Does anyone know of a FREE file-sharing website where I can just set up a domain (or something to that effect), and upload whatever files I want onto it, and set up accounts so that only authorized persons can download those files?

So it could just work something like FTP, but I don't want to have to run a server on my own computer. And ideally it would be nice if it's secure and private.

Isn't Dropbox essentially what you're describing?

DropBox, I think. Not sure if the access expires after a while, though.

How much storage do you need? As mentioned, Dropbox will do exactly what you want, but I believe you only get 2 GB of storage free.

I don't believe dropbox will let you addon a domain like that. Probably could forward a domain to theirs but that's something you're going to have to figure out for yourself. Not trying to pass you off but every domain registar is different and forwarding is one of those options that every one does differently.

For me, I just pay $50/ year for a cheap vps with a large drive and low memory. Works for me. I have a couple seedboxes as well but those were setup for testing file serving for websites as a CDN.

edit: There used to be a large number of free file servers that gave you small amounts and encouraged you to upgrade but all of them that I knew have ended their programs. Some of them rather abruptly.

wetransfer works pretty well for one-time shares, i think the free version has a 2gb per upload limit which is pretty generous, they only stay up for a week though.

Also, totally private and discrete i'm sure: google drive actually works really well and offers 15GB space... ;)

If you want really private... you're own server is the key. It's really not that hard to set up. But not free.

Otherwise, if "a little private" is enough, as others suggested go for Dropbox, or Google Drive. MEGA might also be an option, but I've not looked into it yet.

Oh, and I just looked up Dropbox, and I'm not sure it's what I want, because it says it synchronizes the files with my hard drive. I just want something where I can upload and download files to a server as long as I have a valid login, and that I can make however many login accounts I want.

So basically something like an FTP site that somebody else hosts and partitions their space into chunks for each "site" or whatever it would be called, and also allows user accounts (for logging in and accessing files) to be created for each "site" by a superuser with a specific account (the one that was set up for that "site" partition).

Does that make sense?

No.

Except you want these files on the server and NOT on your local HDD.

And yes.

If you want to upload files from several local locations. But seriously--- HDD space is really cheap nowadays. Depending on what you want to upload, it shouldn't be a problem to have file doubles on your HDD - one sorted in and one in the Dropbox Folder.

While I don't know about Dropbox (I thought I had an account to go check how it works, but I can't find it in my password database, so apparently I don't have one), I do know that you don't need to use the syncing application for Google Drive but can use it just through a web browser.

Also, while you can't create accounts just for your drive, you can give read or read/write access for a file or folder to either "anyone with the link" (ie, you create a sharing link, and give that to those who you want to give access to) or to any Google account (they'll see your shared stuff when they log in to their account and view their drive).

I know you mentioned you didn't want to run a server but if you have Python installed you might be interested in woof. It basically sets up a temporary web server (accessible only to LAN) so that you can transfer files between systems. This can be done either via command line or a graphical web interface.

Which is exactly what Dropbox is. You can use it for automatic synchronization of files but you don't have to. You can also just drag and drop files there, set up shared folders and manage the access rights of each user for every individual folder/file in your Dropbox.

If you host a lot of hefty files like I do, but dont want to pay, just start up an account with everyone! So far I've got Microsoft's One Drive, Google's G-Drive, Dropbox, and I'm pretty sure there was another one but I forgot what it is called.

Please read this carefully: It MUST be 100% FREE and I can NOT have it synchronized with my hard drive. I've tried to make this as clear as possible.

As for everything/everyone else:

I don't trust Google at all and I deplore their handling of private information.

Having a private link isn't good enough; it needs to be login accounts.

I can't rely on Python or anything like that being installed because many of the people who will be using this are not tech savvy and I don't want to expect them to install anything.

TheNerdyPlane: are you implying there's a thing called "everyone"?

Randalator: if the Dropbox synchronization is optional, that might be a good one then!


by the way, I've found a page on Wikipedia that might help me, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_hosting_services

So maybe I'll just read about them and compare. But if anyone has any more suggestions that conform to the restrictions I've explained (I don't think I'm being too picky, I just need it to work in a certain way), I'd be happy to hear them.

But in any case, thanks for the suggestions!