DropBox is a way that you can share large files, which are typically too large to send via e-mail, with users both inside and outside of Olin College. It is intended to be a more user-friendly replacement for traditional FTP services.

If you are a member of the Olin community, you may share files with people outside of Olin. If you wish to share files with other Olin users, please use the Sandbox and/or Public file shares. DropBox does not support intra-Olin file sharing at this time. If you are an outside user, you may share files with Olin users only.

DropBox is available at http://dropbox.olin.edu. If you are a member of the Olin community and want to share files with someone outside of Olin, you can log in to the community site using your network credentials by selecting “I am a member of the Olin community and want to send files to someone outside Olin”. If you are not a member of the Olin community and want to share files with someone who is, visit the external site by selecting “I am an outside user and want to send files to someone with Olin,” and then click on the “Sign Up” button in the toolbar to create your accout. If you have any difficulty with the anti-spam verification area, you may press the refresh icon ( ) to receive a new pair of words. Once your account has been created, click on the “Login” button, also located in the toolbar. If you created an account previously but do not remember your login password, click on the “Lost Details” button.

The DropBox interface consists of several elements: The toolbar Contains actions that are available from any page. The item pane The largest area on the screen. Displays folders, uploaded files, and actions that you may take on them. The views pane The upper left pane. Changes the display of items in the item pane. The list view will hide folder actions, so be sure to switch to another view if you need to use them. The folders pane The lower left pane. Displays a hierarchical view of your folders.

To upload a file, click on “Upload Files” in the toolbar. To specify a file to upload, click on one of the “Browse…” buttons and then select the file on your computer. You can upload up to 5 separate files at once. When you are ready to upload, click on “Upload”. A new window will open while your upload is in progress. The window will automatically close after your upload has completed successfully and your file(s) have been scanned for viruses. Unfortunately, DropBox cannot provide an upload progress bar at this time. Please note that there is a 500 MB per file upload limit. If the upload window never closes, or your upload never seems to complete, it is likely that your file is larger than the limit. All uploaded files will be automatically removed after 7 calendar days.Information Technology

When you send files to someone using DropBox, no files are ever sent through email. Instead, DropBox utilizes a mechanism known as FileMail. FileMail creates a unique, secure link to the file you wish to send, and then emails that link to the recipients of your choosing. All your recipients need to do is click on the link in the email they receive, and they can download the file using any standard web browser, with no account creation or login required. All FileMail links expire after a maximum of 3 days. To use FileMail, first locate the file you wish to send in the item pane and click on it. The item pane will display a list of actions you can take on that file. To send the file to someone, click on “FileMail”. The fields listed on the FileMail form are: Expires in The download link that your recipient receives will be available for this number of days, up to a maximum of 3. Remind Send an email reminder before the download link expires. Create link only Create a download link, but do not email it to anyone. Receive Download Notification Email When your file is downloaded, you will be sent an email notifying you. Email Address The email address of the person you are sending your file to. You can specify multiple recipients by separating the addresses with commas. Subject The subject of the email that will be sent. Message Optional message text which will be sent along with the download link information. If you a member of the Olin community, files may only be sent to addresses outside the olin.edu domain. Non-Olin users may send files to valid olin.edu addresses only.

To logout, click the “Logout” button in the toolbar, and then close all your browser windows. Make sure to explicitly log out of DropBox to avoid having your login credentials cached by your web browser.