How often do you get someone say "I have a file that is 10MB+, can I send it to you via email?" and it's over the size that you or your email provider can accept. You don't want to try and teach them how to zip a file into smaller chunks or burn to CD and send via snail mail. So...

So the workaround is to install an FTP server on your Linux gateway and send details to the person wanting to send you the file.

Back in the IE6 days when you entered a URL like ftp://hostname.mydomain.com.au you got the "Windows Explorer" view straight up, which allows you to send and receive files to the FTP server.

However now that IE7 has arrived, you just get a plain old web page style FTP interface which doesn't allow for uploads. The work around, which I didn't know until I actually logged into a computer with IE7 on it, is to click "View" or "Page" then "Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer". This will then give you the good old read/write FTP environment.

Another workaround is to tell them to download FileZilla FTP Client... But sometimes time is of the essence.