Are One-Click Hosting Services Safe?

Upload With a Click

The way these services work involves the user visiting the provider's site and with one click you upload a file to the host's server free of charge. The provider gives the user a URL that can be shared with people who need or want to access the file and presto - free file sharing. Perhaps you're on vacation and you want to share your photos with friends before you return, or you're on the road for your company and you want your secretary to access your expense reports from a secure site - these services can be the answer. They avoid the problem of having large files rejected by e-mail providers or of sending a large file and clogging up the recipient's e-mail account.

There are many companies offering such free services, which they support through selling advertising on their sites and on your messages. They also offer premium service for those who want to send large files on a regular basis.

Two-Day to Lifetime Memberships

One of the providers, megaupload.com, offers a two-day premium membership for $4.99, a one-month membership for $9.99, six months for $39.99, one year for $59.99 and a lifetime membership for $99.99. The paid service returns the highest download speed available, the download starts instantly, the maximum upload size per file is 2 GB (compared to 250 MB for the free service), files can be password protected, and can be sent to more than 1,000 recipients. In addition, Megaupload also has a reward program that pays cash to uploaders. The more popular your files are, the more money you make. The provider earns revenue by having more visits to his site, with more people seeing the ads and more clicking through on them.