I've got a video clip taken during my recent holiday that I want to send to family and friends, but it's about 12MB in size, way too large for e-mail! Are there any alternatives?

I'm sure there are many alternatives that you can use, but I'm just going to focus on two here — one cumbersome and one not so cumbersome.

Let's do the easy one first: it's called www.yousendit.com. This website allows you to send a file of up to 50MB in size to any e-mail address. Basically what happens is that you upload the file to their server, which then sends a link to your friend's e-mail address from where he/she can then download it onto their computer again, sidestepping the whole sending-a-pig-sized-file-via-email but still using e-mail as a communication tool.

The other option, which is slightly more cumbersome, is to use WinZip's split function and then mail the pieces one by one via separate e-mails (I told you it was cumbersome!)

First you need to download WinZip and install it on your PC. After installing WinZip, follow these instructions to zip and split the file:

  1. In Windows Explorer, right click on the file you want to Zip and select the "WinZip" option and then the sub-option that says something in the like of "Add to 'filename.zip'".
  2. If you're using the evaluation version of WinZip (i.e. you didn't buy it) a WinZip pop-up screen will appear — click on "Use Evaluation Version".
  3. A WinZip file is created and it will appear at the bottom of your file list in Windows Explorer.
  4. Double-click on this file.
  5. Bypass the pop-up screen again.
  6. A WinZip screen now appears that shows you the contents of your zipped file. Highlight the file in the window by single-clicking on it.
  7. Now go to "Actions" and select "Split".
  8. A "save in" window now appears.
  9. Give your new split file a name (it has to be a different one to the one you're using now).
  10. Select the size of the individually split files. Select "Other size" from the "Part size" drop-down menu, then type in the size (usually 1-2 MB is a good bet) and then select size type on the right, i.e. "MB".
  11. When you're done with this, click on "OK".
  12. A series of files are now created and a notification screen appears. Click on "OK".
  13. Close the WinZip window.
  14. Now attach each file in a separate e-mail and send it to family/friends/dodgy characters. Make sure you don't include the originally zipped file in your mails or the whole exercise will be mute.
  15. Your mate on the other end needs to have WinZip installed and have all the files in one folder on their PC. To unzip/unsplit the file, they must double-click on the "filename.zip" file. This will open the WinZip window. Simply drag and drop the file from the WinZip window onto your Windows Explorer or Desktop. The file will automatically be unzipped.
  16. Clap yourself on the back for doing a stellar job of computer usage. The fact that the whole exercise could have been avoided by using www.yousendit.com is irrelevant because then you wouldn't have had so much fun figuring out some cool computer stuff.

And that, is that.

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