F*EX - Frams' Fast File EXchange

F*EX (Frams' Fast File EXchange) is a service to send big (large, huge, giant, ...) files from a user A to a user B.

The sender uploads the file to the F*EX server using a WWW upload form and the recipient automatically gets a notification e-mail with a download-URL.

You say:

Why do I need another service for file transfer?!
I have e-mail, ftp, ssh and even sendfile!

I say:

You still need F*EX :-)

For example, you want to send your friend your last holiday video (1 GB). You have the following possibilities (and problems):

• sending a DVD by postal service

  Out of the question - we live in the year after invention of the internet! Sending media (hardware) is for grandpas.

• using e-mail

  Most e-mail servers have a limit of 10 MB per e-mail and a storage-quota of a few 100 MB per user or even less.

• uucp

  Why not cuneiform writing on stone plates?

• ssh

  You have your friends password or you are willing to give him yours - just for a file transfer?

• ftp

  • Using which ftp server?
  • Using which account, which password?
  • You do not mind sending unencrypted passwords and files over the insecure internet?
  • Your proxy supports passive-ftp?
  • In case of anonymous ftp:
    • Does it allow 1 GB uploads?
    • Does it allow to delete the upload afterwards?
    • Who else can download your file?
    • Who else can delete your file?
    • You have to send your friend the download-URL, he has to inform you about the successful download, you have to delete it afterwards.
      All in all: a pain in the ass.

• http

  • No default upload and user management - must be programmed
  • No auto-notification
  • No auto-deletion
  • Very few http servers can handle files greater than 2 GB

• sendfile

  • You run UNIX and have sendfile installed?
  • Your recipient runs UNIX and has sendfile installed?
  • Neither you nor your recipient has a firewall blocking port 487?

• commercial services like DropLoad, ALLPeers, YouSendIt, etc

  • What limit do they have (most: < 2 GB)?
  • What about security and privacy: will your files be save and secure?
  • Are they open source based or closed proprietary?
  • Are they accessible with any browser or do you need java, active-X, flash or other evil plugins?
  • Will they exist longer than a few months?
    (DropLoad, ALLPeers and drop.io already have terminated their business)

If you have answered only once "no" to the questions above, then you need F*EX.

Main features of F*EX

• file transfer of virtually unlimited file size
• recipient and sender only need an e-mail program and a web browser - of any kind, they do not have to install any software
• RESEND and REGET for resuming after link failures at last sent byte
• auto-notification of recipient
• auto-deletion after download
• auto-deletion after expiration date (default: days)
• full-users can create one time upload URLs for foreign users
• full-users can create sub-users, who can send only to this full-user
• full-users can create groups, an analogy to mailing lists, but for files
• maintenance-free: no admin interaction necessary besides creating new F*EX accounts
• Sending to multiple recipients needs storage on the server only once
• F*EX is a HTTP web-service and needs no firewall-tunnels
• support for streams, too
• for real UNIX users, there are the shell programs fexsend and fexget to avoid annoying web browser usage
• protocol and source-code free available

Let's talk about SEX

You can imagine SEX as network wide UNIX pipes with a relay between. This can be useful for piping data from user A to user B where A and B cannot establish a direct connection, but both can connect by HTTP to the SEX server. For seamless integration into the UNIX tool chain, there are the shell-tools sexsend and sexget.

Authentication is the same as with F*EX.

Still questions?