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Computing  Receiving File Transfers

"Anonymous" file transfer is the term used where the person initiating the transfer doesn't have a username and password for our system (note that the procedure isn't truely anonymous; our server keeps records of which network addresses have been used to upload and download files).

This facility provides a way for members of the Department to receive files from other organizations. It is particularly useful in cases where the files are too large to be sent as e-mail attachments. The anonymous user can only send files ("upload"), and only authenticated users with Departmental network accounts can receive them ("download"). If, as a member of the Department, you want to make files available for download by anonymous users then you should put the files in your personal web space on the Departmenal server and send the URL to the intended recipient. See the page File Distribution Using the Web Server for more information.

The anonymous file transfer facility can be found at:

The person sending the files from outside the Department uses the "Upload files" link. This gives them an HTML form that they can use to send files to our server. This page also gives them a random six digit reference number for their upload. The sender emails this number to the person in the Department who is supposed to receive the files.

The member of the Department who is receiving the files uses the "Download files" link on the file transfer page, logs in with any valid Physiology username and password, and is then prompted for the reference number. If they enter a valid number then links to the files in temporary storage are presented to them, allowing copies of the files to be saved to local hard disk or network drive.

Files stored in the temporary storage area remain available for seven days following their initial upload (and can be downloaded multiple times during that week), and are then unconditionally deleted.

A total of 1.5Gbyte of space is available in the temporary storage area. The upload page tells potential senders how much of this space is still available at any one time. If you need to transfer more data than there is space available, or if an upload that you are intending to send will consume a large proportion of the remaining space, then please notify us by email to computing@physiol.ox.ac.uk