When it comes to file sharing, the first thing that comes to people’s mind is definitely RapidShare. Probably they are one of the first website that offers free file upload and download service, that’s why they are so well known today. There are many other similar websites such as Megaupload, Hotfile, FileFactory, which offers very similar features such as free user downloading or premium user downloading that has faster download speed and less restriction.
One of the new file hosting website that I discovered is from Hide My Ass! or HMA! in short. Initially they only offer free web based proxy service where you can bypass web restriction on websites by pretending that you’re a US surfer (since the server is located in US). Then they started offering paid VPN service called HMA! Pro VPN which has 5000+ IP’s on 50+ servers at US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Portugal and Singapore.
Hide My Ass also has a free file and image hosting service with very useful privacy features.
First of all, HMA File Hosting accepts a maximum size of 400MB per file or 15MB for image and the file will be available as long as there are downloads within 30 days. Everyone has the same rights to upload and download because there are no such thing as free or premium users. The good thing about HMA file hosting is you won’t be bombarded by advertisements or having to wait for an amount of seconds for the download link to appear.
The impressive feature that is not found in most if not all file hosting websites is the privacy options. The uploader is able to set if a password is required to download the file or image, restriction based on country, ip range, website referrer or even user-agent. User-Agent is a string containing information about your computer such as your browser type, version, operating system and etc. To access this options, all you need to do is click on the link that says “View optional advanced privacy options (recommended)”.
I don’t really have a very fast connection so I can tell what is the maximum speed of uploading and downloading. However I can confirm that I was able to upload at 40KBps and download at 150KBps because that is the maximum speed of my internet connection.
The official website says that this service is in beta and from what I see at the HMA forums, this service has been around since 2008. Do give it a try and share your opinion on this free file hosting service.
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