Back in November we took a look at a promising new service that lets you send large files to friends or colleagues without using an instant messenger, FTP site, or web parking service like YouSendIt. PipeBytes lets you establish a direct connection with another user. All you do is select a file you want to upload and PipeBytes will give you a code to share with a friend who will be able to download that file directly from your PC.

At launch the service was completely advertising supported. But a funny thing happened when we went to try it again the other night. We noticed our file transfer was going extraordinarily slowly. Like 128Kbps slow.

It turns out PipeByes has decided that playing YouTube videos with advertisements wasn't paying the bills and the service is capping your upload/download speeds unless you pay for faster service. We suppose that's fair enough, and $0.99 for a one day speed pass that bumps your transfer speeds up to 1.5Mbps seems reasonable. But we can't imagine why anyone would pay $19.99 a month when they could set up an FTP server for free.

Our prediction: PipeBytes will either have to increase its 128Kbps cap on free transfers to attract more regular users or the service will ride off into obscurity.

Ever need to send a file to a friend, relative, or colleague, only to be stymied by your email provider's 10 or 20MB file attachment limit? There are plenty of sites out there that help you get around this restriction, including YouSendIt, MailBigFile, and Driveway. But while each site lets you send large files, there's still a cap on free file transfers.

PipeBytes doesn't cap your file transfers, because PipeBytes doesn't actually have to save anything on its own servers. The service basically helps you connect with one other user at a time. Just click the "Send File" button, choose the file you want to send, and PipeBytes spits out a code. Give that code to the person you want to send the file to, and they can initiate the transfer by clicking "Pickup File."

The upshot of the service is that you can send pretty much anything you want over the internet for free. The downside is you can't close your browser window. So really, PipeBytes is a lot like sending your friend a file using your instant messenger client -- but you don't have to make sure s/he uses the same instant messenger as you.

The site appears to be advertising supported. While you're waiting for your file to transfer, PipeBytes shows you YouTube videos with AdSense embedded.

[via Read/WriteWeb]