0949: "File Transfer"

[hvm]

By the way, my brother in law still hasn't seen the pictures...

WinRAR actually lets you create a multiple file archive but you can just use a FTP server. Install Filezilla (I'm guessing you're on windows). You just need to forward the port 21 if you use a router and he can access it with My Computer, no fancy FTP client required. Just have him type ftp://YOUR_IP/ in the location bar.

[frogg]

I agree with whoever suggested bittorent; its by far the most simple method, provided you know how to use bittorent (which im sure most XKCD readers would know how to do.) Ive sent more than a dozen gigs of files to my friend in Britain, it works wonderfully (plus you can pause and unpause it!)

[XKCD4ME]

Heh, I just went through this with a friend yesterday. We were standing right next to each other, yet extremely frustrated at our inability to transfer a file (it was about 25 MB, even).

The solution we ultimately settled on was Bluetooth, from his Mac to my phone.

[SirOmega]

Kicksend

http://kicksend.com/

They're a recent startup, but I like their implementation so far.

[keppla]

Exactly for this reason i made my own open source file uploader, but when i was ready, everyone kept saying 'ah, like dropbox?' or 'oh, like rapidshare?', so i think, these are pretty ok for most people who need to send files.

On the bright side, i have a project to show in interviews

[JimmyVolatile]

I'd recommend http://FileMail.com myself. Up to 2 GB files are supported. Simply fill in your e-mail, recipients e-mail and a message (essentially like writing a regular e-mail) and send it off. The recipient will get an e-mail with a link to the file.

You can both password protect the download and put restrictions on number of downloads or days available.
You'll also get an e-mail confirmation when the file has been uploaded and when it's downloaded from the other side.

This has saved me a couple of times when I've needed to transfer photos to friends and family and huge design files to the local print shop.

Simple as e-mail with 2 GB attachments.

[PopandLocke]

I like Gett a lot for its simplicity (can't post links yet, so Google it). It's free, requires no account, has no ads, has persistent links, has a large file size limit, and the recipient can download while you're still uploading. The interface is fairly idiot-proof, too, so it's great for the less technically-inclined that need a solution. Not sure how they can offer it without ads for free, so I question how long it will stay that way, but hey, that's their problem.

[mcv]

My wife and I are trying to figure out how to get all my photos from my Android phone to her iPad. Emailing them all is the obviously stupid way to do it. Bluetooth should be perfect, but we can't seem to get it to work. I'm fundamentally opposed to anything that involves all the photos going over our outside ADSL connection twice. Maybe I should set up a network drive?

No, bluetooth really should be it. We need to figure out how to get it to work. It simply has to be possible.



I still remember from 19 years ago how funny it was that if I emailed my dad who worked maybe 2 km from my university, the email first had to go through the US before it got back to Europe. Doesn't look like we advanced all that much in those 19 years.

[the_eye]

if at least one of the computers has a public IP (i.e. non-RFC1918): woof

otherwise: f*ex .. (that one is hard to google for, it's at http://fex.rus.uni-stuttgart.de .. nope, not a service you can sign up to (except if you study at Uni Stuttgart, afaik), but open source software that you can install for yourself on whatever server you have available and then all your friends and family can use it ..)

[ron_mega]

I like ge.tt very much.

[Steem]

There IS a simple solution; https://www.wetransfer.com/

Multiple recipients, multiple files, up to 2GB, no pop-ups, fast up- and download and no accounts. You just have stylish ads in the background.

[benshepherd]

Generally I agree with this comic. I tend to use YouSendIt, but they seem to have reduced the size limit for free accounts lately (although: no sign up required). I have a USB stick on my keyring so that's what I use if the recipient is nearby. For larger files, I'd be inclined to try BitTorrent, but I don't know how fast that would be.

[luxie]

One of the culprit are the corporations and general "security". They deem file transfer as extremely insecure, so it is limited at all costs.
More than often USB stick is not an option as it is blocked by security policy. Emails and web-based services are usually the only option for basic internet access available at many offices.

[tanty]

FileTea, men!!!

http://filetea.me

[Diadem]

At least we've finally got a good way of sharing pictures (lightshot). You know, come to think of it, the easiest way of sharing files at the moment is probably opening it in a hex editor and making a screenshot.

But I would love to have some kind of lightshot for files though.

[koniczynek]

I recommend http://pipebytes.com - no registration, everything went better than expected

[khag7]

FileDropper.com

On the one hand, its about as easy as it could possibly get.
On the other hand, it involves a middleman so you have to upload and then download (essentially doubling the time it takes) AND its not secure in any way.

There should be a simple file transfer client that doesn't require usernames. Two people have the software downloaded/installed. When you run the program it you are given a text box and an ID string, a random string of digits (different every time, approximately 9 characters long). The two people trade those ID strings, entering the other person's string into the text box. Upon hitting "connect" a server somewhere, (not sure who would run this for free, maybe google), would facilitate the secure connection between both parties. It would be great if it were a SSL connection. Once secure its like a very simplified chat client with the ability to drag & drop files. Chat would allow for verifying, "Hey is this Mike?" "Yeah, is this Kevin?" "Okay send me the video of your girls playing soccer."

I'd call it SECHAFT. SEure CHat And File Transfer. Okay, I know the name sucks, but it needs a name. Someone do one better please

Anyway, yeah, secure, quick and easy, maybe a buddy list but now we're venturing into AIM territory.. i like the 10 digit string idea. You call each other up, trade strings, and send files.

[GulliNL]

There should be a simple file transfer client that doesn't require usernames. Two people have the software downloaded/installed. When you run the program it you are given a text box and an ID string, a random string of digits (different every time, approximately 9 characters long). The two people trade those ID strings, entering the other person's string into the text box. Upon hitting "connect" a server somewhere, (not sure who would run this for free, maybe google), would facilitate the secure connection between both parties. It would be great if it were a SSL connection. Once secure its like a very simplified chat client with the ability to drag & drop files. Chat would allow for verifying, "Hey is this Mike?" "Yeah, is this Kevin?" "Okay send me the video of your girls playing soccer."

I'd call it SECHAFT. SEure CHat And File Transfer. Okay, I know the name sucks, but it needs a name. Someone do one better please

Anyway, yeah, secure, quick and easy, maybe a buddy list but now we're venturing into AIM territory.. i like the 10 digit string idea. You call each other up, trade strings, and send files.

Sounds a bit like TeamViever, which works perfectly this way so that might be a good idea. On the other hand, you'd both have to be online at the same time so that might be a drawback. No fire and forget this way.

[Schumi]

The easiest method is to use bittorrent. That was what I did when I had to transfer over 2 GB of pics and videos to my friend after my last vacation. It took a while but it was pretty straightforward and we just left it to finish overnight.

That's the first thing I thought of when reading the comic but explaining it to your mother (or grandmother depending on your age/mother's computer knowledge) might not be as straightforward which was the idea of the comic I think.

[icebrain]

Now that with magnet links bittorrent can work without a tracker, it makes sense. But it still requires people to install a client. We should lobby Microsoft to include a basic Torrent client with Windows

Is it possible (with software) to use a USB cable to connect two computers directly together for file transfer? I'm always doing the email-self thing with my desktop and laptop because finding and using a USB stick takes much more time.

Yes and no. You can't simply connect two USB hosts directly using a dumb cable, but there are small devices with two USB ports which serve as a bridge. They're expensive and annoying to use, though.

[Yoo]

Why dose nobody consider XMPP with out of band data or IRC with XDCC?
Works for me every time.
Facebook and Google are using XMPP... did anyone try to send a file over Google Talk and/or Facebook chat? XD

[Fallingwater]

There's this. It's still fiddly, but it only needs to be on one computer, so the nerd of the situation can set it up and the other end doesn't need to be computer-savvy.

On a side note, why does MSN suck so badly at file transfers? Two years ago I used to send and receive 100MB files over it, now it likes to randomly drop the speed to something barely above 56k more often than not.

[spekkeh]

I had this the other day (get out of my head etc). I finished my dissertation and wanted to send the file to my supervisor/copromotor, but it turned out to be 11mb, 1mb too large for the mail server. Ack. He already went home and wouldn't be back for a couple of days so a USB stick wouldn't work. What to do? Use Dropbox? I would have to convince him to download and install it, and then share the files with his username.. too much hassle and he won't do it. Can't start an FTP server now, would take too much time. Yousendit.com? Alright, uploading--WAIT A MINUTE, 'you hereby defer copyright to yousendit' aw hell no! Hmm, not really much choice though. This probably won't stand in court, so I'll just have to take the gamble. Uploading again, 50%, 99%, waiting, waiting, still 99%, crash. Argh!

Took me about an hour overtime before I figured I could just split the Word file in two and send two e-mails..

[Eutychus]

No mention yet of IP over Avian Carriers?

A lot of firms I work with use YouSendIt. Seems to work, and not too many annoying "upgrade now" e-mails. Not too many...

[Steax]

I'll use dropbox as the easiest way to send to people, because I don't want to have to stare at progress bars. Receiving... well... yeah.

[MarioH]

Hi,

a few month ago I had the same realization of the situation this comic describes. So I signed-in to a programming contest to write a program which eventually makes filetransfer easy. The contest is finished now and we won a price.

The program is not finished yet but the main functionality is working. It's my first post here, so I can't post links. But if anyone is interested in testing, using, contributing please contact me.

The program is called Omnibus. It's designed to "just work" in a variety of networking contexts like: over the Internet (including NAT), in a LAN (with or without Internet connection) or just over a bluetooth link. It also abstracts from IP addresses, so finding your friends in the net is very easy. Files can be stored at a server, so both partners don't have to be online at the same time, but you can also use it complete serverless. And of course it's open source.

I'd really appreciate some feedback, so don't hesitate to contact me.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the comic.

[daft]

why not scp ?

[metamorphosis]

But seriously, is there any good way of doing this? I've been doing the dropbox + public link method, but it's kind of awkward.

Mediafire has, and always has, worked incredibly well. None of the problems he's mentioned.

[Captain Chaos]

Still nothing beats the bandwidth of a carrier pigeon carrying a USB stick...

[KShrike]

Seriously, there should be some simple, 100 KB program that lets two people exchange public IP addresses, one selects a file/folder and clicks send, the other clicks receive, UDP packets get bounced off NATs until they traverse them, and the file is transferred at maximal speed without any external server (maybe throw in some compression/encryption). Sadly, when I Googled for such a thing I came up empty.

http://xkcd.com/927/

lol. Every time I think about that comic every time I'm about to do a rant on "There should be something universal".

Anyone who agrees with this comic really is an idiot.

*sigh* http://youtu.be/R5kPUFxXYLs

Step 1: See comic that [pronoun] doesn't like
Step 2: make an account
Step 3: Troll
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit.

Just like I tell haters of other fandoms, we get that you don't like this comic. Now go on, shoo, and leave us alone that like it.

[Thiez]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned netcat file transfer yet.

At the sender:

Code: Select all

nc [target ip] [some port] < [file you want to send]

At the receiver:

Code: Select all

nc -l -p [same port] > [some filename]

Sure, it's *kinda* ugly, but assuming both the sender and the receiver have netcat it is quite easy (and you don't have to worry about your ISP blocking ftp ports or stuff like that, as you can pick any port. 12345 is a favourite of mine.).

[jacksonliam91]

Dropittome is a fantastic service to let people drop files into your dropbox (and dropbox is great for sharing small files and displaying html websites).

Bittorrent is good for sharing large files because if can be paused and if you share it between more than 1 person the whole thing speeds up!

[Eutychus]

Still nothing beats the bandwidth of a carrier pigeon carrying a USB stick...

Ahem.

[SirMustapha]

Just like I tell haters of other fandoms, we get that you don't like this comic. Now go on, shoo, and leave us alone that like it.

See? That's just why I can't leave this place.

[ctsketch]

An 8 GB USB Stick kept on my key ring solves most problems... I have also used my web server...and as an absolute last resort i've used MSN Messenger and AIM (Shudders)

[Captain Chaos]

Still nothing beats the bandwidth of a carrier pigeon carrying a USB stick...

Ahem.

Not really the same thing, as the RFC is about transporting individual IP datagrams on bits of paper tied to carrier pigeons. I very much doubt that IP over Avian Carriers has a higher bandwidth than cable...

[DutchUncle]

And skype will do it.

Second the motion. I've used skype to transfer photos with cousins in Europe (from the US). You both have to be online at the same time, but that doesn't mean you have to be *awake*.

[BrianB]

I really don't get the title-text/alt-text.

The internet is simply a data pipe between computers, and sending a file (whether by email, ftp, torrent, etc) really has nothing to do with www/http. So why would Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of www) care?

[k.j.]

I just registered to say, GOOMHR. I am not making this up. I was literally typing an email to a friend with a link to a zip file I uploaded to my webserver with some tracks we recorded a couple nights ago while reading this comic.

[MathUhhhSaurus]

Every time you email a file to yourself you you can pull it up on your friend's laptop, Tim Berners-Lee sheds a single tear.

I must make him cry a river.