# Easiest way to share files over a local network?

## al3x

When my new laptop arrives, I want to move some files off my current Gentoo system and on to the laptop (once it's got Gentoo as well).  What's the easiest way to do this?  I've looked into NFS, but I'm not sure about Gentoo's support for it.  FTP is kinda clunky for such a quick job.  Any other options?  Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

----------

## pjp

They aren't very secure, but you can look into tools such as rcp (remote copy).  I'm pretty sure they work via IP address/hostname.

----------

## al3x

Yeah, I know all about the insecurity of the r* tools, but this is a one-shot deal.  Anybody else with reccomendations?  How have y'all moved your files around  :Question: 

----------

## rac

For transferring across insecure networks, I use scp.  NFS works just fine with Gentoo - just make sure you have support compiled into your kernel and that you run portmapper on both the client and the server.  scp is slower than rcp due to the encryption overhead.  If you really don't want to keep the sharing setup (you say it's a one-time thing), the time you spend setting up NFS is probably wasted, so rcp probably is your best bet if you trust the network or scp if not.

----------

## fuxored

I use nfs to share files on my network. It's works fine, and is pretty painless to set up.

----------

## al3x

Well I've used scp before, so that's a good suggestion.  Fuxored, care to elaborate on NFS setup?  Maybe a good link?  Thanks a bunch guys!

----------

## rac

 *al3x wrote:*   

> care to elaborate on NFS setup?  Maybe a good link?

 

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/NFS-HOWTO/index.html

----------

## meyerm

When you want to transfer a really huge file (f.ex. the tar of all files to be saved) over a LAN, then try netcat. It just transfers the pure data without much overhead and is therefore faster than any other transfer method (but of course also the "insecurest").

```
client#> netcat -l -p 1234 > myfile.tar
```

```
server#> netcat -h client -p 1234 < myfile.tar
```

----------

