File hosting service
Encyclopedia
A file hosting service, online file storage provider, or cyberlocker is an Internet hosting service
specifically designed to host user files. Typically they allow HTTP
and FTP
access. Related services are content-displaying hosting services (i.e. video
, image
, audio/music), virtual storage
, and remote backup
.
, Freeware
and Open Source
/Free software
often use file hosting services to serve their software. The inherent problem with free downloads is the huge bandwidth cost. To cover this cost, many sites intentionally delay the starts of downloads and slow down downloading speeds in order to persuade a user to buy a premium, paid account on the site for better service, a practice much criticized by those who do not use these sites often. These hosts also offer additional services to the authors such as statistics or other marketing features.
Prior to the advent of personal file storage services, off-site backup services were not typically affordable for individual and small office computer users.
Sometimes people prefer hosting their files on a publicly accessible HTTP server. In this case, they generally choose paid hosting, and use their hosting for this purpose. Many free hosting providers do not allow the storage of files for non-website-related use.
basis, and sometimes include a bandwidth cost component as well. Usually these will be charged monthly or yearly. Some companies offer the service for free, relying on advertising revenue. Some hosting services do not place any limit on how much space your account can consume. Some services require a software download which makes files only available on computers which have that software installed, others allow users to retrieve files through any web browser. With the increased inbox space offered by webmail services, many users have started using their webmail service as an online drive. Some sites offer free unlimited file storage but have a limit on the file size.
Some organizations recognize the benefits of co-locating their mission-critical equipment within a data centre. Colocation is becoming increasingly popular because of the time and cost savings a company can realize as a result of using shared data centre infrastructure. Significant benefits of scale (large power and mechanical systems) result in large colocation facilities, typically 5,000-10,000 m² (50,000 to 100,000 square feet). With IT and communications facilities in safe hands, telecommunications, Internet, ASP
and content providers, as well as enterprises, enjoy less latency and the freedom to focus on their core business.
Additionally, customers reduce their traffic back-haul costs and free up their internal networks for other uses. Moreover, when network traffic is outsourced to a colocation service provider with greater bandwidth
capacity, web site access speeds improve considerably.
Major types of colocation customers are:
Most network access point
facilities provide colocation.
Common file hosting services include MediaFire
, MegaUpload
, ZShare, Softonic, RapidShare
, Hotfile
, FileServe
, Filestube
, Papyrs and many more.
Some colocation centres also offer some degree of service level agreement
s to support a wide range of computer and network related services, for example, server reboots, hardware replacements and software updates.
There are a few key differences between a dedicated server and colocation servers. Dedicated servers tend to be owned and rented out, while a colocation server is one that the client owns.
Some colocation centres feature a "meet-me-room
" where the different carriers housed in the centre can efficiently exchange data. Most peering
points sit in colocation centres. These sites are often used for web hosting. Most colocation centres have high levels of physical security and multiple redundant power and humidity/air-conditioning systems.
Confusingly, one company can operate a colocation centre, another can provide the bandwidth, whereas a third company would rent a cage inside the centre, renting out racks to hosting providers which would rent the servers themselves to actual clients. Any and all of those companies will claim ownership of the facility and will feature photos and descriptions of it on their web sites. At the actual physical location various ID cards with various logos will be present, including those of the company that built/rents/owns the actual building.
s that allow internet
users to easily upload one or more files from their hard drives (or from a remote location) onto the one-click host's server
free of charge.
Most such services simply return a URL
which can be given to other people, who can then fetch the file later on. In many cases these URLs are predictable allowing potential misuse of the service. As of 2005 these sites have drastically increased in popularity, and subsequently, many of the smaller, less efficient sites have failed. Although one-click hosting can be used for many purposes, this type of file sharing
has, to a degree, come to compete with P2P
filesharing services.
The sites make money through advertising or charging for premium services such as increased downloading capacity, removing any wait restrictions the site may have or prolonging how long uploaded files remain on the site. Many such sites implement a CAPTCHA
to prevent automated downloading. Several programs aid in downloading files from these one-click hosters; examples are JDownloader
, Tucan Manager
and CryptLoad
.
without consent of the copyright owner. In such cases one individual uploads a file to a file hosting service, which others can then download. Views on this can be very diverse. For example in the case of Swiss-German file hosting service RapidShare
, the US government's congressional international anti-piracy caucus
stated that the site was "overwhelmingly used for the global exchange of illegal movies, music and other copyrighted works". By contrast, in the 2009 - 2010 legal case Atari Europe S.A.S.U. v. Rapidshare AG in Germany, the Düsseldorf
higher regional court reached the conclusion on appeal that "most people utilize RapidShare for legal use cases" and that to assume otherwise was equivalent to inviting "a general suspicion against shared hosting services and their users which is not justified". The court also observed that the site removes copyrighted material when asked, does not provide search facilities for illegal material, noted previous cases siding with RapidShare, and after analysis concluded that the plaintiff's suggestions for preventing sharing of copyrighted material were "unreasonable or pointless".
Internet hosting service
An Internet hosting service is a service that runs Internet servers, allowing organizations and individuals to serve content to the Internet. There are various levels of service and various kinds of services offered....
specifically designed to host user files. Typically they allow HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....
and FTP
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
access. Related services are content-displaying hosting services (i.e. video
Video hosting service
A video hosting service allows individuals to upload video clips to an Internet website. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view this video...
, image
Image hosting service
An image hosting service allows individuals to upload images to an Internet website. The image host will then store the image onto its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view that image....
, audio/music), virtual storage
Virtual storage
Virtual storage can refer to:* virtual memory; IBM uses "virtual storage" rather than "virtual memory"* The storage seen by clients when storage virtualization is used...
, and remote backup
Remote backup service
A remote, online, or managed backup service is a service that provides users with a system for the backup and storage of computer files. Online backup providers are companies that provide this type of service to end users ....
.
Software file hosting
Authors of SharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
, Freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
and Open Source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
/Free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
often use file hosting services to serve their software. The inherent problem with free downloads is the huge bandwidth cost. To cover this cost, many sites intentionally delay the starts of downloads and slow down downloading speeds in order to persuade a user to buy a premium, paid account on the site for better service, a practice much criticized by those who do not use these sites often. These hosts also offer additional services to the authors such as statistics or other marketing features.
Personal file storage
Personal file storage services are aimed at private individuals, offering a sort of "network storage" for personal backup, file access, or file distribution. Users can upload their files and share them publicly or keep them password-protected.Prior to the advent of personal file storage services, off-site backup services were not typically affordable for individual and small office computer users.
Sometimes people prefer hosting their files on a publicly accessible HTTP server. In this case, they generally choose paid hosting, and use their hosting for this purpose. Many free hosting providers do not allow the storage of files for non-website-related use.
Content caching
Content providers who potentially encounter bandwidth congestion issues may use services specialized in distributing cached or static content. It is the case for companies with a major Internet presence.Storage
Some online file storage services offer space on a per-gigabyteGigabyte
The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
basis, and sometimes include a bandwidth cost component as well. Usually these will be charged monthly or yearly. Some companies offer the service for free, relying on advertising revenue. Some hosting services do not place any limit on how much space your account can consume. Some services require a software download which makes files only available on computers which have that software installed, others allow users to retrieve files through any web browser. With the increased inbox space offered by webmail services, many users have started using their webmail service as an online drive. Some sites offer free unlimited file storage but have a limit on the file size.
Some organizations recognize the benefits of co-locating their mission-critical equipment within a data centre. Colocation is becoming increasingly popular because of the time and cost savings a company can realize as a result of using shared data centre infrastructure. Significant benefits of scale (large power and mechanical systems) result in large colocation facilities, typically 5,000-10,000 m² (50,000 to 100,000 square feet). With IT and communications facilities in safe hands, telecommunications, Internet, ASP
Application service provider
An application service provider is a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network. Software offered using an ASP model is also sometimes called On-demand software or software as a service ....
and content providers, as well as enterprises, enjoy less latency and the freedom to focus on their core business.
Additionally, customers reduce their traffic back-haul costs and free up their internal networks for other uses. Moreover, when network traffic is outsourced to a colocation service provider with greater bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
capacity, web site access speeds improve considerably.
Major types of colocation customers are:
- Web commerce companies, who use the facilities for a safe environment and cost-effective, redundant connections to the Internet
- Major enterprises, who use the facility for disaster avoidance, offsite data backup and business continuity
- Telecommunication companies, who use the facilities to interexchange traffic with other telecommunications companies and access to potential clients
Most network access point
Network access point
A Network Access Point was a public network exchange facility where Internet Service Providers connected with one another in peering arrangements. The NAPs were a key component in the transition from the NSFNET era when many networks were government sponsored and commercial traffic was prohibited...
facilities provide colocation.
Common file hosting services include MediaFire
MediaFire
MediaFire is a free file and image hosting web site that started in 2006 and is located in Harris County, Texas, United States. The domain mediafire.com attracted almost 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.- Features :...
, MegaUpload
Megaupload
Megaupload is an online Hong Kong-based company established in 2005 for the use of uploading and downloading files. It includes a video browsing section in the site Megavideo, MegaLive, MegaPix and Megabox as well as a sister company called Megaporn which hosts user uploaded pornographic content...
, ZShare, Softonic, RapidShare
RapidShare
RapidShare is a one-click hosting service that offers both free and commercial services. Operating from Switzerland, it is financed by the subscriptions of paying users...
, Hotfile
Hotfile
Hotfile is a one-click file hosting website that was founded by Hotfile Corp in 2006 in Panama City, Panama. Hotfile currently gets 23,000,000 monthly visits.- Usage :...
, FileServe
FileServe
FileServe is an online file hosting service.Fileserve, together with another file hosting service site Megaupload, have terminated their services for Hong Kong by blocking IP addresses from accessing their websites and files....
, Filestube
FilesTube
FilesTube is a web search engine established in 2007 and specializing in searching files in various file sharing and uploading sites such as RapidShare or Megaupload, but now also has sections for Video, Games, Lyrics and Software...
, Papyrs and many more.
Services offered
Most colocation centres offer different types of services to customers ranging from dedicated suites/rooms or cages to smaller racks or partial racks.Some colocation centres also offer some degree of service level agreement
Service Level Agreement
A service-level agreement is a part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined. In practice, the term SLA is sometimes used to refer to the contracted delivery time or performance...
s to support a wide range of computer and network related services, for example, server reboots, hardware replacements and software updates.
There are a few key differences between a dedicated server and colocation servers. Dedicated servers tend to be owned and rented out, while a colocation server is one that the client owns.
Some colocation centres feature a "meet-me-room
Meet-me-room
A "meet me room" is a place within a colocation centre where telecommunications companies can physically connect to one another and exchange data without incurring local loop fees...
" where the different carriers housed in the centre can efficiently exchange data. Most peering
Peering
In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network. The pure definition of peering is settlement-free or "sender keeps all," meaning that neither party pays the...
points sit in colocation centres. These sites are often used for web hosting. Most colocation centres have high levels of physical security and multiple redundant power and humidity/air-conditioning systems.
Confusingly, one company can operate a colocation centre, another can provide the bandwidth, whereas a third company would rent a cage inside the centre, renting out racks to hosting providers which would rent the servers themselves to actual clients. Any and all of those companies will claim ownership of the facility and will feature photos and descriptions of it on their web sites. At the actual physical location various ID cards with various logos will be present, including those of the company that built/rents/owns the actual building.
One-click hosting
One-click hosting, sometimes referred to as cyberlocker, generally describes web serviceWeb service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
s that allow internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
users to easily upload one or more files from their hard drives (or from a remote location) onto the one-click host's server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
free of charge.
Most such services simply return a URL
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
which can be given to other people, who can then fetch the file later on. In many cases these URLs are predictable allowing potential misuse of the service. As of 2005 these sites have drastically increased in popularity, and subsequently, many of the smaller, less efficient sites have failed. Although one-click hosting can be used for many purposes, this type of file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
has, to a degree, come to compete with P2P
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
filesharing services.
The sites make money through advertising or charging for premium services such as increased downloading capacity, removing any wait restrictions the site may have or prolonging how long uploaded files remain on the site. Many such sites implement a CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA
A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing as an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a person. The process usually involves one computer asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade...
to prevent automated downloading. Several programs aid in downloading files from these one-click hosters; examples are JDownloader
JDownloader
JDownloader is a download manager, written in Java, which allows the automatic downloading of files and split files from one-click hosting sites such as Rapidshare and Megaupload. JDownloader supports the use of premium accounts. Certain parts of JDownloader are open source.JDownloader is better...
, Tucan Manager
Tucan Manager
Tucan Manager is an upload and download manager software for one-click hosting services.- Description :Tucan manager is written entirely in Python and released under the GPL license. It allows to manage downloads for hosting services websites such as Megaupload, RapidShare, FileFactory, 4shared,...
and CryptLoad
CryptLoad
CryptLoad is a freeware download manager for Microsoft Windows that downloads files from file-hosting websites such as RapidShare and Megaupload. Its primary funcation is to automate the process of receiving, joining and extracting multi-part downloads. A version that supports Mac OS and Linux...
.
Use for copyright infringement
File hosting services may be used as a means to distribute or share filesFile sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
without consent of the copyright owner. In such cases one individual uploads a file to a file hosting service, which others can then download. Views on this can be very diverse. For example in the case of Swiss-German file hosting service RapidShare
RapidShare
RapidShare is a one-click hosting service that offers both free and commercial services. Operating from Switzerland, it is financed by the subscriptions of paying users...
, the US government's congressional international anti-piracy caucus
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
stated that the site was "overwhelmingly used for the global exchange of illegal movies, music and other copyrighted works". By contrast, in the 2009 - 2010 legal case Atari Europe S.A.S.U. v. Rapidshare AG in Germany, the Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
higher regional court reached the conclusion on appeal that "most people utilize RapidShare for legal use cases" and that to assume otherwise was equivalent to inviting "a general suspicion against shared hosting services and their users which is not justified". The court also observed that the site removes copyrighted material when asked, does not provide search facilities for illegal material, noted previous cases siding with RapidShare, and after analysis concluded that the plaintiff's suggestions for preventing sharing of copyrighted material were "unreasonable or pointless".
See also
- Cloud storageCloud storageCloud storage is a model of networked online storage where data is stored on virtualized pools of storage which are generally hosted by third parties. Hosting companies operate large data centers; and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them and use it for...
- Comparison of file hosting servicesComparison of file hosting servicesA comparison of file hosting services.-External links:* List and comparison of file hosting services, online file storage providers, 1-click-hosters and cyberlockers* Big list of file hosting services and online file storage providers....
- Comparison of online backup services
- Remote backup serviceRemote backup serviceA remote, online, or managed backup service is a service that provides users with a system for the backup and storage of computer files. Online backup providers are companies that provide this type of service to end users ....
- Shared disk access
External links
- File sharing and online storage websites list Huge list of nearly all file sharing and uploading websites