Hello out there!

I'm wondering what, if any experience you have had in terms of utilizing Foldershare when working with clients, and my question is twofold...

1) Do you currently utilize it with your own clients, and how do you feel about Peer to Peer networking in that regard? Personally, I find Foldershare to be a bit of a piggy in terms of interference with other software that I need to use throughout my day to day working hours. It interferes with Skype and Outlook, for example, and if I am on a call with a client and I have my Foldershare running, I normally have to shut it down in order to proceed with the conversation that I am having at the time. I also find that it hogs my hard drive, in that it takes up a huge amount of storage space. Since installing and using Foldershare for one particular client, I've run into Windows Explorer errors on a consistently daily basis, and this is cause for concern. Any of you have the same problems or issues, and do you have any recommendations or tips I could possibly use? Much appreciated if you do!!!

2) Secondly, and this may be a one-off scenario...I recently had a client who hired another contractor and he wanted to send very large media files to this person - through me - by utilizing Foldershare. The other contractor installed Foldershare, but could not get it to work on her Mac, so I had to come up with another alternative. YouSendIt was an option, however; it would be at a cost to my first (hiring) client, who did not wish to spend the money to get the files to the other contractor. The other contractor also expressed to me that she was very uncomfortable with the interface and did not want to use a Peer to Peer filesharing program. I figured out another alternative using DropSend.com, but I am wondering if any of you have encountered similar issues, and what you did to resolve them. It put me in a very uncomfortable scenario...my client wanted it one way, and the contractor wanted it another, so I was the one in the middle to come up with a solution.

Just thought I'd throw that out here to get some feedback, and see if anyone else has had similar experiences to mine.

I'd appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, or anecdotes that you can offer! :cool:

Cheers,

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Anne Short
Founder - YourGlobalVA

Hi Anne,
I'm not familiar with Foldershare, but am hoping someone who is can jump in here and give you some feedback. What about a project management system such as Basecamp or clientspot. I know in Basecamp you can upload files up to 100 MB. It's secure and both parties could login in with their own username and password.

There's also www.box.net and www.keepandshare.com which are file sharing sites that have free options. Maybe this helps?

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Kimberly
Facebook Marketing Magic!

Hi Kimberly,

Thanks for the tips regarding www.box.net, and www.keepandshare.com. I hadn't heard of these sites before, but will definitely check them out!

Cheers,

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Anne Short
Founder - YourGlobalVA

Hi Anne

I have not heard of foldershare. It looks interesting i will have to take a better look at it. Hopefully someone on the the forum will be able to help you. Kimberly has provided you with some good options, some other might be Central Desktop or Backpack.

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Maria Quick Link Virtual Assistant Services
www.getquicklink.com
Let Quick Link be your link to today's virtual world

Hi Maria,

Thanks for the info on Central Desktop and Backpack...I'll check those out as well!

Cheers,

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Anne Short
Founder - YourGlobalVA

If you have your own website you can upload documents to a root folder in you file manager and add permissions to it where only your client can view it over the internet and make the same documents download able. That way there is no need to purchase any additional software.

For an example: All images on your website is usually in an "images" folder in your file manager (ftp). You can upload as many images as you like and they can be viewable with the direct link such as www.yourdomain.com/images/myphoto.html, you can add permissions to make that particular link secured where as the only person with password can view image or even documents. They can also download those documents. Only downfall is that they can't upload unless you give them permission.

I use Foldershare for a RE client I have who posts her listing photos which I access so that I can work on her website and other RE sites.

I'll see if I can answer your questions one by one.

I don't like peer-to-peer because I am always afraid of picking up a virus. I run Symantec software on my computer but it always blocks the initial contact the client tries to make with me when she sends something through Foldershare. I always have to unblock it but once I do, then it goes through just fine. That is really the only problem I have is mostly with my security software.

I don't use Skype so I can't answer that question. I haven't had any problems with Outlook either. We upgraded and maxed out the ram on the computer and added an extra hard drive. It runs quite well. I've had no problems thusfar.

As for the errors you receive in Windows...do you know what those errors are about?

Sounds as if you solved the large file problem. I use Sendthisfile for another client I have who has a mac and can't send me her PowerPoint projects using her mac zip program. So rather than spend the time trying to figure that out she sent the file through sendthisfile. It worked fine.

Not sure if I was able to help you.

Jan

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