Once upon a time, a few kilobytes of data seemed like a mountain of information. How times have changed. E-mail inboxes are stuffed with hundred-megabyte images. Presentations and documents carry so much weight they need to be smushed using special programs.

Never mind the daily need to back up, send, or otherwise keep tabs on important files as you move around. There's a lot of choices, but the bottom line for moving data remains:

1) Ease of use
2) Appropriateness to the file
3) Reliablity across platforms and operating systems

Here are some alternatives to consider when choosing a file transfer strategy:

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Ride the infobahn

With data costs plunging, there's an increasingly wide playing field of data delivery companies that promise to upload and hold your file for another user to then download.

I recommend: Among the better known point and click services is YouSendIt, SendSpace, MegaUpload, FileFactory and Zupload. Most provide maximum files sizes of 250 megabytes up to 500 megabytes and charge only for secure or corporate-branded services.

Consider moving up to business-grade service

If you need secure file transfer or just do a lot of regular, intensive data movement, there are plenty of higher-end corporate offerings that work within your company's network.

I recommend: Among the leaders are GroupLogic's Mass Transit, Globalscape and Accellion.

Is backup or document management your real need?

Sometimes it seems logical to send yourself a file to make sure you have a copy backed up somewhere. Data companies heard that and have moved to create alternatives to e-mailing a copy to your inbox.

I recommend: Among the competitors in the hard-drive-in-the-sky space are X-Drive, MyFabrik, iDrive, and eSnips.

Use your e-mail service as storage space

If you already have a multi-gigabyte e-mail account, that could be enough for most people's needs, and there's not much new to learn.

I recommend: Yahoo! has long offered its Briefcase button as away to upload and share documents over the Web. Google seems ready to do something similar, but for now an enterprising programmer has written a small program which creates a drive icon in either Windows or Mac. Upload to it, and any file is saved in your free Gmail e-mail account. Later, log on and download, as if it were a regular disk drive.

Move your digital life entirely online

The struggle for control of the desktop that was once waged among operating system makers is being rendered pointless by cheap, fast broadband. So much so that companies are pushing to get computer users to compose documents entirely online, where they can be shared or edited by groups.

I recommend: Chief among these has been Google, which has relaunched its Google Spreadsheet online service to include documents. Zoho Writer is gaining ground in this market, as is Flyword.

It's clunkier in some ways, but FTP programs remain common and reliable

FTP means 'file transfer protocol,' a drab way of saying 'send files' using a control panel which shows two drives: The one on your computer, and another somewhere on the Web, usually inside a domain, such as your own dot-com address.

I recommend: The better-known brands in use today include CoffeeCup, CuteFTP and WS_FTP and, for Mac, there's Fetch. See an extensive list at Wikipedia.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  It's all about the interface. For updating a long, undifferentiated file list, an FTP program is probably best. For storing away photos or sending a presentation, choices change.
• •  Do remember that none of these serivces, deep down in their user agreements, guarantee anything is safe. Keep copies on your physical drive and back up to a portable hard disk if need be.
• •  Handheld devices are getting better at downloading documents. Consider warning recipients if files are very large.