7.1. Introduction
The high quality of multimedia files is increasingly pushing us towards searching for alternatives to the most widely used transfer channels.
In many occasions, we manage files considered “heavy data files”. More and more frequently, those files, particularly audiovisual files, have a better quality, which has an impact on the storage space they require in our storing systems.
A file may be considered a “heavy data file” if it exceeds 50 MB, because in this case we will not be able to send it as an attached file using most e-mail provider services.
Storage disks (hard disks, external storage disks, pendrives, memory cards) increasingly offer more space at a lower cost, but given the fact that we usually handle a large amount of files, we should always keep in mind how much space is available.
The most obvious downside to large volumes files arises when we need to send them on-line.
Most e-mail services, such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo accept attached files that are as large as 25 MB. When using webmail services, no more than 10MB are allowed.
Some applications, such as WinRAR or WinZip, offer an option to compress files, which reduces their size. When compressing, several files may be gathered together in a single file, that is treated as just one file (which makes things easier when having to attach, download and work with the file). These applications have an option to encrypt files and add a password to them, in case a higher level of security in the transfer is required.
However, how much the file may be reduced will depend on its content. A significant size reduction may be achieved with usual text files, but images or more complex text files will hardly be reduced in size upon compression.
On-line service for file exchange
Heavy data files may be shared or sent by other means; for instance, the cloud could be used as an intermediate storage system. In this case, the file would be stored on an Internet location -either temporarily or permanently- and the recipient would be able to download it on its local disk by following a link. Depending on the Internet connection available, the upload and download speed may vary.