Hi,

I am looking for good free software to send large files to a friend. I have tried Skype, but it was too slow, so I am looking for something that basically only uses the two PCs, some software, and no third party or server. We can figure out our IPs, if that would be a step to eliminating a 3rd party or service.

I have searched the internet for terms like P2P, private P2P, F2F, SFTP, etc., and I'm just more confused! What's free and rocks? It's not for music or multiple users, just for 2 users and big documents.


Software Requirements:

* Secure
* Free or open source
* Both Linux (for me) and Windows versions (for my friend)
* Good GUI, easy to use (no command line)


Thank you for your help,
NewKubuntuGuy

Well I would suggest using ssh/scp. There are graphical windows clients (winscp is great) and servers (several, cli and gui) and in linux if you have ssh open and haven't disabled it its already setup server wise and then you can use just about any client (filezilla, and even knoq, dolphin, etc if memory serves me.)

I'd note even doing this commandline is trivial--

push to host
pull from host

1 members found this post helpful.

I appreciate your reply. It still sounds complicated. I can go with a big popular service if the speed is OK. I do like open source stuff and linux though.

You have a number of options. One is a secure connection. Another is to encrypt the files and not care so much.

Secure connections tend to be based a bit on the transfer method. Like one might make a https server and secure connection that way or ssh to a ftp share or some other vpn to some transfer means.


PGP and GPG and KGPG are ways to encrypt files along with more simple means. It will be faster most likely if you have encrypted the files first if you demand transfer speed as sole reason. All vpn's tend to have some overhead.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,

As far as I know most modern filebrowsers have built in scp/rsync functionality. You will just need to set up an ssh server (just install the package: probably called openssh-server in ubuntu), then as long as you have an account and know the IP address of the remote machine running the ssh server you can copy the files in much the same way you copy local files in the filebrowser.

Cheers,

Evo2.

PS. Please don't ask me for detailed instructions on how to use your file browser: I dislike and don't use file browsers.
PPS. Your post says you don't want to use a server: that is asking the impossible, any program that accepts connections in the fashion that you want, is - by definition - a server.

That may be simplest for me, since my friend is not very advanced beyond Windows basics and he's very busy. I have used TrueCrypt and I think it's awesome. Anyone reading this, I highly recommend it. Great simple program.

So, if I encrypt first, it would simpler, but then: How to send large files? Should I use a web service or server? Usually they're not so big, but occasionally it would be nice to send a video without using youtube or whatever to do it.

Have thought of using Opera Unite ?.

in the latest version of Opera, V10, you simply setup a link to the file or photo to share,
& send the link to your friend.
They can use any O/S or browser to get the file(s).

it's secure, as only the person who knows that url link can grab the file(s).
you can even pwd the link.

http://unite.opera.com/support/

I found this list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...t_replacements

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...aring_software

As already pierre2 said Opera unite is a good option.

Use GPG first if you want to encrypt the file - never tried before the windows version, but according to http://www.gnupg.org/related_softwar...tends.html#gui there should be a good windows GUI, directly integrated in the windows shell.

Alternative you can also use Skype for file sending. Or a similar chat client.

Thanks for your response. My search was stimulated by the fact that I tried SKYPE and it seems so SLOW. It seems others have noticed that.

I know how to encrypt with TrueCrypt, so I guess I am wondering how to send big files easily.

A slow connection could be a result of an async network speed. You might be able to download at 1MB and upload at 50k.. so sending a big file will take forever. What kind of connection are you on?

Many of the messengers can transfer files directly. As above skype might be used. Opera may be a good solution as is Acrobat.com's connectnow and maybe hamachi.

If you are using kubuntu then you may already have kgpg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGPG http://utils.kde.org/projects/kgpg/

I agree that many home isp's offer a much slower upload speed, no matter how fast down is you can't change up speeds.

NewKubuntuGuy, in one of your links above dropbox is mentioned. i use it and i like it (because it is easy). you also may use it without nautilus:
http://www.zeroathome.de/wordpress/d...lus-verwenden/
(translate it online).
but from what i heard ubuntus cloud is kind of a fork of it (not sure if it works with kubuntu too).
I use it to store my config files, so if setting up a new OS i just open it in the browser and download the configs i need. as far i know you can't upload/store encrypted files (i tried with gpg).
adrive does allow upload of encrypted files. i like it too, but for me its a bit confusing.

my ISP offers a service called GigaMail ( i upload a huge file, send a mail to my pal, he may download it afterwards). as it took me a while to find out you may check if yours has got something similar).

as already said: an instant-messanger might be a choice too...

Thanks.

The connection is about

7000 kbps down
3000 kbps up

I just tried Skype with another friend and it was fast, so the one recipient may have had a crappy network path or something...

Any encryption software including TrueCrypt randomises data thus making it incompressible; there is likely to be compression somewhere along whatever "damp string" connects you and your friend. Thus an encrypted file will take longer to transmit. The solution is to compress before encrypting.