Free File Sharing With GigaTribe
I recently received an email from someone at GigaTribe, a new file sharing program, asking me to try out their application. I get a lot of PR emails, but I’m always interested in file sharing apps, so I decided to give them a try. No, I’m not being paid to review, but I have been offered an upgraded account, which I may or may not even use. However, five lucky readers can also get a free premium account, by being the first to comment here.
Onto the review…
GigaTribe lets you share files and folders on your computer with select others that you add to your network. The GigaTribe software boasts some great features such as no limit on the sizes of files that can be exchanged, encrypting all exchanges for privacy purposes, automatically resuming interrupted exchanges with no data loss, the ability to do multi-source downloads to increase your speed, and it can be used to access your PC from a remote location. This is certainly more than what my current program of choice, Pando, offers. After taking the time to configure the port forwarding on my router (for the non-geeks, there is an "easy access" option if you’re not the type to unblock ports on your own), I had the software up-and-running. My only complaint was the user interface. I’m used to clean, easy, intuitive software like Pando or the web-service box.net. Gigatribe was more…complex. I actually had a hard time figuring out how to upload a file…which is probably because you don’t really upload files, you "share" folders on your computer instead. (For the record, you "share" the file by clicking the Network button, clicking a text link to "Modify My Shared Folders", using the mock Windows Explorer display to browse to the folder you want to share, then clicking a link over on the left to "Share folder". Ack!) Honestly, the software seems like it was designed by an ex-Microsoftie!
Still, for feature set alone, the software is worth a look, especially if you haven’t found a file-sharing program yet that fits your needs. Oh, and it is free!*
*Premium accounts are available for a fee (or by being the first five people comment here asking for one).
Follow the conversation at YackTrack!
I’d like to give it a try, mostly for the file sharing aspect.
It’ll be nice to give this thing a try. thanks.
For the free Premium licenses, just download the free version, create an account, and send me your username at john@gigatribe.com.
I can’t disagree with your comments on the navigation, we will definitely simplify the interface for version 3.0 which will be out in a few short months! (I’m comforted by the fact that a lot of non-techie seniors were still able to figure out how to use it!)
Pando is useful for sending large files, but you’re limited at 1Gb per send (unless you’re willing to pay for more capacity!); GigaTribe’s free version still allows your friends to download humongous files, and even entire folders (no size limit) straight off of your computer (and vice-versa).
Box is useful if you want to store stuff online (like important backup files); but again, if you want to store more than 1Gb, you’re going to have to pull out your wallet. (I just keep backup DVDs at my mom’s house, and sometimes I just send myself important files on my Yahoo mail account and store them there).
GigaTribe eliminates the need to upload files to some remote server; you just select folders on your computer you want to share, and invite friends into your sharing network (and you’ll be able to download content from their shared folders). And even the free version is highly functional and lets you do all of that.
Count me in on anything that’s free. Thanks Sarah
Clif
Love your new top…er..header! Good choice. How about a premium account? Thanks!
I’ve been looking for an app that’s easy enough to use that I can have non techie send me files. I assume it does not allow you to write to my harddrive but I can send them a copy and pull the file down
ill give this a chance,,,