File Sharing Solutions Needed

paidbythehour · 09-02-2009, 01:19 PM

Hi there,

I'm looking for a light-weight piece of software that my friends and I can use to share data.

Currently, I am accomplishing this with sftp. My friends aren't tech-savvy, and I'm constantly reminding them on how to use FTP clients. I'd rather use something web-based, accessible to newbs, and hopefully easier on the eyes.

My resources are limited. I am using a D-Link DNS323, which runs at 500mhz with 2 X 32mb's of RAM. I am already running lighttpd, samba, nfs, and transmission, but I've never had a problem with system resources.

I've found a couple possible solutions, but I wanted to toss this out to the LQ community for your insight.

Suggestions? Remember: light-weight, web-based, and a newb-friendly UI.

Thanks!

EricTRA · 09-02-2009, 01:26 PM

Hi,

Why would you install anything new when you already have samba running? If you configure samba correctly your friends can browse the files you have in the share(s) in their explorer. What could be easier and more user friendly?

Kind regards,

Eric

i92guboj · 09-02-2009, 01:33 PM

Are you only serving files or do they also need to be able to upload their own to your server?

paidbythehour · 09-03-2009, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EricTRA

Hi,

Why would you install anything new when you already have samba running? If you configure samba correctly your friends can browse the files you have in the share(s) in their explorer. What could be easier and more user friendly?

Samba over WAN? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the security issues involved with that. Do you mean over a VPN? Let me know where you're going with this.

i92guboj, my friends will be uploading content as well. Basically, I want something that functions similar to sftp (uploading, downloading, modifying), but is web-based and easy for my mom to use

i92guboj · 09-03-2009, 08:55 AM

If you want something that's web based, I'd check hotscripts.com, you'll probably find what you are looking for in the php subsection.

However I really don't understand what the problem with (s)ftp is. Once you set up an ftp client like filezilla, all you need to do to connect is to click a button. A web front-end will not be any easier than that... The setup happens just one time, then just click.

If you truly value security, however, I'd rather drop both web based solutions and ftp altogether, and use ssh. WinSCP is a very capable and easy to use client if they are using Windows. The same: just setup it one time, then forget that you are even using ssh at all.