Question. I make a LOT of tutorials and presentations for my students i teach and others as well. I do NOT want to upload them to you tube. As of now i am uploading to my cloud account and then giving a link to people to download them. But how would i make a server at home where i can keep all the files and then just give a link to a person for them to download the file?

this way i do not have to wait the 45 minutes to upload the videos to my drop box account?

I used to have an sftp server but my inlaws do not know the firdt thing about using a ftp client haha. I just want to give them the link to my gimp tutorials and call it good.

thanks

Matt

I made a server out of an old P-III system I had lying around. Loaded my favorite distro, ran Apache, configured my router to direct http requests to the server, built a few web pages, loaded everything I wanted to share onto the server, then gave people a URL to go to. Something like this isn't too difficult to put together.

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If you are asking about the software behind this, then you could use Owncloud.

http://owncloud.org/

if you are going to setup an owncloud server, please be aware that it is very heavy resource hog. you will need a modern computer to run that with any kind of good performance.

Otherwise why not just host a simple Apache Server on any old hardware you have laying around. If the students will only be downloading files then that is a very simple way to handle things. do remember you will need to either have a static IP, or get a working DDNS account and that you will need to map port 80, or some other port of your choosing to your Apache server.

yeah im totally cool with just a plain server. I used to have a LAMP server but that was a while back. What i am not familular with is how to set up the option of just giving them the link to the actual file they can navigate to in either IE or Firefox and it will download the tutorial avi for them or whatever the file is.

For example, when im at gimp.org and i hit download, it opens up the window to save it, and if i were to right clik on the download link, i would be able to copy it and email it to someone. haha. thanks

thats all in how you code the page, but to be blunt it sounds like you just need to put the files in your "web" directory, set the permissions, and get Apache up and running as described above.

Depending on your distro, there should be plenty of howto guides for installing and configuring a basic Apache web server.

Ok, so i just made a simple ftp server using filezilla, yes its on a windows box for the momnt untill i get a linux one built and ready. FTP servers i have had in past, they are cool but now im trying to make a web gui front end for it so that people dont have to download a client or try and configure firefox or IE or safrie to connect to it.

im thinkin the best way may be what you have all sugessted, make a web page and just have them download BUT i would want usernames and passwords. I do have a 50gb file hosting account but the reason i am making my own, i hate uploading the large files to it, it is easier to have my family and students download the tutorials from a server than for me to upload them and send them the links. haha

thanks

if this is at home
check with your ISP
likely you will NEED to buy a business internet connection for your house

also be aware that unless you have a gig+ fiber connection
if one or more of your students are downloading something
YOUR upload speed is there MAX download
and can even stop YOU from checking just your email

2 or 3 people downloading two or three different videos on a 768 K upload connection
This will be dead slow for your students
and you will end up waiting for 5 min. just for google to display a page

yeah i checked to make sure the upload speeds were adequate for at least 2-3 people. I may not have students get the videos this way because of school policy and it is easier for me to bring a thumb drive. But i will be having my inlaws on it since they live out of town.

In fact, i think i will keep it family until it is all built and tested.

thnaks for all the info. I am now choosing to either keep the ftp server or use apache and put all the files in the web directory. im not sure yet haha.

thanks