FileHurl

Form Spam Blocked

rhellewell@gmail.com (Rick) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:01:00 +0000

As you may have noticed (all three of you regular readers), we do have a "Comments/Problem" form on our pages. It appears that that form was 'discovered' by an automated form filler program.

I've gotten two 'form spams' via that form. The message was full of random links and text; typical 'comment form' spam. The comment form is not very useful to the spammer, since the mail only goes to me, and the links are not displayed on any of the web pages here.

It was a good opportunity to try out a new spam-blocking technique for forms I found on RiaForge (an open-source community at www.riaforge.org ). A project called "CFFormProtect" does some clever things to ensure a form was filled out by a real person. It's ColdFusion-based (that's what I used to build the FileHurl site), and requires just a few lines of code added to the form page code. So I installed that this weekend.

Since I have only gotten two form spam messages here, it may be that I'll never know that it works -- although I added code there to email me if the automated guy tries again. But it was an interesting technique that will be useful as this place gets more popular and visible.

New Advertising Link

rhellewell@gmail.com (Rick) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:23:00 +0000

Our first affiliate advertising link is now showing up on the right side. Not too obtrusive.

And it's for a product that I can recommend (and that I use). Carbonite on-line backup makes backup copies of files on your computer automatically. It is very unobtrusive, and another layer of protection. There's lots of important files on that computer. If the computer were to 'go away' for any reason, at least the important files will be saved from loss.

Any items advertised around here will be products that I have used (or are using), and can recommend to others. Carbonite is one product that I can unconditionally recommend. I bought a copy for me, and one for my oldest daughter. After all, she's got important pictures of the grandkids to save!

Over 1GB !

rhellewell@gmail.com (Rick) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:43:00 +0000

Our little free file transfer site hit a major milestone! Here's the message from the home page:

"Over 349 File Hurlers have sent 1,155.85 GB of files to 466 people!"

That's right! We've helped people transfer over 1,000 GB (that's a terabyte)! And it was all free. No limits. No hidden signups required. No hidden fees. No transfer speed limits. And no complaints.

In fact, we've gotten a few "atta-boys" from satisfied users.

We haven't been "Slashdotted" yet. That will give us lots of exposure (and lots of traffic). But we think we can handle it. And even when Slashdotted, there won't be any changes in our site.

FileHurl file transfers. We are still free. We are still unlimited file sizes. We don't require any signups. And we are still fast.

FileHurl messages now contain the file name you send

rhellewell@gmail.com (Rick) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:44:00 +0000

I had a nice comment about this place from a FileHurler the other day. He found this place quite useful (thanks!), and suggested that the email message we send out include the name of the file. I cogitated (look it up) on that for a while, and concluded that was a pretty good idea!

The message that we send to your recipients about a FileHurl will now include the name of the file that you send. This might help the recipient verify the file you want them to have. I also suggest that you FileHurlers send a separate message about the file, so that they don't think our message is spam.

I also made some minor changes to the actual message that is sent.

Always looking for suggestions to improve this place. Use the comments here, or send a note via the "Comments" link here: http://www.filehurl.com/fh_Problem.cfm .

Thanks for stopping by! Tell your friends and cow-orkers (see Scott Adams) about this place!

New Buttons and First Support

rhellewell@gmail.com (Rick) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:16:00 +0000

I was playing around with the menu buttons (those things on the left side of all screens), and decided on some slight changes. Still using a typewriter font for the text (because it matches the font used in the page header graphic), but I like these new ones better.

Working on the ad links. They will be affiliate-type links, text only, but only for products that I use or can recommend.

And my first donation made an appearance last weekend, for which I am thankful. It helps with the expenses of running this place. We're at over 300 'hurls', so usage is progressing slowly. I'm waiting for a "Digg" of some sort. I probably could "Digg" myself, but don't think that is quite ethical, so I'll wait for someone else. In the meantime, some tweaking of things in the background to make things a bit more efficient, and hopefully ready for a sudden increase in traffic.

Welcome to FileHurl !

rhellewell@gmail.com (Rick) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:18:00 +0000

FileHurl is the absolutely free place to transfer files of any size. There are no costs, no limits, and no 'pay for more features'. You can use it as much as you want, no limits, no costs, no hidden fees.

That might seem a bit redundant, but we've found lots of supposedly free file transfer places. They all have limits on size, or the number of files you can transfer, or something. If you want unlimited, you have to pay a fee.

Not at FileHurl. Everything is free. All we do is put a little blurb of advertising on the right side of the screen. And we don't put any advertising that we don't believe in. Right now, you'll just see the three other places that we own. There will be some rotating ads in there later (this is a do-it-yourself place, and we haven't done-it-ourselves yet).

We also don't keep or sell anything. We don't (and never will) share your email address. We won't (and never will) share any of the files you share, nor will we look at them (unless required by law). And your files (and email information) go away after about seven days.

We always open to comments and suggestions. We'll post them here without editing (removing any spammy stuff).

All we ask is that you be responsible in your use -- see our "Terms" page. And that you tell others about this place. You can also use the links at the bottom of the pages to share with others. And a donation now and again to help offset costs are always appreciated -- but never required.

Enjoy!