Free or Low-Cost Online Storage
People often need to store files and documents online. Either the files are too large to send via email or webmail, or the individual has no USB flash drive or floppy disk on which to put the files.
That's where online storage services come in handy. You can easily upload your files right from the computer's desktop via any web browser.
The following is a list of some of these services.
- Yahoo Briefcase - briefcase.yahoo.com/
- Yahoo offers 30 megabytes of free online storage for anyone who has a Yahoo ID (free). You are given a unique URL that you can use or share with others to retrieve your file(s).
- ZNAIL - www.znail.com/
- ZNAIL offers 5 megabytes of file storage with their free account. For a one dollar donation (!) they'll up that to 20 megabytes. Their somewhat funky point system may make you wary - you can lose space if you fail to ever log in to your account. Still, the interface is very easy to use.
- Dropload - dropload.com/
- Allows you to temporarily store files up to 100MB in size, then send links to people (only one person at a time) so they can download them. Signing up is quick and free and they offer virus scanning for both sending and receiving. Warning: files are removed after seven days.
- YouSendit - www.yousendit.com/
- Allows you to send files up to one gigabyte in size. Like dropload, you can only store a file for seven days, and the link can only be sent to one person.
- SendThisFile - www.sendthisfile.com/
- SendThisFile does not limit file size. You specify an email address as the file's recipient when you upload, and then that email address has three days to pick the file(s) up. You can upload three files at a time. , but with a free account you have a three day pick-up time. You can upgrade to a paid account and get unlimited storage and six day pick up plans.
- Box.net - box.net/
- Box.net qualifies as low-cost. For $25/year, you get one gigabyte of storage and the ability to create your own folders for file storage and control over who can access their contents when. You handle removal of your own files. They also offer student accounts for $15/year, or month by month for $2.99. you can also increase your storage space for an additional fee.