We all have system glitches from time to time - fortunately we have the answers to those annoying
problems that you may be having. Below, we have split up all the Mac applications into sections,
making it easy for you to find the solution to your problems.
If you can’t see your answer here, email us at icreate@imagine-publishing.co.uk stating
‘Genius Bar’ in the subject bar.
Question (.Mac)
Ian Bennett asked about transferring large files (Genius Bar, iCreate issue 39), and you explained
how to give other users access to an iDisk. That’s all very well and good, but I don’t choose to pay
£69 a year for a .Mac account, so I don’t have an iDisk. Can you recommend any other file transfer
solutions for users who have chosen not to subscribe?
Leo Wilburn, Brittany
Answer
At just over a fiver a month, .Mac is reasonable value, although Apple’s UK pricing should better
reflect the dollar exchange rate. If you prefer not to subscribe, there are alternatives available. You
could sign up to a cheap web hosting service for less, and use the server space to transfer files via
FTP. For example, Streamline.net (www.streamline.co.uk) will give you an account for £19 a year.
The downside of this is that it only includes a meagre 150MB, so you could only transfer files smaller
than this in total at any time. Streamline.net does make it relatively easy to set up FTP transfers,
with a web browser interface to avoid the need for extra software, and (unlike some budget ISPs)
doesn’t restrict FTP access or the total amount you can transfer, within reason. Unlimited space –
compared to .Mac’s 1GB – costs £45 for a year. Other low-cost ISPs offer comparable deals.
Remember, though, you don’t get the Macintegrated convenience features of Apple’s service, and
when you create a website using iWeb, some features will only work if it’s hosted via .Mac. If this
is still too much and you’d rather not pay anything at all, you could always try a free file transfer
service such as SendThisFile.com. You upload a file and the service automatically emails the
recipient to tell them where to download it. SendThisFile imposes no size limits, but files only stay
up for a maximum of three days and transfer speed will vary.
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