Share your files easily on your computers with NitroShare

Some days ago I’ve published an article about copy.com, a service similar to Dropbox where a copy of one of your folders is synchronized on the cloud, this is true for any computer where you install the copy.com/dropbox/ubuntu one applet and so you can easily share your documents among your computers and have a copy on the cloud.

But what if you don’t want to share a copy on the cloud of your documents but you need to quickly share a document among your computers ?
Usb stick is usually the best option, but there is also an alternative that use the local network to send data among computers: NitroShare

NitroShare is designed to be hassle-free in every aspect. Just install the application on any machine running Ubuntu or Windows and you’re all set. Each machine should discover all of the other machines on the local network. The application integrates with the operating system, using application indicators on Ubuntu and the system tray on Windows.

NitroShare it’s an open source little program, the main purpose is to act as an intermediary (mini server) to transfer data between two computers connected both to a local area network (LAN).

NitroShare introduces the concept of “share boxes”, which are small widgets that are placed on your desktop. Each share box represents another machine on your local network that you can instantly share files with by dropping them on it. (You can also create a share box that will ask you which machine you want to send the files to.)

The main features of NitroShare are:

• dynamic file compress during transfer to decrease transfer time and bandwidth
• CRC checksum generation to ensure file integrity during transfer
• full compatibility with clients running on other operating systems
• a helpful configuration wizard to guide you through setting up the application on your machines
• The application was developed using the Qt framework and therefore runs on any platform supported by Qt, including Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Installation and setup

The official website offers .rpm and .deb packages for both 32 and 64 bit, these will cover a lot of distributions, or if you use Arch Linux you can find it in the AUR repository, if you use Fedora check this link for some suggestion on the setup.

Ubuntu and Mint users can also add a PPA, if they prefer, with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: george-edison55/nitroshare 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install nitroshare

After installation, when you first start the program, a wizard will lead you step by step through the setup of the main settings and to automatically connect the computers between which you want to perform data exchange.

Basic Usage

Once installed NitroShare creates a widget on the desktop that provides generic access to the other machines that have the application up and running.
You can also create an indipendent “share box”, for each computer. When you want to send files you just have to drag the file and drop it on the widget of the computer where you want to send the file.

In Ubuntu , the widget also has integration in the system tray and a context menu that opens when you click with the right mouse button on a file or directory within Nautilus.

Conclusions

NitroShare does its job flawlessly. It moves files in a local network easily, simplifying the task a lot, in the past It had problems sending large files , but the bug should be now been fixed, and in general you should use this software to move “small” fils, so < 1 GB.

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