

It was inevitable that our work files would mushroom to sizes far beyond restrictions imposed by most email services. The reason can be summarized in one word: graphics.

Whether you want to send photos, CADD (computer aided drafting & design) files or encyclopedic volumes of scanned documents, you will hit roadblocks when you try to send these as email attachments.

Most email systems reliably allow file attachments of 1 megabyte or less. Above that level, service becomes unreliable, or at worst, nonexistent. Many have been chagrined to find that their large file transmission never arrived at its destination, yet they received no error message other than a very upset human one from the awaiting party.

Companies such as architectural and graphics design firms who routinely send large files have discovered a solution: FTP.

FTP (File Transmission Protocol) is the method by which large files are sent across the Internet. For example, when I press the "Publish" button in the blogger software I am using (a free Google service called Blogger (www.blogger.com), the service will send this article to my remote server (the computer which hosts my website) using FTP.

Generally, when you upload or download files from a website, you are using FTP. It is a more direct connection between you and the server because it is not routed through email systems at all. However, using FTP you will still use email, but it is just to tell the other party that a file has been posted to the FTP site.

By now you might assume that unless you have an always-on computer with a URL (web address) and web-hosting software, FTP might not be in your future. Wrong-o. There are companies out there including Poingo (www.poingo.com) who will rent you space on their remote server for a very nominal monthly charge.

Then the question becomes, "how do I do it?"

You can actually transmit files to a remote server using Windows Explorer(tm), however there are more robust applications available. We use Wise-FTP (www.wise-ftp.com), but we have heard that CuteFTP (www.cuteftp.com) is also good.

These apps will allow you to set up URL, username and password on a one-time basis, so that your FTP webspace can be accessed later with one click. Use FTP software to upload your large file to your remote webspace. You then need to teach your recipient to access and download it.

There are a few ways to do this. For the tech-savvy and trustworthy recipient, teach her what you learned about FTP software and get her up to speed. After you upload a file, send her an email which says, "Go to the site and grab this file:___". You will need to give her the URL, username and password to your webspace, which involves a leap of faith. After all, anyone with this information can access all of the files you have posted there, and can also inadvertently delete files.

Now comes the cool part. Have you ever clicked on a download link? Did you notice that you did not have to supply a username or password in order to download? Download links are a function of http (hypertext transfer protocol-the way websites communicate to web visitors). The idea is that you gain download-only rights to a file if you know its exact URL, path and filename. No username or password required.

Poingo has developed an application called Personal-FTP (www.poingo.com) which puts the power of download links in your hands. It is so easy that you will wonder why you never knew about it before.

You will need a remote webspace and knowledge of the path your webspace provider uses to specifically access your webspace, not to mention the system rights. Or use Poingo FTP Service for a more integrated experience.

Using Poingo Personal-FTP software, you see a "browse" screen which allows you to select files within your local computer or network. When they are selected, click "Upload All" and watch the file transfer progress. When the upload is complete, Personal-FTP automatically creates a new email and places download links to your files in the email. Your recipient either clicks on the link or pastes it into her browser to get a fast, clean download without access to your other posted files.

This is the type of straightforward, elegant solution poingologists love.
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Learn about all the tricks Poingo Email Printer with Personal FTP can do for you!
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Clipboard and Screen Capture

Many lack a clear understanding of the clipboard function built into Windows(tm) operating systems.

Basically, the clipboard is a temporary storage area where you can save and retrieve data.

The most well-known example would be when you drag the cursor across text to highlight it, then right-click/copy or right-click/cut. The highlighted text is saved into the clipboard awaiting further use. Place the cursor in a new location, right-click/paste, and the text appears in the new location.

Generally the clipboard holds only one item at a time, and that item will remain replaced. The clipboard is simple, works with any text-based application (including web pages) and is easily available when you need it.

Images can also be placed in the clipboard, but that requires more work. Press the PrintScreen button on your keyboard and a pixel-by-pixel image of your current screen will automatically dump into the clipboard.

You can right-click paste this image into documents which can receive graphical input, such as Microsoft Paint(tm) or even Microsoft Word, but this function works only for the entire screen display.

If you want to grab only a portion of the screen, most mortals have to paste the screen shot into a graphics software such as Paint(tm) or Adobe Photoshop (tm), then crop the image to ready it for use. That is an example of inefficiency Poingo abhors.

Now, folks who like enhancing their documents with images have a new tool which works with the same always-available simplicity of the clipboard. It is called Lightning Navigator, and it is one of the applications which comprise the Poingo Productivity Suite (www.poingo.com).

Lightning Navigator runs constantly in the background. You only know it is there by noticing the little lightning bolt icon in the "system tray", the little row of icons usually located at the lower right corner of your screen.

With Lightning Navigator running, simply click Control+Alt+Print Screen at the same time for on-the-fly screen capture. When you do this, you will see a crosshair cursor. Left-click/drag it across the screen area you want to grab. When you release the mouse button, the image will load into the clipboard and you will see a brief confirmation message.

Now you can right-click paste that image directly into your document and impress your co-workers and friends with not only the quality and clarity of your document, but also with the speed with which you produced it.

You will also notice a refreshing difference in your work process, as you grab and paste images into your documents with the ease previously reserved for text.

Lightning Navigator has capabilities far beyond screen capture. A general overview, screenshots and a free trial download of Lightning Navigator are available at www.poingo.com. For a more extensive discussion, visit www.lightningnavigator.com

By the way, almost all of the cropped screenshots in both websites mentioned above were grabbed using the Control+Alt+PrintScreen function of Lightning Navigator.
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Shortcut your way to a better body, a better life, a better mate.
When you're done, check out Lightning Navigator
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