sharing files
 

I have a movie file of 1.3gb and would like a friend of mine to be able to connect to my pc and download the file, (he is using a windows pc) what is the simplest way of achieving this ?

Here's one way to do it:

Create a directory called public_html under your home directory, and put the file there.
Start up apache (you may need to give the whole path to apachectl; use “locate apachectl” to find it). (You may also need to install apache from your distro's install CDs or http://www.rpmfind.net/)
Now tell them to download http://IP/~user/file
Where:
IP is the IP address of your computer, user is your login username, and file is the name of the file.

Make sure that your home directory and public_html are readable and executable by user nobody, and that you don't have port 80 blocked by a firewall.

how do i find out if port 80 is blocked by my firewall, i use mandy 10, i think its called shorewall.

Also, if i follow the above instructions does that mean that my /home dir will be readable by anyone ? if it does i dont like the sound of that.

Will the person be able to browse my home directory ?

By making /home world-readable and world-executable, anyone who is logged onto your computer can browse your /home directory (but not necessarily any subdirectories).

It will not be possible to browse it through a web browser unless you change Apache's configuration (or possibly create a symbolic link to your home directory under public_html).

The alternative is to find the documentation root for your system, put the file there, and skip the ~user/ part of the URL.