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Thread: File hosting services

  1. Question File hosting services

    As I mentioned in another thread, some friends and I are putting together a PDF magazine. One of my concerns, though, is getting the mag out there once the issues are done. It shouldn't be a problem for me hosting them, but in the rare chance that it takes off and a lot of people start downloading it, it could eat into my bandwidth very quickly.

    What I'm wondering is, are there any kinds of services out there for hosting files like this? I know there are things like File Planet and whatnot, is there anything like that for files from people like me? Like, in exchange for them tossing up some ads on the download page, I get a source for unlimited downloads of my mag issues?

    I'm pretty sure that my best bet would be just to bump up my hosting account to cover more bandwidth, but I thought I would at least ask first.
    WARNING: This post may contain violent and disturbing images.

  2. Put it on bittorrent and P2P?
    That would be effective, if you sent it to say ten friends, who all seeded it, then it would be in constant supply, as someone would always be online.

    For a proper website, it depends on what the filesize will be.

  3. Seed a torrent for the issue (assuming this is a free thing). Offer the new issue via torrent initially, and after a week or two, via direct download. It may save some bacon that way. Other than that, I'm not sure what other (affordable) alternatives you'll find.

    edit: someone beat me to it.

  4. My initial hesitation with torrenting the file was that after the initial release, that wouldn't be the best solution for offering it up. But actually, doing an initial torrent, and then putting it up on the website wouldn't be too bad of an idea, yeah.
    WARNING: This post may contain violent and disturbing images.

  5. The main reason I mention it is because I see the Halo.bungie.org comminity offering downloads and torrents to assist people who submit videos but can't survive the bandwith storm of tens of thousands of people downloading a 10MB file.

    I figure 'forcing' readers to grab it via torrent when the issue is first released will help preserve your bandwidth for much longer, and as time goes on and you build a community, you may find that torrents of the older files may stay up for a while (since some readers will hopefully be nice and continue seeding the older issues for you well after they are released).

  6. How big is the file, because that will be the main factor affecting how you host. If it's like 10mb+ then you are going to be facing huge bandwidth costs, and you will need to find somewhere where you can either provide your own ads at will, or where the service is free and they provide ads.

    I don't know any more about getting ads, or how much money they'd provide, but you want to look into that straight away, as the company will need to see your magazine before they would pay you to advertise for them.

  7. http://www.yousendit.com
    http://www.youshareit.com

    Both give you unique links to download. Unfortunately both give limits as to how many times can be downloaded and if that limit is not used up, it gives you 7 days before the link is no longer active. youshareit.com max size is 50mb.

    So once the link is dead either from reaching the download limit or the expiration date (whichever reaches first), then you'll have to post a new link up.

  8. Quote Originally Posted by burky
    How big is the file, because that will be the main factor affecting how you host. If it's like 10mb+ then you are going to be facing huge bandwidth costs, and you will need to find somewhere where you can either provide your own ads at will, or where the service is free and they provide ads.
    Part of the reason I'm worrying about this now is that I don't know what the final size will be. The first issue is going to mainly be an intro issue, giving readers a small feel for what we want to do, and then see how people react to it. If we get enough positive feedback, then we'll be looking to do "issues" that are longer and feel more like an actual magazine.

    That, coupled with trying to have the dpi high enough that people could print these out if they wanted to, makes me worried that we'll get into file size trouble real quick if we make even a few issues.
    WARNING: This post may contain violent and disturbing images.

  9. Realistically BitTorrent is probably the best way to go, but have it hosted on your server too just incase someone is unable to use bittorrent due to network policy or whatever. Just get a webhost that has a decent chunk of monthly bandwidth and you'll be fine, since I seriously doubt the PDF will go anywhere beyond ten megs in size.


    edit: Just as I thought, I sometimes grab a developer PDF magazine called "Plug In" and it weighs in at 23 pages with HEAVY images in it, and it's only 3 and a half megs. Don't worry about size constraints until you're absolutely sure you'll know how big each issue will be.
    Last edited by cka; 03 Feb 2005 at 03:28 PM.

  10. BitTorrent is the best way. Its how developers are now serving up hot demos, demos that are way more popular than your magazine will be, and it works fine. Its what it was designed to do.

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