skelley1 — Mon, 21 Oct 2002 07:30:34 +0000

I appreciate all the thought that everyone has put into this. I was hoping I was missing something simple. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and let the customer know that this particular solution will require a bit more money than a basic website with a fancy form. Unfortunately the programming of this particular job is over my head, and I don't have time to learn it. I'll have to outsource this work. I wish I had an idea as to how much it would cost for a workable solution to this before I talk to him again. I would hate to waste the next few days finding someone reliable who could do it for a reasonable price and then find out it is out of his budget. Oh well, cost of doing business, I guess.

number 2 is my vote at this point as well. Maybe I'll get lucky and the data will be able to be broken into different parts.

Mark Hensler — Sun, 20 Oct 2002 04:31:43 +0000

My ISP limits upload to 40Kbps per stream.

Wil — Sun, 20 Oct 2002 00:20:10 +0000

SCP .. SFTP ?

zollet — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 23:26:21 +0000

I'm wondering, are all clients on a fast connection? A lot of ISPs offer a lot slower upload speed than download speed. 350MB can take hours to upload/download depending on the connection speed.

But I guess it's better than waiting days for a CD.

Suzanne — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 22:41:36 +0000

It may be an initial cost that would resolve a host of troubles and future costs, that's for sure.

I hear your dilemma, yes indeedy. The client is asking for something that cannot be done without incurring significant development cost, or paying for a third party license. You can't get totally custom solutions for free. :/

Good luck!

skelley1 — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 18:33:38 +0000

I have servers, design and consult, and host resellers with my extra disk space and bandwidth. I have enough clients that it makes more sense to own my own servers. The client in this case is not a webmaster, it is the ceo of a small business, and also a neighbor of mine.

File transfer cost is a consideration, but built in to the cost of his hosting, which would then go to me. I realize I can't make it free at all, but it would make more business sense to have the cost of transfer be billable to me and not passed on to someone else, especially if I can do it cheaper. I actually should have worded it tha there be no recurring charges external to the web solution, if possible. The cost of transfer would be even double what you listed above if they outsource the testing. When we hit on a solution, this transfer cost will be part of the decision. We would just like to make sure we are making the best decision, and not just a workable decision. My bulk bandwidth transfer cost is extremely cheap.

Sending the file back is also a problem. We may end up just having to have each client get something like WS_FTP pro and come up with or find a tutorial.

Mark Hensler — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 18:00:28 +0000

Quote: Originally posted by skelley1
Unfortunately, a consultant won't stay in business very long if, when a client comes to him to come up with an answer to his problem, he tells him that it's not his responsibility and they need to find their own solution. If he comes up with his own solution, he won't pay me, he'll pay the other person who tells him. He doesn't know an tag from an alternator.

I didn't know you were a consultant. I thought you were simply a host.

Quote: Originally posted by skelley1
- No recurring costs to the transfer of the data.

Bandwidth is a recurring cost.

  350MB upload
+ 350MB download
-----------------
  700MB to get data from sleep center to your client
+ 700MB to get data from client to sleep center
-----------------
  1.4GB per case study
x how many case studies per month?

'I'm assusming that your client will be sending the data back. Would that be the case if FTP is the method chosen?

Peter J. Boettcher — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 16:18:51 +0000

A simple upload script is going to be very inconsistent with such a large file, net traffic, server loads, etc. will cause uploads to become corrupt or fail before completion. I think all your options have been clearly stated:

1) Use FTP
2) Develop a program that uses an applet/control on the client to connect directly to the server for more reliable uploads
3) Change the clients application to be web based, so instead of saving all the info to CD they login to a website and enter it there. Then all the data would be centralized.
4) Take your chances with upload script (not recommended for such large files)
5) Tape the CDs to pigeons...

I would go with number 2 but that will require some development.

taff — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 11:24:30 +0000

350 meg per user is a heck of a lot of data. How many users are we talking about?

It is hard to make guesses without all the details but need this data be transfered at all? How about a web-based scoring system of some sort where the "scorers" log in to your clients site to do their work. No idea if this is feasible for you, just trying to gove you options

zollet — Sat, 19 Oct 2002 08:33:03 +0000

You could also find someone to custom-build you a Java FTP applet where all your customers need to do is to go to the URL and press YES on the popup that asks if they want to install the applet. This way you can tell the developer to make it really simple with the GUI that you want/need. Another option would be to pay someone to create a simple, easy to use and customized FTP client for Windows and put it on your website where people can download and install.

Just some ideas...