kamran sharief I recently had to share files of an 8GB disk image from my coffee shop laptop to my main Ubuntu PC. The question was: how?
My first instinct (like most people) was to find the nearest USB drive. So I did it. However, for some unknown reason, it took forever to copy the ISO through the file manager, and worse, the speed was dropping every second!
Impatiently, I pulled out the USB stick (not recommended) and turned on my browser to find a faster way to transfer files from PC to PC without disturbing the “middlemen”.
Now I’m up to date on things like Samba, network shares, local work groups, and SSH file transfer. But I wanted something simple, something that was free of complicated settings and something that didn’t upload files to the Internet first.
And I found everything I wanted and more on LAN Share.
LAN Share is open source software for transferring network files
Application for transferring LAN file shares under Linux
LAN Share is an open-source client for file transfer in C ++ and Qt. It can be used to send a file or folder from one computer to another, as well as to receive a file or folder from other computers that are running the application.
Better still, LAN Share is compatible with Windows and Ubuntu Linux, which means you can use it to:
1, Transfer files from Windows to Ubuntu
2, Transfer files from Ubuntu to Windows
3, Transfer files from Windows to Windows
4, Transfer files from Ubuntu to Ubuntu
There are no third-party servers, no cloud facilities, and no complex protocol agreements.
Install the application on each computer you want to use, select the files or folders to send from the Send menu, and select the receiving network from the list.
The only requirement is that both computers are on the same local network or the same WiFi connection.
Also Read: What is Network Access Control? Definition, Benefits, and Functions
LAN Share Benefits
- Works directly from PC to PC
- Allows files to be sent between different operating systems
- Has no file size restrictions
- Faster than expending a cloud service like Dropbox
Part of the reason I like this app enough to write about it is because of its simple and straightforward interface.
The main window is divided into two halves, with the upper area dedicated to “sent” files and the lower area dedicated to “received” data. These show progress bars and real-time metadata when files are sent and received.
Essential pause, skip, and cancel controls mean tasks can be managed safely. There is also a button to delete completed tasks.
The Settings button gives you access to the following options:
- Define/change device names
- Set/change ports
- Set the file buffer size
- Set download folder
- Extended functions are missing
If there’s a downside that this app lacks advanced features and security settings, but since I’ll only be using it at home, I’m fine.
What I truly appreciate is that files can be shifted between computers running different operating systems. I no longer have to transfer data from Windows to a USB stick laboriously and then from USB to my Ubuntu computer. I can move things across the network!
Tools like this are especially helpful when you don’t have a (large enough) USB stick on hand, or you don’t have a working internet connection (as long as your router is working, this app will work too).
Is this the wildest way to copy a file from a Linux computer to a Linux computer over a network?
I don’t know, and then I do see that it was much faster than the slow write speed on my pen drive and much less complicated than setting up a network share (also, the files you send cannot be seen by anyone else on your network).
Also Read: What is Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC)
Download LAN Share
Installers for 64-bit Windows and Ubuntu are available on the project’s Github page:
Download LAN Share for Windows and Linux
Teleport, NitroShare, and other alternatives for transferring network files
LAN Share isn’t the only software for sharing network files. There’s a list of apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as Android and iOS, both free and paid.
Another open-source alternate to LAN Share is NitroShare. It works similarly to LAN Share, but offers some additional features like the optional TSL encryption.
For Linux-to-Linux transfers, there’s Teleport, a GTK file transfer application with the extensive GNOME Shell integration. It can be installed from Flathub.
There are several other customs to transfer files from one PC to another without a desktop application, such as: E.g ., B. network cards, Samba shares, SSH and sFTP.
Use it when you need it.
Let us know what you are using
This post was about the tool I used to send files over the network. In the comments section below, you can quickly tell us how data are redirected between computers.