File sharing made easy for SMBs

BANGALORE, INDIA: SMB owners need to be in constant touch with their clients online. For this, they have to know how to share files online either among partners/clients. File sharing over networks, especially LAN, for small businesses also helps small business owners to find potential clients. This also helps them in product promotion.

For sharing files over the networks, small business owners need to do the following depending on their respective operating systems. We have provided the ways of online file sharing for Windows XP, Vista, Linux and Mac.

1. File sharing over the Internet in Windows XP

a. Go to Start Menu, select Control Panel. Then navigate to the Network Connections. Here, you can set up a network through which you can easily share files.

b. You can also share files in My Network Places

2. File Sharing over the Internet in Windows Vista

a. Go to Start menu, select Control Panel. Here, you will find the Network Centre (Vista). Through this, you can share all the files you want to

b. After this, expand sharing folder/driver

3. File sharing between MAC computers

Actually File sharing on MAC can be done in numerous ways. These ways have been given below:

a. Using File Sharing: Go to System Preferences, select Sharing option. Here you can enable File Sharing. As soon as you open the Finder Windows in a MAC computer, the other MAC computer has to be displayed in the Shared Section. To share files, connect to the other MAC computer, here you can drag files in the Drop Box folder which you will find inside the Public Folder of the user.

b. Using a Shared Disk: If you use Apple's Time Capsule or the AirPosrt Extreme Base Station, just by connecting a hard disk to the computer's USB port, you can share files by setting up this device as a shared device.

c. Use iChat File Transfer: It becomes easy for you to transfer files if you have the iChat configured on your MAC. Just by selecting the file that you want to share with your recipient you can share the files.

d. Use MobileMe: Create a Mobile Me account through which you can share files easily. MobileME puts all your files in the iDisk which enables easy and rapid share.

5. File sharing between Linux computers

a. Edit /etc/exports, add one line to the file for each directory to be exported:

b. Force the NFS server to reread /etc/exports: exportfs -ra

A. On the client side:

a. Create a mount point: mkdir /mnt/remotefs

b. Mount the NFS export: mount -t nfs :/exportedDir /mnt/remotefs

c. Use the remote filesystem as if it were local by accessing /mnt/remotefs: ls /mnt/remotefs

B. On the server side

a. it /etc/exports add the following:

b. #exporting temp to everyone

c. /tmp IP address of the server

d. force the nfsd to read the exports info: exportfs -ra

e. After this, go back to the client and carry out the following:

mkdir /mnt/sharedTmp