Zip

[Dinonychus]

Forgive me if this has been brought up before, but how can I further zip a file to a smaller size? I have everything in the zip file that I want in there and it's down to about 9MB in size. I want to e-mail this to a friend of mine and my friend is on a phone line, so I want to make this as small as possible before sending it.

[Liamo]

7-zip can compress better, if a little slower, than the usual zip format (depending on the type of the original file). Find it here (v).

Liam

[shanek]

Keep in mind that there are different levels of Zip compression. Make sure you have your Zip compression setting to "Maximum" and see if the files are small enough for you.

Another thing you can do is tell Zip to "span" the files. In this case, you want smaller files that you can e-mail, and Zip can do that. So instead of sending 1 9MB file, you can send 9 1MB files. Whoever you're sending them to can use Zip to put the files back together again once they get all of them. It's an option.

[thrombus29]

You can zip it than RAR it then span it.

I like winRAR best

[LW]

Originally posted by thrombus29
You can zip it than RAR it then span it.

I like winRAR best

To tell the truth, that is not a particularly good piece of advice.

Compressing an already compressed file doesn't usually improve the compression ratio, and may in some extreme cases actually make it worse (especially when using self-extracting archives).

[thrombus29]

I never had it go corrupt on me when I did it with ISO's, but hey mabey I just got lucky.

[shanek]

It's not a matter of it getting corrupted. It just doesn't do you any good, and may even make the filesizes bigger.

Either Zip it or RAR it. There's no point in doing both.

[Jim_MDP]

Either way Dino, at least break it into smaller pieces for your friend.

I'm less than amonth on my DSL and the thought of a 9 meg d/l on dialup is giving me a ulcer. :D

Been there, done it...hate it.

[Yahweh]

If I know computers (which I dont), then I wouldnt think your average mail service would allow you to send a 9 mb file. You are gonna be mighty pissed when send that file and you get an email back featuring a mysterious "MAILER DAEMON" error. I'm not sure if some (free) mail servers allow you to have larger mail boxes than 6 megs (based on the size of my yahoo mailbox).

My experience in sending large files through the internet is excruciating. Bizarre internet errors, "ghost" disconnections from the internet, IE might suddenly crash. I suggest uploading your file to a webserver and giving your friend the URL to download your file. What are the odds other people will find it and download? Virtually zero. Delete the file once you have download confirmation.

[Dinonychus]

I just sent the whole thing in one e-mail. Haven't gotten a thing back about any error, but then I do have RoadRunner and I think that has a limit of 10MB. It's gonna be hell for my friend, though, who's on dial-up.

How would IE crash if we're using Outlook Express? Besides, I use Opera for my browser nowadays. I would think that unless you have a site up already, it would be a waste of time to set up a site just for a transfer of a file of three dozen.

[shanek]

Originally posted by Dinonychus
How would IE crash if we're using Outlook Express? Besides, I use Opera for my browser nowadays.

Doesn't matter. Outlook Express is irrevocably tied to IE.

I would think that unless you have a site up already, it would be a waste of time to set up a site just for a transfer of a file of three dozen.

You could download a filesharing utility and do the same thing. Coordinate with your friend to connect and get it at a certain time, then delete or move it from the shared when you're done.

[Tez]

if youre running XP, you can turn your computer into an ftp server briefly, and just let him ftp the file. The ftp server thing isnt installed by default, but is on the XP CD. You give your friend a username and password and theyre away... For other operating systems you can probably find some freeware program to let you do it...

[Soapy Sam]

Joking aside, for really big data transfers, it may be faster to write a CD and mail it. Depends on the nature of the data and the time involved.