Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Specialty Hosting and Markets : File Hosting Services... any good ones/cheap?

Hi there,
I operate a gaming website which promotes online games and one of the services which we have been offering is free client downloads.
However many shared environments dont allow this sort of activity. Basically all i been doing is using them for their bandwidth promises and not for hosting a website.
Just recently i had a few clients on a shared host (HostMonster) and last months total bandwidth was just over 9000 gb (9Tb). Of course the account has been closed off.
My question: is there any host out there which is dedicated to file hosting or even shared environments which allow for client mirrors/hotlinking?
Thanks for your help.

[cristibighea]

I find it quite hard to believe they didn't suspend you earlier and you managed to get to 9TB used. That's actually quite a lot.

[idesign7]

You can try DropBox.
http://www.getdropbox.com/
I just downloaded it a few weeks ago, and it's main function is to allow file syncing between multiple computers (eliminates the use of a flash/jump drive). It's rather impressive. Also, there is a "public" folder in the DropBox software. Every file you move into the "public" folder, will give you a direct link to the file for public download. Therefore, if worse comes to worse, at least your main domain host won't cut you off, preventing unnecessary downtime for your website.
I can only imagine that if you use 9TB of their bandwidth (DropBox), they will cut you off, but it never hurts to give it a shot. Oh yea, and there IS a free version of it. I believe you get 1 Gigabyte free or something like that (disc space). Not really sure on what your intentions are. Good luck.

You may want to look into an FTP host. I don't have direct experience with any of these hosts, but they appear to have plans that might meet your needs.
siteground.com /ftp-hosting.htm
instantftpsites.com
Be sure to read the Terms of Service!
Brian

[masm50]

You could try Dreamhost - they have a reputation of letting users get away with a lot of webspace/bandwidth before they finally pull the plug. 9 TB is still a hell of a lot though, and would be costing your host quite a bit so the likelyhood is that they all shared hosting providers would either pass the costs onto you or cut you off.
Have you tried the file hosting sites like MediaFire, Rapidshare, MegaUpload, etc - that be an option if you're on a budget.
Otherwise maybe have a look at unmetered servers with a large enough pipe to pump 9+TB of data transfer through per month
@idesign7 - DropBox would cut you off way way before your hit 9TB I'm afraid. They are a service to share files with friends, colleagues, back up etc. Not massive file distribution.

[net]

Moved > Specialty Hosting and Markets.

You might want to look at these guys:
internetvps.com
It's a cheap VPS option and they do not have a cap on the data transfer AND I cannot find any wording in their TOS that would explicitly limit hotlinking or excessive bandwidth consumption.
But, if your site is disruptive for their other users... they have every right to boot you! LOL
"System Resources
System abuse includes any use of InternetVPS.com resources that disrupts the normal use of its servers or services for others. Examples of system abuse include running excessive numbers of processes or consuming excessive amounts of CPU time, memory or disk space. Further, running programs in the background on a InternetVPS.com server without InternetVPS.com's prior written authorization, or running chat rooms, Internet Relay Chat, IRC bots, and the like are not acceptable uses of InternetVPS.com's servers."

[protecweb]

I think if you want to really use 9TB you will need to pay for it upfront. Otherwise you will just be moving from shared overseller to overseller every month.
Just my opinion..
With that kind of data transfer you need to look at your revenue and select a bandwidth quality based on that then choose a dedi or content delivery provider such as those mentioned above.

[jsrobotnics]

I would recommend you go for a shared 100MBs line:
like http://english.keyweb.de/dedicated/index.shtml
They offer reasonable price and dont limit the 100 Mbs ports, ask the support.
Or you go for an ovh server, they are about 26€/month with 10MBs flatrate and 95% 100Mbs which are 36 hours a month.
Or you change the cheap hosts which dont like excessive use

[BlueTurbo]

An overselling/cheap host will obviously cancel you at 9TB of usage, remember "you get what you pay for".

[jsrobotnics]

Overselling is a term i would use in this context, maybe they are just big enough to handle more clients?!
OVH is a big raising client, compared to you ...

[iansltx]

You may want to look at something like SimpleCDN (www.simpleCDN.com) or maybe FDCUpload. FDCUpload is free, SimpleCDN allows for direct downloads and is relatively cheap. Then again, if you're pulling 9TB per month maybe get a server from 10TB.com...
Or dimension4networks has some servers for $80 and another $60 for 10TB of bandwidth.

[Creed3020]

Sounds like you need to consider paying some serious money because 9TB is quite a lot of traffic for free downloads.
I recommend 10tb.com (http://www.10tb.com/dedicated-hosting/). With as much bandwidth as they offer you should be covered and if you grow they should be able to offer you more bandwidth.

[SuperBiz]

try FileQube.
fileqube.com
Unlimited shared bandwidth. Or you can buy direct bandwidth.

If you can give me an amount of disk space used i might be able to put you on one of my servers(they wont be up for a couple weeks yet due to complete replacement of the servers and removal of my previous free hosting gig)
The half rack i will be using is located in a central Ohio data center and the data center has 800Gb/s of connectivity(5% usage currently) and I can get you a dedicated 100Mb/s or 1Gb/s line!
I can accommodate almost anything except HDD size need in excess of 6TB