Sending emails with large attachments – a perennial problem

The problem

The email system was never intended for the movement of large amounts of data. Back in the day, emails consisted of plain text – a few bytes of data. Now, with hi-res pictures, PDF documents, CAD drawings etc. emails can balloon into megabytes. And, all too often, the system fails at some point.

Which is frustrating, because we all rely on email for much of our lives & business.

The solution.

The solution is to not send the files as attachments to an email. Rather the files are stored on the Internet, and the recipient gets a link that allows them to download the file at their leisure. This is faster & more reliable. There are basically two approaches.

The sender has a sending account that allows them to transfer files in this manner. WeTransfer is probably the best known provider in this space. It works well, but it’s not that convenient for the occasional user. The sender fills in the relevant details, clicks “Transfer”. The file is uploaded and the recipient gets the download link emailed to them.
The recipient has a receiving account that potential senders can access. This is the solution we prefer, as it does away with the need for the sender to set up an account – which will probably put them off! You can embed the form in your website (see to the right) – or have a link that opens the relevant form. Or both! In either case it’s a simple drag-n-drop operation.
But there’s more! This system will link to your cloud storage account (e.g. OneDrive, DropBox etc.) and drop the files right in to your chosen location automatically. Also you can use the system to send your own large files without the need for a separate service. And all transfers are logged. We think all the bases are covered with this one: quick, easy, reliable, traceable, inexpensive.

What we offer

The system itself in inexpensive, especially if you’re not moving lots of data. The basic charge is less than £0.50 per Gb you transfer. We can set it all up for you: assuming your web designer can embed the code we generate we’ll bill you for an hour of our time.