Hard to share

I’ve been looking for a simple way of sharing files across friends and colleagues (particularly during projects). I was thinking of a private, peer-to-peer network where we can all share files seemingly with each other in a secure manner. Now there’s plenty of stuff out there, some more complicated than others - in summary:

  • Direct Connect and DC++ apps (very cool but seems a little hard to set up hubs etc)
  • those Kazaa and grouper type apps (not suited for business use)
  • messenger/skype apps (good for comms, not so good for files)

Recently I stumbled across FolderShare which seem to be exactly what I want - apart from the fact that it’s not entirely free (did I say I wanted something free?) but nevertheless the free basic version only has a few restrictions.

Now remember LapLink? It was THE tool for transferring files around - now they have sharedirect that allows you to create an instant secure network for sharing files. The sharedirect client is fully integrated with Windows too. This one’s not free either (subscription plans) however there is a free version with some restrictions.

Perhaps I should consider building my own using JXTA.

Update: I’ll trying out grouper this week.

chris on April 20th 2005 in Uncategorized

2 Responses to “Hard to share”

  1. Joe responded on 21 Apr 2005 at 3:56 am #

    Grouper works perfectly for our small business. Each group is private and encrypted and limited to whomever the leader invites. Within each group you can share whatever business files we want, chat about it, attach comments and all with total privacy. And Grouper is totally free.

    Kazaa, on the other hand, is a public file sharing app with no concept of groups. Don’t know why you would ever lump Grouper and Kazaa together.

  2. Chris responded on 21 Apr 2005 at 5:15 pm #

    I must admit I never did get around to trying Grouper out - it did seem like it was targeted for different audience (people wanting to share mp3s, images etc) so that is why I thought it was more like a ‘kazaa’ but hey, I ‘ll definately give it a try now… thanx for the heads up!