Broadband Internet has seen tremendous growth in Pakistan since its launch till date. From having only one internet service provider in the whole country to achieving the milestone of being the first to launch WiMax throughout Pakistan, there seems to be no looking back on internet developments.
With over one million people connected through mere wireless internet connections only in Pakistan, there grew a dire need of authentic and speedy file sharing mediums. Despite the fact that the risks involved in sharing files online especially through unencrypted wireless networks are huge, some prominent services emerged on the forefront that changed the world.
HISTORY OF ONLINE FILE SHARING
Launch and the Early Days
Launched in 1997 by five UCLA graduates, The Scour Inc search engine is considered to be one of the earliest online file sharing services. However, it couldn’t survive for a longer time and AudioGalaxy, another file sharing service, took its place and garnered much more popularity than The Scour Inc.
It was in 1999 that file sharing became mainstream with ‘Napster’ launched by Shawn Fanning. It was a free program that allowed direct peer-to-peer downloading, enabling users to easily search others computers for MP3’s. The free service emerged to be most popular amongst college students and in university campuses where broadband internet was easily accessible. The success of Napster led to the release of dozens of similar programs such as Gnutella, eDonkey2000 and Kazaa.
These services became targets of litigation as the music industry claimed the services allowed users to illegally host copyright material. And therefore, didn’t sustain for a longer time period.
BitTorrent 
The drastic change in the file sharing landscape was witnessed after the development of ‘BitTorrent’. This file sharing platform unlike the ones before, work independently off of users’ computers, eliminating the need for any service aside from tracker websites that link to available torrents. BitTorrent is now one of the leading file sharing services on the web with an average of over 2 million people who use the service every day.
The advancements in the e-world are persistent and during their course of progression, hundreds and thousands of new softwares and services are tried and tested. With sites like RapidShare and MediaFire, one-click hosting popularized in the masses in the year 2006. Such websites allowed users to upload/host files to their servers and share the download link with anyone in the worldwide for free.
Social Sharing
Moving forward, it was the proliferation of the social networks and social sharing that the world of file sharing met a paradigm shift. This is where everything and anything under the sun is easily shared with hundreds and thousands of people with a single click.
Online Web Hosting
The advancements in the e-world are persistent and during their course of progression, hundreds and thousands of new softwares and services are tried and tested. With sites like 4shared, RapidShare and MediaFire, one-click hosting popularized in the masses in the year 2006. Such websites allowed users to upload/host files to their servers and share the download link with anyone in the worldwide for free.
Websites such as wetransfer.com and transferbigfiles.com have also popularized in the masses since they allow users to send up to 2GB of files for FREE. This means that innumerable pictures, songs, documents and compressed movie files can be shared with anyone in the world with a free download link. Such advancements in Internet technology have rendered the world into a global village connected by competent and speedy on-the-go wireless internet connections.
Sharing files on a single wireless network
A little traditional yet an efficient method for unlimited file sharing is by connecting 2 or more computers through a single wireless network. The only drawback is that all computers need to be in the same Wi-Fi range to access the shared files. Nonetheless, this is best way to share files within different computers in offices and homes.
All you need is to create a “home group”, “connect all computers to the homegroup” and “access shared folder by all”. Below are the steps to follow,
- Access the Control Panel from the Start menu.
- Make sure the options are displayed according to category on the top right of the screen.
- Find the “Network and Internet” category. Click the link for “Choose homegroup and sharing options”.
This is where you either create a homegroup to share files between computers or access an existing homegroup to use on other machines.
- If “There is currently no homegroup on the network”: Click the link at the bottom of the screen that says ” Create a Homegroup:”
- If “This computer belongs to a homegroup”: Click the link to “View or print the homegroup password”.
At this point, you will be able to decide what types of files you want to share between two computers. The options are pictures, documents, music, printers, and videos, and you can choose to share any combination of those file types.
Make sure to add a security password to your shared folder to ensure safety of all the data you are sharing. Now all that is left to do before sharing files between computers is to access that homegroup from other machines. To do this, turn on the other machine, click on the start menu, and access the control panel just like before. Find the link to “Choose homegroup and sharing options” under the “Network and Internet” category.
Instead of creating a new homegroup, however, you will see an alert box that tells you a homegroup has been detected on your network. Click the “Join Now” button. Enter the password you saved from the other computer and select the file types just like before. Wait a moment while the connection is established, after which you are ready to share files through a wireless network!
TIP
To avoid the number of clicks, create a “Shortcut” of the shared folder on your Desktop. By doing this, you can access the shared files, view or transfer them with a single click without the hassle of browsing through multiple folders.
If you find this information helpful, share it with your friends! Read more about securing your Wi-Fi network here.
