Easily share files on LAN with fellow Ubuntu users with Giver

Have you ever just wanted to quickly hand a file off to a fellow user on a LAN without having to resort to using an email client or shared folder? Wouldn't it be nice to just click on a username, send them a file, and have their desktop automatically notify them that the file has arrived?

Well...you can do that with the help of Giver. Giver is a networking tool that automatically detects other Giver users on your network and allows you to quickly and simply share files with them. I do hesitantly write this article only because it seems the development of Giver has come to a stop. That doesn't keep the application from working exactly as it should, and it still installs on just about any recent release of Ubuntu. So, even though development might have stopped for the moment, the application is still very valid and very useful. And in this article I will show you how to install and use this handy network file sharing tool.

Installation

The installation of giver is very simple. All you need to do is follow these steps:

1. Open up the Add/Remove Software Tool.
2. Search for "giver" (no quotes).
3. Mark Giver for installation.
4. Click Apply to install.
5. When finished, close the Add/Remove Software tool.

When Giver is installed you can start up the tool by clicking Applications > Internet > Giver. This will open up the application and plant an easily accessible icon in the notification area.

Usage

As I have mentioned before, the usage of Giver is incredibly simple. The Giver Recipients window (see Figure 1)  will automatically populate with anyone else on your LAN running Giver. This may take some time (depending on how many users there are and how fast your network is). You can give a file by clicking on the user you want and clicking either Give File or Give Folder. When you select either of these a file manager will open where you can navigate to the file and select it.

Once you have given the the file the recipient will see a notification (see Figure 2) that a user wants to give them a file.

When the file is received both sender and receiver will be notified of the success.

Preferences

There aren't much in the way of settings for Giver. If you right click the notification try icon you can select Preferences. When this new window opens (see Figure 3) you can then change your Name, Picture, and File location.

A word of warning: The only way I have been able to change the picture used for Giver is to use a Web Link. For some reason the File will not open a file manager window to browse for the image file.

By default Giver will save files transferred to you to the Desktop. If you don't want that click the File Location drop box and select where you want the files to be saved to.

Final thoughts

Although Giver might not be currently in development, it is still a very useful application that allows users to quickly exchange files over a LAN. It does not have the ability to share files outside of that LAN, but within a business or home, this is a nice tool to have around.

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