Sharing files is one of the most common tasks we do at Hostel, Offices or with friends and the most common way to do it is via a Crosswire or a LAN or a adHoc Wi-Fi network.

Now most of us would be using the windows share option to share files but it has got some limitations,

1. On some system specially Windows Server it annoyingly asks for username and password .

2. Difficulty in accessing Windows share from Linux and MAC

3. Difficult to copy multiple files simultaneously.

Now I will suggest two methods to share files with ease and speed on any platform Windows, Mac, Linux

The easy way is to download a small FTP or HTTP Server which quickly shares all the files in a folder or drive over LAN.

Now download and unzip and start any of these and then go to settings and set Home Directory to the Drive or Folder you wish to share .

Now ,  tell your IP Address( On Windows you can get it by typing ipconfig in command prompt and in Linux use ifconfig ) to you r friend and he should then open up his browser and type in,

http://yourIp/  

eg. http://192.168.1.2

or ftp://192.168.1.2      If you are using that FTP server .

and you will get list of all files and you can download them easily ..

If you have many folders and several files I would recommend using filezilla Client, just launch filezilla and key in the IP address of your friend and

username: anonymous

password: any email id( eg. mymail@gmail.com)

Port:21

Press quickconnect and you  are through, No as you get the directory listings just right click on any particular directory and go Download .

I use this method as it’s easy and quick specially for sharing  some files or even whole drives.

Another important tool is the downthemall addon for firefox it allows you to download all links on a webpage at one go and also accelerates the downloads , I will write about it later .

Hope this tip helped !