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Hosting files on the LAN to trusted folks at a LAN party -- FTP? (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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There is a periodic meeting of linux users in my area where everyone brings laptops and connects to a LAN. Just wondering if I want to share files with them, what are decent options? Is FTP still the best option or has anything more interesting emerged in the past couple decades? Guess I would not want to maintain a webpage so web servers are nixed. It’s mainly so ppl can fetch linux ISO images and perhaps upload what they have as well.

(update) options on the table:

  • ProFTPd
  • OpenSSH SFTP server (built into SSHd)
  • SAMBA
  • webDAV file server - maybe worth a look, if other options don’t pan out; but I imagine it most likely does not support users uploading

I started looking at OpenSSH but it’s very basic. I can specify a chroot dir that everyone lands in, but it’s impossible to give users write permission in that directory. So there must be a subdir with write perms. Seems a bit hokey.. forces people to chdir right away. I think ProFTPd won’t have that limitation.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

This had potential: https://github.com/adulau/Forban, and i tried it at a hacker festival soon after it was released, but sadly it is rather rudimentary and hasn't been updated in over a decade, which is a real shame. I did try and contact the developer years ago with some bug reports, but heard nothing 😢

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

I vote for passing around a dirty, unmarked thumb drive

[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Is there any reason to not just use samba or NFS?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I think they could do the job. I’ve never admin’d an NFS so I’m figuring there’s a notable learning curve there. SAMBA, well, maybe. I’ve used it before. I’m leaning toward ProFTPd at the moment but if that gives me any friction I guess I’ll consider SAMBA. Perhaps I’ll go into overachiever mode and have both SAMBA and ProFTPd pointing to the same directory.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Guess I would not want to maintain a webpage so web servers are nixed

You could still use WebDAV. It's simple and works with most file managers.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Over WiFi? Pass around physical media. Nothing ruins a LAN party like someone saturating 90% of the connection to transfer ISOs.

If it's a dedicated file server, with its own network, then the obvious choice is Samba.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Samba on a Linux user meeting? lol 😅

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I mean, yeah?

NFS is great and all, but it's not compatible with everything out of the box. Generally, samba is compatible with everything. Linux, Windows, Mac, whatever.

Samba is the obvious choice because it's compatible with everything out of the box.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Wonder which distros they passing

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

The kid in me hopes its Slackware, but the loser in me hopes its Arch. 😂😂😂

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

It's all fun and games until someone brings a USB 2.0 thumb drive.

The file could transferred over the LAN and the network de-saturated faster the file could be copied off a USB 2 drive.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I haven't seen a USB 2.0 drive in 15 or so years. So I'd say you're pretty safe... And even if that were the case, it's still preferable vs hogging the connection for a single file.

USB transfer only affects you with slow speeds until the transfer is done. Network transfer affects the entire party with slow speeds until the transfer is done.

It's the obvious choice if you're having saturation issues, even at 2.0 speeds.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

The event is ~2—3 hours or so. If someone needs the full Debian (80 gb!), I think over USB 2 it would not transfer in that timeframe. USB 2 sticks may be rare but at this event there are some ppl with old laptops that have no USB 3 sockets. A lot of people plug into ethernet. And the switch looks somewhat more serious than a 4-port SOHO.. it has like 20+ ports with fans, so I don't get the impression ethernet congestion would be an issue.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

By the life of the party by bringing crossover cable, allowing you run ethernet directly from one laptop to the other for some intimate social networking. Keeps the LAN uncongested for everyone else.

Nice ethernet hardware will detect if you cable is not a crossover cable in this situation and reverse the pin mappings for you.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

Fun suggestion.. could be useful to have as a side hack if congestion becomes an issue but I doubt it would come to that. They have what seems to be a high-end switch with 20 or so ports and internal fans.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

sFTP. If you have a machine with a ssh server, it has sFTP capabilities.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Indeed i noticed openssh-sftp-server was automatically installed with Debian 12. Guess I’ll look into that first. Might be interesting if ppl could choose between FTP or mounting with SSHFS.

(edit) found this guide

Thanks for mentioning it. It encouraged me to look closer at it and I believe it’s well suited for my needs.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Filezilla is also a popular option

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I use filezilla but AFAIK it’s just a client not a server.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yes, I meant as a client. I thought you were looking at options to hook up guests to a openssh-sftp-server

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

oh, sorry. Indeed. I answered from the notifications page w/out context. Glad to know Filezilla will work for that!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I'd go samba

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

You could try this: https://github.com/drakkan/sftpgo

But in general for some quick adhoc file upload classic FTP is still not bad.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Is PirateBox still a thing? IIRC that was the exact use case for those 🙂

Edit: nvm, https://piratebox.cc/ shut down in 2019. I'm old.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

That’s pretty cool

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

rejetto hfs.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

Two possible issues w/that w.r.t my use case:

  • not in official Debian repos -- not a show stopper but definately points against it for installation and maintenance burdons across migrations
  • apparently read-only access for users. This is fine in simple cases where I would just be sharing with others, but a complete solution enables users to share with others on the same server by uploading. Otherwise everyone with a file to share must run rejetto hfs.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the suggestion. It could be handy in some situations.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

I didn't understand the point number two. You can set up whatever access you want for the users. If the option you want does not exist - there is a plugin for it, I'm sure.

this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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