More on disk images

[ffutures]

Further to yesterday's poll, has anyone tried using Amazon's "Simple Storage Service" for something like disk images? It looks to be pretty cheap, with the charges calculated according to usage, not a pre-arranged plan. So say I uploaded two 500mb disk images, there would be a small monthly storage fee, and a charge each time one is downloaded - I would be able to give registered users unique links to download them.

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

It sounds pretty good, but the guy who mentioned this was using it for his own storage and wasn't giving keys to other people. I have no idea how easy it is to use in practice.

Comments

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

I just had an alternative idea, I think. What about creating a private torrent file?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

How private are they?

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

See this (http://www.bootstrike.com/Articles/CreateTorrent/) As understand only the people who have the torrent file, can get the download. But you need a "server" pc with static IP. Might be to cumbersome for the down loader.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Not practical for me, I'm afraid. Don't have static IP here.

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

I considered using Amazon directly for our files, but instead opted to use Dropbox, which uses Amazon. The cost is pretty good based on traffic and put/get requests, and there's a lot of companies that are using it for cloud storage.

Amazon allows directly linking to a URL to download, and I believe there's a way to password protect access to those URLs as they're just HTTP requests.

It's a good idea as you only pay for the traffic/space you use.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, Dropbox looks easier to understand - I'll have to ask them about password access.

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

With Dropbox, security can be locked down on a per account basis, but you need to be a Dropbox user to access shared folders. There's a public share which has no security.

I've got a couple of shared folders with friends so that we can drag and drop files for collaboration and keep them synced, as well as a public folder for stuff I want to keep open.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It looks like there would be nothing to stop someone else putting a different file with the same name there, which could be a problem.