[Wi11Jeffries]

I'm volunteering for a non-profit organization based in Chicago that collects community support for global initiatives through the collection of digital signatures and related supporter created profiles & data. We often have to transfer large files, more than several gigabytes, to organizations located throughout the world. The problem is some of these organization are in countries with a weaker IT infrastructure and the large file transfers can take a very very long time or the transfer completely fails due to the unstable network in some countries. Mailing hard drives or using most free transfer products isn't possible because we need to ensure that we are securing our supporters data, privacy, and expediency. Does anyone know of such a software product that could solve this issue. As we are a non-profit, we focus on spending on our ground game and don't have extensive funds to commit towards software. Any suggestion or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Mailing hard drives or using most free transfer products isn't possible because we need to ensure that we are securing our supporters data, privacy, and expediency.

 

 

Why not use secure encryption? as this may solve your issues

Regards

paws

[paws]

Mailing hard drives or using most free transfer products isn't possible because we need to ensure that we are securing our supporters data, privacy, and expediency.

 

 

Why not use secure encryption? as this may solve your issues

Regards

paws

[Wi11Jeffries]

 

Mailing hard drives or using most free transfer products isn't possible because we need to ensure that we are securing our supporters data, privacy, and expediency.

 

 

Why not use secure encryption? as this may solve your issues

Regards

paws

 

Yes we can use secure encryption. But many people think there are better solutions than mailing physical hard drives. So I'm trying to see what are better options than that.

[paws]

Yes ,understood, but why not use the usual free transfer products you mentioned, but encrypt the data first?

[terry1966]

 

The problem is some of these organization are in countries with a weaker IT infrastructure and the large file transfers can take a very very long time or the transfer completely fails due to the unstable network in some countries.

no programs can overcome those physical network limits/problems so whatever software you use it would still take a long time to transfer the files.

 

[DonnaB]

Just wondering...

Isn't there some way to upload large files to some kind of online storage site like Google Drive/Docs and provide a link to them?

[paws]

Yep absolutely right Donna

That's one of the "free services" referred to in Wi11Jeffries opening post.... there's a lot of others of course, but he was worried primarilyabout 2 main things:

 

The problem is some of these organization are in countries with a weaker IT infrastructure and the large file transfers can take a very very long time or the transfer completely fails due to the unstable network in some countries.

 

 

 

 As Terry rightly says,Ttere's not a lot we can suggest to fix an unreliable network structure in a foreign country, although reducing the file size by using file compression and or breaking up the large files into "bite size chunks" might go some way to help with some of the issues.

 

Mailing hard drives or using most free transfer products isn't possible because we need to ensure that we are securing our supporters data, privacy, and expediency

 

 Using secure file encryption is one answer that the op may consider, and generally if using the good old international mail system then sending a hard drive itself would rarely be necessary.... discs can carry a lot of data (double sided DVD or Blu-ray for example)

 

So to sum up there are lots of options open to the OP's firm.... satellite comms' are another alternative but they can be a tad pricey especially for a " not for profit organisation)l

[terry1966]

well to be honest the op didn't say what they currently use so assume if not a spammer type post they'd already be using encryption along with their own vpn and secure file server (each can be had for free and be as secure as any paid for product.), doubt they use compression to make the files smaller because from my understanding it is a security risk when the the data needs to be as secure as possible as i assume this needs to be for privacy and legal reasons.

so there really should not be a lot if anything they can do on their end, and at the other end all the recipient can do is make sure they use something that will continue a download from where it left off when the connection fails.

 

Edited by terry1966, 10 July 2016 - 04:16 PM.

[DonnaB]

As posted by paws;

Yep absolutely right Donna

That's one of the "free services" referred to in Wi11Jeffries opening post.... there's a lot of others of course, but he was worried primarily about 2 main things:

I kind of thought as much. No matter how you get the data to the receiver via the internet, they are still going to have to download it in some fashion, even if a File Transfer Service such as Maytech is used. Right?