[conspire] Receiving larger files from non-linux users?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting James Sundquist (sundquistjames at gmail.com):

> This is new territory for me.  I've been looking into Apache and WebDav[1]
> for setting up a site that users can log into for cross-platform file
> sharing.

In all honesty, it is for me, too.  I should probably explain that.

A long time ago, I got used to various old-school approaches to frequent
Internet operations, operations such as offering a file on a Web and/or
ftp server, and moving files between hosts.  I got accustomed to ssh'ing
to and from shell-capable Unix servers, and at that time got so
experienced at using scp (back in early ssh days) that I've seldom even
bothered to use sftp, which many people consider a much more
user-friendly way to move files, because it has a browse mode.

WebDAV didn't exist in early days.  (Heck, as noted, nor did sftp.)
It's very much A Good Thing, and is now provided inside Apache 2.x.
But I'm a little rusty on it (though I've used and configured it on the
server end for maintaining iCal calendars).

You're very likely onto the right track in trying something using
WebDAV, so I'd encourage you to experiment with that.  (You might want
to play with software in a virtual machine, for prototyping.)

> Is it best to use a hosting service such as Anhosting[2], or are
> there some obvious caveats that I'm missing so far?  

I have nothing against AN Hosting -- but it's not the sort of offering I
personally would use, because having to work via cPanel and other such
things would just frustrate me.  Personally, I find it really annoying
to not just have root user at the shell and the ability to install and
run whatever I want.

Therefore, I'm not (_personally -- but there are other people on this
mailing list, naturally!) the right guy to ask about Web-hosting
services.