What are the upsides to using an FTP server (hosted by a third party) to transfer (and maybe store) files when compared to just sending through email? The language of choice is C#.
Email looks easier to implement and if it was going to Gmail then server hosting and upkeep would not be a worry. However, I am not experienced with FTP servers and don't know how big of deal setup and upkeep is on them. All that is being sent is a bunch of text files, most likely each under 1 MB. Security is not a big deal at this point, but I am curious which is more secure without doing a lot of extra setup work.
Emailing means you have no guarantee that the file is received at the other end, or in a timely manner. Maybe this is not important for you? Emailing certainly would be easier to program up compared to FTP.
On the other hand if you use one of the many FTP libraries available for .NET then have complete control. You could include the library in a C# windows service to do the transferring seamlessly for you including exception (error) processing and notification.
Personally I'd take the opportunity to learn about FTP (its easy). You would of course require a FTP service to be setup on your server. All part of the learning.
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