Say i want to send a large file, like a high quality image to my friend asap and not be bogged down my IM servers, whats the best way to do it?
If you have access to any sort of server, FTP wouldn't be a horrible option. Depends how big the "image" is... email isn't a great option for larger things (I just tried to send myself about 15MB worth of stuff through email... hasn't come through and probably won't, and I wouldn't call that very large). I think IM is a decent option if you're looking for a reasonably quick thing... I don't see why the servers would limit you too much, especially if you initiate a direct connection. I got something at about a megabyte a second over IM a few days ago (though we were both on the same college network, so it might not go out to central servers or whatever... I have no idea how IMs are structured)
Mabe you could use hamchi it's a zero-configuration virtual private networking application. In other words Hamachi is a program that allows you to arrange multiple computers into their own secure network just as if they were connected by a physical network cable. (copy/paseted that from their page) Its pretty usefull...me and my mates use this to play LAN games over the internet.
With email attachments the maximum byteage varies; I'm allowed 20Mb with Pipex but daughter on Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange/whatever they're called today is only allowed 10Mb. I put big stuff on my webspace and email a link.
what about an image hosting site like www.imageshack.us ? Or are you just using the image as a reference?
Image was a reference tibby. I am talking music files, and anything over a meg because IM services are at like 16 kbps here, on like 8 meg cable. I think i want to try that hamachi thing anyways, and i have an ftp (or at least acess to one...i administer it now).. duh...
For large files you can try this: http://www.yousendit.com/ For smaller stuff I would just set up an Apache web server.
