this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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On occasion I find myself needing to send a file at least a few gigabytes in size to a friend across our slow ISPs but haven't found a satisfying solution. I usually end up creating a private torrent with the announce address of my own IP. Even though it's slow - it basically never reaches my max upload speed for some reason, it is at least resilient if there are ever any network glitches.

Does anyone else face this same challenge?

EDIT: Thank you for the awesome suggestions! I have some homework to do on these

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[–] eneff@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 minutes ago

I really like Wormhole for this exact purpose.

[–] FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 1 points 16 minutes ago

I use https://www.sendbig.com/ I haven’t read their privacy policy, though.

[–] Tabooki@lemm.ee 1 points 25 minutes ago

Nextcloud is great for this

[–] 0x0@programming.dev 1 points 1 hour ago

You can OnionShare if you're worried about privacy.

[–] monogram@feddit.nl 6 points 5 hours ago
[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 16 points 10 hours ago
[–] Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world 11 points 11 hours ago

Before I moved I used to use my web server.

My Domain . Com / files . Zip And I would set a password on the zip. After they download it, they tell me and I remove the file.

[–] Typewar@infosec.pub 8 points 11 hours ago

Me and my friend used netcat to transfer 30 GB of files put into a zip. Very fun, would not recommend

[–] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

Upload to Proton Drive > Create share link > Share link

[–] bigDottee@geekroom.tech 7 points 13 hours ago

I’d have to have friends across the internet that wanted files first…

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 6 points 13 hours ago

FileBrowser

Create share links allowing anyone with the link (+ optional password) to browse and download individual files, or whole folder contents.

If someone needs to send me a file, I can create a user for them in a few seconds; so they can upload to that as well.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (2 children)

Friends I know IRL: Thumbdrives.

Friends I only know via the Internet: Torrents or IRC filesharing.

Though knowing that a homing pigeon with a thumb drive is actually faster than the fastest Internet network on the planet, maybe I should simply invest in a coop and some pigeons. 🤔

[–] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Though knowing that a homing pigeon with a thumb drive is actually faster than the fastest Internet network on the planet

Depends on how big the flash drive is, I suppose. Need to send a 1GB file? Just make a torrent. Need to send 40TB? Yeah, that hard drive is getting driven across town.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Perhaps two pigeons could carry the hard drive on a string. I've heard tell of swallows that have done this with coconuts.

[–] brighteast@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Exactly what kind of pigeons are we talking about here? Or would you recommend switching to an avian variant of the migratory type?

[–] plim@feddit.dk 14 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Brunette6256@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago

Wormhole or croc

[–] TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 28 points 19 hours ago (18 children)
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[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 10 points 16 hours ago (4 children)

Super easy. Spin up an OpenVPN server, forwarding the right ports to your server. Now spin up an Apache server with the folder your file’s in as server root. Send the client config for your VPN to your friend, along with the local address of your HTTP server. Now they can install the OpenVPN client on their PC and download the file from your HTTP server. Once you’re done, tear down all your servers, and don’t forget to unforward the ports. Couldn’t be easier.

/s

[–] admin@lemmy.haley.io 11 points 15 hours ago

I have non-ironically gotten responses like this

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[–] grimer@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago

I literally just set up a container for Erugo for this exact thing. It worked perfectly and was super easy to do. It's just a self-hosted version of wetransfer. Could be helpful...

[–] Knossos@lemmy.world 15 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

You could try wormhole. It makes a direct connection.

[–] eight_byte@feddit.org 7 points 17 hours ago

Or croc which is very similar. I think it also allows to resume file transfers.

I used vaultwarden just the other day for this purpose. I mean, I use vaultwarden daily as a password manager, but it also has secure file transfer.

[–] manicdave@feddit.uk 5 points 15 hours ago

I'd go for syncthing over nextcloud for your specific usecase. Nextcloud isn't good for unreliable connections and they're sticking with the annoying decision of not supporting server to server synchronization.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 14 hours ago

If its a file from my seedbox: Direct share link (optional pw)
Local file: OneDrive

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

I've used:

https://send.tresorit.com/

https://wormhole.app/

https://pairdrop.net/

But for slower connections bittorrent is the best option by far because it doesn't care about interruptions, and verifies the data as it goes. Just gotta make sure you're port forwarding the client.

[–] deprecateddino@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago
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