FTPViaSMTP

The Problem

Many clients need to send or receive large files which cannot be sent via email because typically most email servers wither not send or receive files larger than 10MB.  Of course the obvious thing is to use an FTP site.  But maintaining an FTP site and the permissions of who has access to which files, especially if there are many files and many people is a burden to maintain.

The Solution

The FTPViaSMTP system still uses FTP to actuall transfer files local users use an intranet web-site which allows the user to enter a single or multiple email addresses, browse to a file, and set an expiration date.  The system generates a 64 character password and sends that as a hyperlink embedded within an email to the recipients.  The recipient then simply clicks on the hyperlink which sends the file specification and the password back to the system which verifies the file, password and that the expiration date has not passed.  If everything passes the file begins to download via FTP.

When an internal user is to receive a file, the external user can go to the public internet portion of the the system's web-site.  There the external user can choose from a drop list of internal users.  They can then upload thier file and the system will generate the same type of email with a 64 character and send it to the internal user.

Once the time for a file has expired the file is automatically deleted of the FTP server and the record of the file is deleted from the database.