Simple, Cross Platform P2P File Sharing via 802.11b?

apago asks: "I travel alot on business and always need to exchange files with other people. We are always trying to figure out the best way to link two or more PC or Mac systems together. I carry regular and crossover cables and a small hub. Even then everyone has to configure a temp. IP address or have someone running a DHCP server. Most of these people have wireless 802.11b capability. Is there a way to share files between OSs using 802.11b without having to configure a temporary network setup? The autodiscovery and configuration of Bluetooth and ZeroConf sound like a good start. I like the easy of use of P2P apps." Does 802.11b need a TCP/IP stack to work? Could a low-profile stack, designed around ease-of-use, be used instead (all you would need to connect to the network would be the SSID, for example)?

Rendezvous does this

I know this isn't the be-all solution you're looking for, but be aware that Rendezvous does this very thing in Mac OS X 10.2. Since Rendezvous (which is just Apple's trademark for ZeroConf) is an open standard, it could in theory be implemented on any OS.

The best part of Rendezvous, in my opinion, is the serverless name resolution for self-assigned IPs. For example, if your computer looks for a DHCP server and fails to find one, it assigns itself an IP address starting with 169.254. Every other computer is supposed to self-assign the same way. Normally, that's not useful, because you have to get IPs from every user before you can talk, but Rendezvous makes it possible to refer to those machines by name.

At that point, any TCP-based program will work. FTP is my favorite, of course, but AppleShare over IP works just as well going Mac to Mac. I'm not sure what the Windows to Windows options are.

Like I said, I know this isn't exactly what you're looking for, but I think it could get you close.

really need 802.11?

if all you're trying to do is share a file, infrared is probably the easiest. Just line up the ports and bang, you're ready to go. Mac supports IrDA and it usually works fine for me. While transfer speed is slow, it sure beats the setup time.

unfortunately, 802.11 configuration software is usually too clunky/inconvenient to be messing with often although winxp does a nice job and couple with osX 10.2 might just be easy enough.

IPv6 == magic bullet

As everyone who pays attention to smart people knows, all networking problems disappear when you install the magic IPv6. Just get on any IRC chatroom, and ask a networking question, and ask "how would I deal with this under IPv6" ? smart people will explain at length that your problem doesn't exist by definition in IPv6.

So toss out you cross over cables and expensive wireless cards and drink the kool aid. Install IPv6 and you won't WANT those other guy's files ! (Because they are applications that only understand IPv4, of course.)

Dumb people like me, well, let me introduce you to my null modem cable and cute little program called laplink, which apparently anticipated IPv6's functionality by a mere decade . . .

uPnP, use it.

Every MS OS since 98 supports uPnP addressing. While it won't cure all, it will get rid of the need to set IP addresses. Just set the system to DHCP, and let it time out. It will then have a 169.254 address. Windows boxes on the same network should then also see each other as their names. Same with Mac OS. All these new protocals for easy setup simply add easier finding of resources, but the basic IP part has been there for years.

Not so difficult

Basically the P2P file-sharing that appeals to you
is a application layer protocol which needs some sort
of networking layer protocol underneath it. Usually
IPv4 is that networking layer protocol and this is not
something very transparent and hence all the ugly
config stuff that you hate.

But since underneath all that, there is a networking layer
where you have broadcast media that everyone can talk over
theoratically its possible to have the pplication layer P2P
right on top of this. You can see something like this
if you used the QNET under QNX OS (its a filesharing protocol
like NFS, but can run directly on top of ethernet without IP)

The reason why this is not mainstream (there are some sort of
equivalents with MS windows and other OSes) is just that it has
limited applictions and people havent really thought about it.
It should be very easy to implement, say, under linux.
Just ask for it :)

Forget 802.11b for causual networks; use USB CF

Get a $20 USB compact flash interface and use CF cards formatted as DOS FAT.
They work on Win 98 and up, Macs, and Linux, and some other exotics as well.
(Some old versions of Linux don't support some cheaper USB CF interfaces, but newer ones do.) For extra measure, get a PCMCIA CF card adapter; they cost about $10 new or $1 at a garage sale.

Windows? NetBEUI

Windows, LanManager et al. supported a non-routable protocol called NetBEUI that was designed for the olden days when a network consisted of three computers and a lump of thin ethernet cable. Should work a treat over 802.11 although I suspect it's security leaves a lot to be desired and (like all Windows networking) the network browsing code leaves a lot to be desired.

Linux? Probably, but it'll be a fight getting it up. Mac? Probably not.

Dave

APIPA is your friend

Ever had one interface configured as DHCP but (due to DHCP unavailability) found out that it automagically picked an address in the 169.254.0.0/16 range?

That's APIPA (Automatic Private IP Assignment) kicking in, newer M$ and Mac OSes (dunno about Linux, never had one configured at the wrong end of the DHCP protocol :-) ) automatically pick an IP from that range (with the last 2 octets derived from the MAC address, I guess), so that if you have a number of computers networked together, know nothing about IP and of course don't have a DHCP daemon running, they will just see each other, saving Microsoft and Apple customer support a phone call.

So, provided that you have to swap files only between Win98+, 2000/XP or MacOS, just leave everything on DHCP and in a couple minutes the windows boxes happily start spamming out advertisement SMB packets and will eventually see each other.

My 0.02

Ad Hoc

If they all have 802.11b, I would check out the AdHoc configurations as opposed to infrastructure which requires an access point.
All WiFi cars I have seen support it.
It lets you just connect directly to other devices.
(IIRC, you all just set to the same SSID)

I would say a TCP/IP stack is a must.

As for the file sharing, run a light weight webserver on your machines.
Drop whatever you want to share into the appropriate folder and voila, cross platform file sharing.

Simplify.

As someone else up there said, burn CDs or just get yourself some flash cards and a USB card reader. It's a whole lot easier to install a USB storage driver on the occasional PC than it is to set up an ad-hoc network, at least until Apple's Rendezvous shows up in Windows and Unix.

Too much data to transfer via flash cards? I gather that it isn't because you're willing to use 802.11b, which is no faster than USB. Even so, if you really need the speed, get a Firewire PC Card and a matching portable hard drive. Macs can mount PC-formatted ones just fine. Again, carry around a floppy with the necessary Windows Firewire card drivers just in case, or better yet, jot down the URL for getting it via the Web.

It's not glamorous, and it sure would be nice if 25 years into the personal computing era simple things like spur-of-the-moment peer-to-peer data transfer were easy to do, but it'll get the data moved without too much hassle.

USB Drive

Get one of those very small (and yes somewhat expensive) USB drives. You can purchase them without the need of a driver and of course it is universal. I always have one on me. That is way easier than any networking aggrevations.