file-sharing

Ohio University has become the latest college to crack down on file sharing.

The school announced this week that it would restrict the use of all peer-to-peer file sharing on the campus computer network.

"The network is a shared resource, and we must ensure that it is available to all users," Chief Information Officer Brice Bible said in a news release. "Peer-to-peer file-sharing consumes a disproportionate amount of resources, both in bandwidth and human technical support."

College students are some of the most prolific users of P2P sites, and record industry officials have attempted to crack down on the spread of these networks … Read more

File-hosting service DivShare quietly launched a video-hosting service this morning. Designed to help users share short video clips, DivShare is taking a slightly different approach, letting people upload video files, up to 200MB, which can then be shared on social networks, blogs, and Web sites. Users can upload files anonymously or register so they can keep track of every file they've ever uploaded to the service. (Those file, according to DivShare, will "never" be removed.) Each time you upload a file, you're also given a direct download link that can be shared with others.

I wouldn'… Read more

Box.net, the online storage service, has updated their embeddable widget with a new group sharing feature for members with premium and professional accounts. Users can password protect a shared folder, which can then be accessed privately by others with the code. Storage owners can opt-in to allow user uploading, which lets anyone with access add files. The company is gearing it at businesses, whereas its previous widget incarnation was aimed at users with social networking profiles.

For group users to keep track of updates to shared folders, each share gets its own RSS feed. Once subscribed, the name and … Read more

Tubes, the file-sharing tool we covered in January, pushed out a new update last night that adds support for Windows Vista and "300 [other] enhancements." Maybe one of the best new features is an auto-updater that will download and install new builds of the app without requiring user re-installation. After all, if you're going to install something on your machine, you should really only have to do it once (an idea iTunes could learn from.)

Adesso also announced that more than half a million people have downloaded the app since launch (PDF). There's still no Mac … Read more

Collanos is a new and ambitious product that's designed to keep teams up to date on the files they're working on, and to provide a repository for discussions and other resources like Web links. It's got great potential. Which is a nice way of saying it's not ready for the real world yet.

At its core, Collanos is a peer-to-peer file synchronizing utility, sort of a scrappier version of Groove, or a buttoned-down version of Tubes (review). It is a free, downloadable (45MB) application. This goes against the grain of Webware's philosophy, but we're … Read more

Sharing files from your PC is nothing new. BitTorrent is all about sharing media files with the world, as Napster was before it. And file sharing products like Pando, eSnips, Titanize, Box.Net, YouBackItUp, and many others make it possible to share other files, or even entire directories and hard drives.

So when the team from Izimi pitched me on their new PC-based file publishing system as "the future of Internet publishing," I didn't really share their wonder.

I did try to find the spark of this product over the weekend. What I found was a tool … Read more

Skrbl is a delightfully simple whiteboarding tool that lets you draw, type notes, and share files without a software download. Admittedly, my use for and experience with whiteboard products is limited, but Skrbl really impressed me with how quickly I was able to begin a whiteboard and share it with others.

Skrbl also allows you to host files and secure your session with attendees, as long as you register. What's nice is that any unregistered attendee can download your shared files; Skrbl only requires registration to upload. However, one thing to note is the limit on uploading, which is … Read more

Jubii is a new service that attempts to provide an all-in-one solution for Web communication and sharing. It combines e-mail, contact management, instant messaging, VoIP, and file hosting into one app. The big question is, whether combining these things together provides a cohesive solution that's better than individual Web services. In short, the answer is no.

Jubii centers around its e-mail platform, which uses a simple tabbed interface with two separate in-boxes. E-mails from people on your approved contact list automatically get sent to your private box, whereas others make their way straight to the public. Creating new e-mails … Read more

YouBackItUp is a great way to share large files with friends. YouBackItUp has employed a really neat drag-and-drop interface that makes it dead simple for anyone (read nontech-savvy people) to use. Instead of hitting a browse button and fishing through your hard drive to find the file, you can just drag the original right onto the interface, and it takes care of the rest. When you're done uploading things, you're given a simple URL to send to friends or family where they can download the files.

What makes the service a real winner in my book is its … Read more