The Story
For many of us, copying files between our various computers is a constant need.
Whether I'm building systems, running a lab, testing software, building demos, or supporting users, I often copy files to
and from various systems. In the late 90's, as computer networks and browsers (Netscape!) became ubiquitous, I wrote a tiny web server
that made it easy to copy files to other machines on the network.
Fast forward twenty years and we still use browsers and http, but the internet has gotten scary. Bad guys
want to steal our stuff and use it to hurt us. Moving files around with email or cloud-based sharing like Google
Drive bounces it around the internet and leaves copies on various servers, even if we try to clean up by clicking 'delete'.
And who knows how much Google and other vendors spy on our stuff?
I usually need to move files between systems on my local network, so using cloud-based tools to move the files is a completely
unnecessary risk. It's also a pain, by the time I log in, copy everything and clean up the copies. And when I forget to delete the
copies, that's just another risk. Of course I could set up shared drives, but that's an even more hassle and it doesn't help with
iOS or Android devices.
So I renewed my old idea by building Waware Share: an http server that runs on any PC or Mac. To keep things simple, it
is a single-file portable app that runs with no installation. Just download and unzip you're ready
to push or pull files to or from any browser on the network - PC, Mac, iPhone, Android Phone, or tablet. And your files
never leave your network, so bad guys on the internet can't see them.
Waware Share is free to use. Give it a try and
let us know
if you have any problems, ideas or comments.