Web File Transfer

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What Does Web File Transfer Mean?

Web file transfer refers to a variety of services that allow users to share files over the web for other people to download. These services are often available for free, though users who want to share very large files may have to pay a fee to do so or for faster file transfers.

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Techopedia Explains Web File Transfer

A number of services offer the ability to transfer files over the web. They are marketed to people who want to share large files as email services usually place limits on the size of attachments. Web-based sharing services allow users to share videos and pictures easily. Some of these services include cloud storage such as Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive. Others are simply websites that offer the ability to upload files for later download.

The business model of these services is to offer a free tier with the ability to pay for the ability to upload larger files. Other sites might throttle the download rate for free users and offer faster transfers for paid accounts.

The concept of sharing files is hardly new. Web browsers could immediately access FTP servers when they were first introduced.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.