How can I transfer files quickly from my Mac to my friend's Mac?

August 14, 2009 4:56 PM

How can I transfer files quickly from my Mac to my friend's Mac?

We aren't on the same network so it would have to be over the internet. I know I can send files through messaging services like Skype, but they seem to be really slow (never over 100kbps). I'm looking for something like the discontinued product Tubes, which was like the file transfer function in most messaging programs, but it was optimized for sending files, and would basically go as fast as your internet connection will let it.

posted by ichthuz to computers & internet (18 comments total)

Wired server and client. Kind of a replacement for Hotline, but not straight-out open P2P like Limewire, BitTorrent, or Gnutella.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 5:03 PM on August 14

You could sign up for a Dropbox account. This would let you make a link to email him. It seems pretty fast to me. It's the only thing I've actually liked from MS in some time.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:26 PM on August 14 [1 favorite]

You can do this very easily with telnet. Check out this guide by O'Reilly. It requires typing a few commands into the console, but it's the fastest, safest way to connect without installing any additional software.
posted by Aanidaani at 5:29 PM on August 14

How fast is your net connection? Check here to see if your upstream is even higher than 100kbps.

Also, check out Hamachi(LogMeIn).
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:37 PM on August 14

cjorgensen: "You could sign up for a Dropbox account. This would let you make a link to email him. It seems pretty fast to me. It's the only thing I've actually liked from MS in some time."

AFAIK, MS has nothing to do with DropBox, does it? Perhaps you're thinking of Foldershare? Unless your files are already backed up by Dropbox / Foldershare, I don't think this is very efficient, as the files have to go from You --> DropBox and then DropBox --> Your Friend.

You might want to try one of these p2p file sharing sites, where the files go directly to your friend without a server in between:

Pipebytes
FileAI.com
FilesOverMiles.com

I haven't had an occasion to try any of them, so can't actually recommend one over the other. Of course, they'll mainly be limited by your upload speed, which is always the killer.
posted by sharkfu at 5:46 PM on August 14

Hamachi, suggested by Cat Pie Hurts, is good and on Windows would do what you want quite painlessly, but I haven't tried the Mac version and that may be more primitive. It has to be installed (which is very easy.) I also use FileDropper for copying files around. It's good for single files, not so convenient for multiple files, so I zip multiple files into one. FileDropper is entirely web-based, no install required.

If you're happy with Terminal, then scp is a good tool.

Btw Dropbox is a great app, but it's not suitable for this. Microsoft's LiveMesh is similar to Dropbox, but I prefer Dropbox's simplicity.
posted by anadem at 6:00 PM on August 14

for god's sake, don't use telnet for anything. you can use SSH for this, though, but it'd require using the command line or getting an app (like Transmit).

assuming you're both behind routers, you could set port 548 to forward into your Macs, and then turn File Sharing on. then, you can use Connect to Server under the Go menu in Finder to connect. you'd just need to know each other's IPs, and you'd each have to have accounts on each other's systems (don't use the Guest account for this, or anyone on the 'net would be potentially able to see your data or upload whatever to your system). this wouldn't require you to install anything but would be a bit risky from a security standpoint if you don't set up the accounts and persmissions right.

that said, you should probably check your bandwidth - cable/DSL has great downstream speeds but not so great upstream. you might(probably) are just hitting the upper limit of what your connection can do. anecdotally, i've been able to send data through iChat over a switched gigabit network at speeds you would expect from a gigabit network.
posted by mrg at 6:19 PM on August 14

Give your Mac to your friend.
posted by mr. strange at 6:31 PM on August 14

AFAIK, MS has nothing to do with DropBox, does it? Perhaps you're thinking of Foldershare? Unless your files are already backed up by Dropbox / Foldershare, I don't think this is very efficient, as the files have to go from You --> DropBox and then DropBox --> Your Friend.

If you place a folder linked to the same dropbox account on both computers, all you'd have to do is save/drag your files into that folder.

(I came in to suggest that very thing, in fact.)
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:39 PM on August 14

PhoBWanKenobi: "If you place a folder linked to the same dropbox account on both computers, all you'd have to do is save/drag your files into that folder."

Unless I'm confused about the way DropBox works:

The files still go up to the Dropbox servers before they're backed up to the other folder. So a 100MB file would need to be fully uploaded to the dropbox server before it would begin syncing back down to the other computer. There is no direct connection.

In a recent newsletter, Dropbox mentioned a future version would have a "network aware" version that would sense if two computers linked to the same account were on the same LAN and would sync directly, but the OP mentioned they're not on the same network so even that wouldn't help in this case.
posted by sharkfu at 6:48 PM on August 14

A) do you live in the same town, and B) what are the sizes of the files involved?

If A, then burn dvds or use a flash drive or use a portable hard drive (or mp3 player), depending on B. There is no better option. I've transfered 300 GB in a day to a friend with my mp3 player.

If not-A, it still may be better to mail dvds, depending on B. Or see other responses.
posted by Lemurrhea at 6:54 PM on August 14

The files still go up to the Dropbox servers before they're backed up to the other folder. So a 100MB file would need to be fully uploaded to the dropbox server before it would begin syncing back down to the other computer. There is no direct connection.

That's true, but I did just this a few days ago for a large number of files and it took . . . maybe half a minute to sync, if that.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:02 PM on August 14

A couple of friends and I have a shared folder on Dropbox in which we plop any of our recent projects that we want to show off. It gets auto-downloaded to the other two's computers and a little Growl notification pops up to tell you about it. An email always suffices too. Nearly zero-maintenance.
posted by Magnakai at 7:02 PM on August 14

Each of you sign up for separate Dropbox accounts, and then one of you create a "Shared Folder" and invite the other person. Dropbox is wonderful for those basic files you need to get to all the time, for specifically for sharing files across various computers and people. It may not be the absolute speed demon you need, but give it a try.

(And Dropbox is another MIT startup, Foldershare is the similar MS offering from a few years ago now rolled into Windows Live Sync).
posted by shinynewnick at 7:11 PM on August 14

there's an scp program for the mac called fugu that might do the trick.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:50 PM on August 14

This may have been the hard way to do it, but I set up a FTP server on my mac and he connected to it. i then gave him access to the folder full of *goodies* and he went to town.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

Wired looked promising but we couldn't get it working.
posted by ichthuz at 7:55 PM on August 14

Via firewire,
Connect both the computers via firewire cable. Boot your computer and before it flashes the OS screen hold down 't' key, that will only boot HDD but not the OS. Now, reboot your friend's computer. Your computer will show up on his machine as if its external HDD and your computer will flash firewire icon.

I doubt, you can get faster than this.
posted by zaxour at 6:17 AM on August 15

Sorry, I should have read original post fully but in case if your computers can get next to each other, otherwise I recommend Dropbox, easiest of all.
posted by zaxour at 6:18 AM on August 15