What Is File Sharing?

Date First Published: 16th May 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Services

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 2/10

Learn more about what file sharing is in this article.

File sharing refers to the exchanging of files over a network with other users. Any type of file can be shared, such as documents, images, audio, video, computer programs, and more. The owner of the file can set permissions for the shared files, such as who can view, edit, and download them, and whether it is public or private. Files are usually shared on file storage services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Mega, and OneDrive.

Note:

File sharing is being performed all the time. For example, when an email with an attachment is sent to a recipient, the user is sharing a file privately.

Methods Of Sharing Files

Several different methods of sharing files exist, including file storage services, FTP, Usenet, email, and BitTorrent.

File Storage Services

This is the most common way of sharing files. Services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Mega, and OneDrive are used. The owner of the file can choose to share the file, collaborate with users, and specify the permissions of the file, such as whether people outside of the organisation can edit, view, or download it. File storage services like Google Drive synchronise files, such as documents and spreadsheets in real-time when they are being edited.

File storage services usually provide users with a limited amount of storage for a free option. In order to get a large amount of storage for a business, paid options are available.

FTP

Short for File Transfer Protocol, FTP is the oldest way of sharing files. It is used for transferring files from one computer to another with username and password authentication. FTP is commonly used by businesses to send files between different computers. FTP clients, such as FileZilla are often used to upload files to a server as well as download files.

Note:

FTP servers provide an FTP service, FTP clients access an FTP server, and FTP sites allow users to upload, download, and transfer files.

Usenet

The predecessor to internet forums. Usenet allows users to share files through newsgroups that are organised by subject. The newsgroups are not hosted on one central server. They are hosted by servers all around the world, similar to BitTorrent. Usenet was developed to support file sharing and it is often used to distribute files which contain binary data.

Usenet works by users posting an article. When that user first posts that article, it is only available on that user’s news server. Then, each news server communicates with other servers, known as its newsfeeds and exchanges articles with them.

Email

A method of sharing files with a limited number of recipients. Users can share files by attaching them, usually by clicking on the paperclip icon in the email provider and double-clicking on the files to attach to the email.

This is a slower way of sharing files as it requires users to write an email every time they want to share a file. Most email providers also put a limit on the size of email attachments. For example, the maximum attachment size of Microsoft Outlook is 20 MB. For sharing large files with more users, file storage services or peer-to-peer networks are recommended.

BitTorrent

A protocol for sharing files without a central server. This is known as peer-to-peer file sharing. Instead, the files are downloaded from computers that have a complete copy of them, known as seeders. Files are shared with the .torrent extension, which does not contain the contents of the file. It contains metadata related to the file. The contents of torrents are downloaded in BitTorrent clients, such as qBitTorrent and uTorrent and trackers keep track of all the seeds and peers in a swarm, which is all the peers sharing a torrent.

Once a user has downloaded a complete copy of the file, it automatically starts sharing it with other peers and becomes a seeder. If the user deletes it from their BitTorrent client without sharing it with other users, they become a leecher. However, BitTorrent requires computers to be active and turned on for the file to be successfully shared. A torrent with no seeders is known as a ‘dead torrent’.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of File Sharing

• Easy sharing of data - Any type of file can easily be shared between other people over a network, such as documents, images, audio videos, programs, and more. File sharing gives access to a wide range of different media.
• It allows people to work on documents together - File storage services, such as Google Drive allow multiple users to edit documents at the same time when shared. The changes show in real-time. This will allow projects to be completed more quickly.
• Files can be accessed and shared 24/7 - When files are shared electronically, they can be shared at any time of day. The only time period where files cannot be shared is if a server experiences downtime.
• It can act as a backup - Uploading files to file storage services can act as a backup, since there is another copy of the file stored on a server. This means that if the file on a hard drive got corrupted or if the computer caught a virus that deleted or encrypted the file, the file would not be lost.

• It can be hacked into - There is always a risk of electronic file storage services getting hacked into and unauthorised access. For example, a phishing website that impersonated a company could steal the user’s credentials to gain unauthorised access to their account. As a result, this can cause data theft.
• Risk of viruses and malware - File sharing is the most common way that computers catch viruses that harm computers, especially through opening unknown programs and email attachments.
• There can be copyright issues - File sharing can sometimes be used to share copyrighted content without the copyright holder’s permission.
• It requires a sufficient amount of bandwidth and network speed. When large files are downloaded, the servers use up a lot of bandwidth, increasing the costs of maintaining the servers. In addition, it requires a network with a sufficient speed, since networks with slow speeds will take a very long time to download large files.