Share Files with HTTP File Server

You have some friends or business partners that you want to share data with but have no website with enough space and don’t want to use p2p as well ? One simple way to share files of any size is to use the HTTP File Server which emulates a basic file server on your home computer. The server can be run in public or private mode and it is normally a very good idea to run it in private mode.

Private mode means that only trusted users that have been added by you can access the file server. You will have to change the settings from easy mode to expert to be able to create accounts for those users. Once that is done you access the user management by clicking on Menu -> Other Options -> User Accounts. Once you have created at least one user account you right click on files or folders that you have added to your file server and select restrict access and choose the username(s) that you have just created.

Another possibility would be to protect the folders and files directly without using user accounts. You have to assign a username and password to the file or folder and every user that tries to access it will be asked for this data.

HTTP File Server is highly configurable: You can set connection limits, speed limits and ban IPs from accessing your server.

This tool is great if you need to exchange files fast and have no time to setup something else. Alternatives would be to use an ftp client like FileZilla or a local Apache server with htaccess. Another option that I personally do not like that much is use file hosts to share files. I never liked the idea to send my sensible files to a third party. It does not really matter if it is encrypted or password protected or not, call me paranoid, hehe.