how to transfer data between two computers

[littlewenwen]

Dear All,

I have two computers:

Computer A is a laptop with Suse Linux 10.0, it has wiresless internet connection

Computer B is a desktop computer with RedHat5 Enterprise, it has wired internet connection.


I want to transfer some data (~2GB) from computer A to computer B, will that be easy or possible to do? Do I have to make one of these two computers a server? In that case, do I have to have a static IP address for the server?


I in fact have tried to use an external hard drive (not linux formatted) to transfer the data between the two computers. However, after the transfer, some file name changed (like "A" becomes "a", and "B" becomes "b" ). So I am thinking if I can directly transfer the data between the two computers, as they are both linux system, such error might be avoided.

Can any one help?

[smolloy]

If one of them is running an ssh server, then you could use scp to copy the data. Are both computers on the same network? If so, then you'd just need the internal IP address (192.168.xxx.xxx) of the server.

[Juan Pablo]

I have used NFS to move info from a Linux computer to another, it was pretty easy to setup and fast enough to transfer 9 gigs painlessly. You will need to know the IP of the other computer and be in the same IP range (be able to ping).

Using a hard drive with a Windows file system such as Fat32 or NTFS will create this error because file systems in windows are not case sensitive.

[littlewenwen]

Can you show me how to set up the NFS?

[IsaacKuo]

Bear in mind that you should only use nfs on a secure local network. If there's any computer on the local network that you don't completely trust, then don't use nfs! Be especially careful if your local network involves any wireless connectivity. Unless you are absolutely sure that the wireless network is secure, then don't use nfs!

For file transfers across a possibly insecure network, use ssh. I think sshfs may provide what you're looking for. I haven't used it yet, but I intend to experiment with it soon.

[Juan Pablo]

You can also tunnel NFS through SSH, but maybe you are not paranoid enough to discard NFS because you want to send a couple of gigs through a WPA wireless network.
Check this, it's for Gentoo but most of the commands work just fine HOWTO Share Directories via NFS - Gentoo Linux Wiki