When sending large attachments by email won’t work

A: This is a common problem when attaching large files to email. Most Internet Service Providers post file size restrictions on incoming and outgoing email to conserve storage space on their mail servers and to prevent denial of service attacks.

Even if you are lucky enough to get the large file sent through your email provider, your recipient may have tighter restrictions once again serving as a roadblock to the delivery of your email.

Luckily, there is a pretty easy workaround for this. Several Internet sites allow you to use their web site as a temporary storage location for your large files. There are too many to mention here but a simple Google search for “send large files” will reveal the top sites.

For the sake of illustration, however, I’ll tell you how this works using one of the sites called SendThisFile which can be found at www.sendthisfile.com/.

The first step is to register for a free account. Once you have your account established, it’s a simple matter of entering the recipient’s email address and the location of the file on your hard drive. When you click the SendThisFile button, your file will be uploaded to the SendThisFile web site and your recipient will receive a very small email with instructions on how to download the file.

The only gotcha you need to worry about is that SendThisFile will only keep the file on their web site for about three days so your recipient needs to make sure he or she downloads the file as soon as possible after receiving the email.

This post was originally broadcast Friday, October 26, 2007 on Tech Talk with Noobie, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday between 11:30 a.m. and noon. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .