I am a paid user that started with you guys in early 2010 after suffering data loss on an internal system.  I am a believer in your service and it has worked well for me.  Now, I'm looking for the best way to implement another feature using your service.  Here's my situation.

I have about 7,800 small sized (85KB each +/-) pdf files that I create for clients each quarter.  They take up about 650MB on my internal disk.  The individual files need to be available for specific clients to download, via a link that I will send them using email.  One specific link = 1 specific file.  Only a few will actually get downloaded, and most of them will never be downloaded, in any given quarter.  The problem is that I can't tell in advance which ones the clients will need to download so I must create and make available all of them.  Any client may download one or more of the files, but only the specific ones that relate to their business with me.

I use a very specific naming convention in order to keep the files organized.  With a standard URL structure, I can see how I could email them a link that would give access the the proper file(s). 

2 Questions.

1) What's the best way to set this up?

2) Is it possible to limit the life of the link, or the number of downloads?

Thanks.

Howard

Based on your info, I would recommend using our group account service. The group account service is designed for businesses, or a group of people that need to share / collaborate files. It is extremely powerful and flexible. To become a group account, you can logon www.drivehq.com, go to My Account, then click on Group Account. You can become a group account for free.

Once you become a group account, you can use the Group Admin feature to create/add/edit/delete/disable sub-users. The free group account service only offers one free sub-user license. You can order more sub-user licenses for only $6/user/year. 

Now you can:

(1) Create folders in your own account, then share different folders to different sub-users with different levels of permissions. Your sub-users can logon and access the folders you shared in the special virtual folder:

    \DriveHQ Share\YOUR_USERNAME\SHARE_NAME

Each sub-user can only access the folder(s) shared to him / her.

Please note sub-users use your account storage space and download bytes when they upload / download files in your shared folders.

(2) You can also allocate storage space and download bytes to your sub-users. Each sub-user has its own "private" My Storage virtual folder. As the group owner account, you have full control over sub-user accounts. You can reset username / password; you can log on as a sub-user. You can upload files to sub-user accounts for sub-users to download. 

(3) Without using Group Account service, you can use DriveHQ FileManager client software to upload files to your DriveHQ Online Storage. Then select a folder and click on Share or Publish. If you want to share the folder, you must enter the email addresses of the persons who you want to share with. Other users must click on the Share link and input their email address to access the shared folder. 

If you publish the folder, it will create publish URLs to the folder and files in it. Publish URLs can be accessed by anybody. DriveHQ membership is not required. Publish URLs can also be used in any web pages / websites for linking to files in your DriveHQ account.

Question #1; I'd like for our clients to enter our website www.zmkconstruction.com and click on a link that will redirect them to a file that is entended to be shared for them.  Is this possible? 

Question #2; When i create a sub user in the user manager and the sub user has already signed up with DriveQ.  It promps me with this name and email is not available or has been used.  What can i do to change that?  Thanks

>>>  Question #1; I'd like for our clients to enter our website www.zmkconstruction.com and click on a link that will redirect them to a file that is entended to be shared for them.  Is this possible? 

I assume you want to create static links to your files? If so, you can easily upload your files to the wwwhome folder. Your files can be accessed at:

http://USERNAME.drivehq.com/FILENAME  (If your website is not published, or failed, you can logon DriveHQ.com, go to My Storage --> Publish --> Publish My Website --> Enable / Disable to disable it and then re-enable it.)

>>> Question #2; When i create a sub user in the user manager and the sub user has already signed up with DriveQ.  It promps me with this name and email is not available or has been used.  What can i do to change that?  Thanks

First of all, please note usernames are for all DriveHQ users, not just for your group account. So popular usernames might have been used as DriveHQ has a very big user base.

If you want to create a sub-user account, and if the person has already signed up a DriveHQ account, then you can add him / her as your sub-user. From the Group Admin page, click on Add User link to add an existing user. The system will send an invitation email to the user, and he / she must explicitly agree to be added to your group. Once the user joins your group, you have full control over the sub-user.

I have a free account but am about to pay for 1 GB of FTP storage (paid member).  But first I have a question.

If I upload a file (say myfile.pdf) is it possible to create a very simple link that starts with ftp://

I'd like to write an email that includes this kind of simple public link: ftp:// .......myfile.pdf.

Dear Customer,