Once you have a home network established, there are several ways to make use of it. One popular goal is to share files between one computer and another without having to use ’sneaker net’, like trading files by a CD/DVD or, yikes!, by using a floppy disk.

A lot of file swapping goes on via email over the Internet, of course. That’s not technically sneaker net. But it’s still a roundabout method. Your email provider may put a low limit on file attachments, so for larger files you have a problem. Also, your Internet connection may be (and often is) a lot slower than the local speeds obtainable on a home network.

Fortunately, for computers on a Windows-based home network, file sharing is very simple. In Linux, it isn’t much more difficult. Here are two different methods:

If you have a computer with an adapter that shares an Internet connection, that system is often a kind of hub for your home network. It often, therefore, serves multiple duty as a file server. It performs that function in at least two ways: FTP or Shares.

FTP is now decades old, but still a highly useful means of copying files from one system to another. One system must be an FTP server, the other is the FTP client. Most web servers, for example, have FTP server software installed. You can use one of the many FTP client software packages available on the Internet. Or, you can use the command line (DOS window) built into Windows.

Click Start/Run, then type ‘cmd’ into the dialog box (without the quote marks). Type ‘ftp -?’ (again without quote marks) and it will show you different parameters you can specify, different ways to execute the command. The different methods/parameters are there so you can send/receive to/from different systems and more.

The other method consists of using something called File Shares. Simple File Sharing is always turned on in Windows XP Home edition based computers. To turn Simple File Sharing on or off in Windows XP Professional, simply double click My Computer. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options. Click the View tab, then select or deselect the Use Simple File Sharing check box.

You should set the security appropriately for the level of access you want to grant for folders and files. You can make the files available as Read Only, which prevents anyone from accidentally deleting them. But to transfer files to the other system, you will have to have Write access. To grant complete control, Full Control is the correct choice. Right-click a folder, and click Sharing and Security to set the appropriate level.

It can be cumbersome, at first, to go through all the effort of either method when emailing through the Internet is so simple. And, for occasional file sharing, that may well be true. But if you share files regularly, a little time spent learning these methods will save you a lot of time over the long run.

Related posts:

1. Home Networking – Connecting to the Internet
2. How Does Home Networking Work?
3. Home Networking – Setting Up and Using a Shared Printer
4. Digital Goods and File Sharing Marketplace Tradebit.com Announces Site Updates
5. FTP and Other File Transfer Tools

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