File sharing between computers on the same network

[gahyoujerk]

Hey guys, I don't have any experience with networking but would like to learn more about it.
I currently own two computers that are both connected to my home network, I would like to find a way to file share between them, because it seems a much simpler alternative than copy and pasting to a USB drive and then transferring the files to the other computer. I've read a little about private P2P and F2F networks, but I'm a complete rookie to networking and I don't exactly understand everything or know if that is the best way to file share between my computers.

My setup on my computers is as follows: One of the is dual-boot, windows XP and Ubuntu10.04, the other computer is windows 7. Both computers are connected to my home network wirelessly with WPA encryption I use the Windows 7 computer much more often, for all my web browsing and daily needs. I use the other computer more as backup. I transfer with my USB drive lots of older pictures and movies to it, so I continue to have lots of space in the windows 7 computer. I also use the dual-boot computer to learn more about Ubuntu operating systems and linux.

What are some file transfer options I have available to me to better transfer my files back and forth between my computers without using my USB drive, since that takes up alot of time. Would it work if I set up a VPN between the two computers, could I file transfer then? What would be the easiest ways that I could file transfer?

[tgoe]

I use nc and scp for this.

[tremor77]

Get a network storage device.. basically a standalone external hard drive, with its own mini-OS and an ethernet port. Put it on your workgroup and give it a name.. you should be able to access it as a network location like \\mydevice they can be found for as little as $30. Also handy as a mass storage device for media..

[thetan]

in past jobs i've found myself using SMB via samba in most cases. Probably the best for a corporate work environment and most homes seeing how SMB is native to windows.

In a side by side comparison of SSHFS vs SMB SSH is generally a complete CPU whore while SMB takes up less CPU time but due to it's huge block nature isn't optimal for sending large files.

I would suggest NFS in a more perfect world ... however the world is far from and their are tons of headaches that come from NFS .... take my word on that one.

[KSqd_DELTA]

you could always just set up a shared folder between the two windows machines, and just when you are on the linux OS go to places and read the files. or build a NAS server, there are lots of operating systems for them, like freeNAS. just a thought

[insomaniacal]

[quote="thetan"]in past jobs i've found myself using SMB via samba in most cases. Probably the best for a corporate work environment and most homes seeing how SMB is native to windows.[/quote

I'll second this. It's dead-simple to set up under Ubuntu, and hey, it works pretty well too. If you're comfortable with command line, you could use scp, but that could get tedious depending on how you arrange and name your files.