Vassar Technology Today | Exploring internet bandwidth, sharing large files

Matthew Leung Managing Editor

As digital storage becomes cheaper and cheaper, so does Internet bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be transferred via the Internet. This makes sense, since it would not be convenient to be able to store multimedia files like videos, music, and photos but not be able to share them via the Internet. With the myriad of resources at Vassar and from third party companies, sending these large files to others easily through the Internet highway might make you never want to drive on Raymond Avenue again.

Since the Internet is a public space, data traveling through it is potentially visible for all to see. But that doesn’t mean everyone must open up his or her digital life to the world. An array of applications is available for either sharing private video clips with just a few people or publishing clips to the world.

As for those private clips, Vspace (vspace.vassar.edu) offers the best option for security. From the time your file leaves the safety of your computer to the time it reaches the designated recipient, Vspace’s Secure Socket Layer (SSL) interface encrypts the data that travels on the Internet. This level of security makes your content truly private. While major multimedia-sharing services like Webshots (webshots.com) or YouTube (youtube.com) allow you to designate content as private and viewable only to designated recipients, they do not offer encryption while the file is en route to the recipient.

It is also possible to upload pictures to a folder on Vspace and designate access to the folder to certain recipients, but this is often cumbersome as the recipient must click on each picture to view it, then return to the folder and click on the next picture. In short, Vspace lacks a convenient interface, like the ones in Webshots or AOL pictures (pictures.aol.com), that allows users to quickly browse through pictures. A simple solution to this would be uploading a Web page onto Vspace that contains an interface for users to browse and view pictures.

Although this sounds complicated, many easy-to-use applications are available for novice users. Adobe Photoshop Album, for example, can create an online photo album from your photo collections that you can upload onto Vspace.

If you are ready to publish your clips or pictures for the world, Vassar’s student Web space operates like Vspace but without encryption. Uploading your album from Adobe to the student Web space would open it for the public to view. The downside is that there is a file size limit on the student Web space of 40 MB, and if your album is too popular, you might be putting a strain on Vassar’s bandwidth. On the other hand, third party solutions, such as Webshots, AOL pictures, Google video (video.google.com), Yahoo Video (video.yahoo.com) and YouTube provides unlimited storage and bandwidth.

With the new phenomenon of unlimited storage and bandwidth emerging on the Internet, it now seems like a good time to move your multimedia files off your local hard drive and onto the global network.