I'm new to all the p2p filesharing stuff, but I basically have one simple desire: to be able to open up whatever p2p app I use, and connect to a specific user. Kazaa has plenty of stuff, morpheus, gnutella network, all have lots of good files being shared, but if I find someone with a lot of things I want, I can't come back later and get more from them. Or, if I just want to exchange files with my buddy across town. Anyone know any programs that remedy this? Does LimeWire offer such a feature? Thanks.

good question. I don't know. I wonder if you can just type in their IP number in the "connections" box.

If that doesn't work, one of you could let limewire autoconnect, then the other of you could type in that successful host IP address. That should connect you to the same files. If this works, then all you have to do is search for the file you want to share.

You can test these by renaming a file some unique name, and seeing if the other person can see it.

set-up a (freeware) FTP server and give the other guy a password , name and your IP .
E-mail , IRC , ICQ , Mesenger ,whatever to contact him .

Will be much easier then what you are talking about .
Besides , there are plenty of basic FTP servers floating around the web that you can download for free .

thanks for the help guys. I'll check out the ftp situation. One thing though, I've heard these can be slow- is this inherent to ftp apps? I'm looking to transfer files anywhere from 50-300 MB.

Then FTP is just what you need .
Try www.analogx.com for free FTP server software .
Or try www.tucows.com , www.webattack.com and www.zdnet.com .

There is nothing inherently slow about FTP - quite the reverse, it is an efficient means of transferring files (File Transfer Protocol).

However, many FTP servers are used very heavily. Since you'll be setting up a secure FTP server (no anonymous login), this won't be a problem for you.

Mark

First off, I'll understand if no one wants to even deal with this, because I know how horribly inexperienced I am with this stuff. But, I've done assembly coding for old 6802 processers, did some HTML stuff a few years ago (before auto page wizards existed) so I'm not entirely retarded. Anyway, I tried analogx's simpleserverwww and it's not as simple as it says. Anyone have any experience with this? Also, I've been messing with War FTPD and I can't seem to get it to work either. I have a LAN setup here at home with a linksys router to dsl modem. ANyway, any help is appreciated, thanks for the info so far.

It is difficult to know what your problem is based on the information you've given.

The default port for FTP is 21. Your router will need to accept this port and pass it on to whichever computer you've installed the server software on (I don't and haven't used a router other than W2K so don't know how automagically yours does this).

I use Serv-U (Shareware - try for 30 days) which didn't seem too difficult to set up (W2K server (IIS) FTP server is another option but that /is/ a git to set up).

Mark

Choose a port to run the server on (usually 80)
Then tell your router to forward incoming connections on that port to the machine running the server .
Give the other guy the IP of the router and the port number the server is on .

Besides , I tried AnalogX servers , they are that simple .
They are designed to be simple .
Did you bother to read the help files ? (Duh , but did you ?)
Forget WAR FTPD , it's much more complicated then then the AnalogX servers .

Also , don't forget to put a file called index.html in the directory you set on the server .
Else the guy will get a big error .
Once your are done open your browser and type http://localhost:80 .
If you see the webpage you just made it's working .
For the second test :
Get your current IP from your router it's something like xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx .
Type : http:*****.xxx.xxx.xxx:80 .
If you see your webpage again , you did everything right and the other guy should be able to acces the webpage .