Easy Local Network File Transfer

Discussion
1

I wish I had discovered this years ago.

(I hope I’m not the only one who didn’t!)
I have a local network with three computers and a printer on it. I often need to transfer files between computers, sometimes LOTS of files. I have always had trouble getting Samba and NFS set up correctly. On occasion I have resorted to using a thumb drive, which can be painfully slow. Right now I do have a functioning NFS set-up but I was looking around in the book “How Linux Works” and I found a section called “Quick Copy” in Chapter 12, “Network File Transfer and Sharing”, and it shows a way to quickly and easily move files over a network; I tried it, and it was easy, and it worked! No config files to set up!

  • On the computer you want to send from, using a terminal, go to the directory that you want to share, and run the command python3 -m http.server
  • On the receiving computer you open a browser and direct it to http://<ipaddr>:8000 where <ippadr> is the ip address of the sending computer. The browser will show the shared directory contents and you can access anything there by clicking on it. To save a file, select SAVE LINK AS . Voila!
  • When you are done, terminate the python script with ctl c .
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2

I used that maybe 10+ years ago to migrate VMs (Oracle VM for x86 “OVM” - not “VirtualBox”) from one system to another… it worked quite well…

But on my home stuff - I have resilio sync installed on every computer - so if I want to get a file from Computer X to Computer Z - I just copy it to one of my sync shares - it’s lightning fast (uses bit torrent protocol). I also use it to share files (big, and small) with my brother 3,000 km away…

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3

Thanks for the tip. I was unaware of resilio, and will check it out! Happy New Year, and thanks for your service to this community!

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4

Is LANDrop of any use?

https://landrop.app/

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5

" LANDrop automatically detects other devices running LANDrop on the same Wi-Fi network "

So is it specifically Wifi or will it work with an ethernet LAN?

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I use that to run test sites during development. Simple sites. That’s not what I do for my job.

That looks great.

Here is a similar product that was covered by It’sFOSS.

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7

Yeah, I tried localsend but it fails from time to time to discover devices.
Maybe settings weren’t right??

Landrop no prob for me.

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8

I downloaded the .deb64 version of LanDrop and installed it with AppCenter on Ubuntu 24.10. Unfortunately the first time I ran it I got Sorry, LanDrop closed unexpectedly and then trying to launch it again, nothing happens. I’ll just rely on NFS and http.server for now, but I like to try new stuff so I may try other things later. Maybe apt install would work better. Thanks for the suggestion.

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9

It is likely that there is some workfile that is corrupt. It will not be the same file as in the above link. Try looking at the Landrop man page… it may tell you what files it uses. Then you could try renaming anything that looks like a scratch file and see if it recovers.

Bit of a stab in the dark.

Also I read something about having to have the same version of LanDrop in alll devices.

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10

Interesting question. I don’t have 2 ethernet connected devices to try without wifi at the moment but have just killed wifi on laptop which has ethernet and could still send/receive via mobile phone and laptop both ways.
So in that regard, it does both.
The only downside is both devices have to have the app running at the same time for it to work.

Another thing to be aware of is firewalls, have yet to find out how to allow it on my system.
For the time being I just kill the firewall to transfer.

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11

Hi Jim

I downloaded the AppImage which works ok for me.
Give that a try.

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12

Just realised, there’s a way for small file transfers within email limits.

Attach file to an email to yourself from mobile and save it as a draft without sending, then pick it up from the email drafts folder on laptop.

Bit of messing I know but only just occurred to me.

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13

I use we transfer and mail myself. That way I know I get sensible questions and better answers. I often talk to myself !

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14

I asked Copilot and looked at LANDrop FAQ, then tried it on my laptop. It looks like it uses UDP 52637. At least for discovery. Not sure if the same is used for file transfer or not.

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15

@pdecker

Is this what you are meaning?

lp
lp661×111 7.7 KB

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16

It did say you could change the port to something custom. Did you change it to 40565?

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No, that number is different everytime I fire up landrop.
The zero you see in the box can be altered - or+ but think leave that be.

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18

I send my emails to myself. Use it like a notepad. My inbox is full of notes made while reading stuff on a tablet but will need in the PC later.

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19

No need to send, the draft can had.

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20

I saw a movie where they found two bad guys had been conversing by using the same free email account and saving drafts for each other. That had never occurred to me before.

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