Secure and easy file sharing with non-geeks

James · Feb 13, 2023

Sendbig

James · Feb 13, 2023

Haydon said:
The current issue with DropBox appears to be that X can only download from my folder. Only if X happens to have a DropBox account then X can upload to my folder too. If this restriction did not apply, then the problem would have been solved.

Edit: A more complete answer is in post #28

Having read your requirements, thinking outside of the box here - what if you created a forum for you and X only. Password protected forum, and have a thread in which you can send and receive files. Use something like pro boards and it’s pretty simple

James · Feb 13, 2023

NavyLCDR said:
It looks like dropbox offers password protection. I don't know if it is free or not, though.

Yup it’s free

pparks1 · Feb 13, 2023

Yeah, these services aren't designed in a way to work as you want to use them.

I'm mostly a OneDrive user, and you have 2 options
1). Create a link that anyone can use to share or edit (not what you want at all)
2). Create an invite, to a particular person. I tested this, and using my personal one drive account, I sent the invite to somebody@mypersonaldomain.com. In that email, was a link. When clicking on that link, they should get a page that looks like this.

They then hit sign-in, and enter in their email of somebody@mypersonaldomain.com. and they will have to provide the password for that. Note, this doesn't have to be a Microsoft account directly, it can be yahoo, gmail, etc.

I think with OneDrive that's as close as you are going to get.

Haydon · Feb 13, 2023

pparks1 said:
Yeah, these services aren't designed in a way to work as you want to use them.

I'm mostly a OneDrive user, and you have 2 options
1). Create a link that anyone can use to share or edit (not what you want at all)
2). Create an invite, to a particular person. I tested this, and using my personal one drive account, I sent the invite to somebody@mypersonaldomain.com. In that email, was a link. When clicking on that link, they should get a page that looks like this.

View attachment 52683

They then hit sign-in, and enter in their email of somebody@mypersonaldomain.com. and they will have to provide the password for that. Note, this doesn't have to be a Microsoft account directly, it can be yahoo, gmail, etc.

I think with OneDrive that's as close as you are going to get.

Thanks! Did you try an upload? I also notice @Brink posting the 10F OneDrive tutorial and the new 11F OneDrive tutorial early on in this thread, all 3 worth a closer look, it will me take a little while.

pparks1 · Feb 13, 2023

Haydon said:
Thanks! Did you try an upload? I also notice @Brink posting the 10F OneDrive tutorial and the new 11F OneDrive tutorial early on in this thread, all 3 worth a closer look, it will me take a little while.

Yes, you can upload using both methods as long as you share with edit capabilities.

Haydon · Feb 14, 2023

Hm, upload does not work for me, i.e. the someone@elsewhere.com cannot add a file to the shared OneDrive folder by drag-and-drop

Edit: Another issue, trying to send the URL directly from OneDrive to someone@gmail.com was not delivered because gmail rejected the email. However, sending the URL from Outlook to someone@gmail.com with the URL in the email body or with the URL in a text file attachment were both delivered.

Edit#2: I can set a password on the shared OneDrive folder (at least that was accepted by the system) but that someone@gmail.com was NOT required to enter a password. That means that the level of protection of the shared OneDrive folder is that of the gmail password.

I am still doing some experiments, but it does not look promising.

pparks1 · Feb 14, 2023

Haydon said:
Hm, upload does not work for me, i.e. the someone@elsewhere.com cannot add a file to the shared OneDrive folder by drag-and-drop

Edit: Another issue, trying to send the URL directly from OneDrive to someone@gmail.com was not delivered because gmail rejected the email. However, sending the URL from Outlook to someone@gmail.com with the URL in the email body or with the URL in a text file attachment were both delivered.

Edit#2: I can set a password on the shared OneDrive folder (at least that was accepted by the system) but that someone@gmail.com was NOT required to enter a password. That means that the level of protection of the shared OneDrive folder is that of the gmail password.

I am still doing some experiments, but it does not look promising.

So, I went into my personal account and created testshare2, and I shared it with someone@personaldomain.com.

On my work machine, I opened a chrome browser in incognito mode and logged into gmail with someone@personaldomain.com. There I found the email with the link

I clicked on Open and got a screen like this, with an option to sign in at the top.

I clicked on sign in and put in the email address someone@personaldomain.com (which happens to be hosted by gmail...or google apps more specifically). I then had to enter my password for that email account.

That then brought me to this window with a few different upload options.

I did both options, and have 2 files uploaded now.

And I can see them on my home machine now in OneDrive\TestShare2

pparks1 · Feb 14, 2023

Haydon said:
Edit: Another issue, trying to send the URL directly from OneDrive to someone@gmail.com was not delivered because gmail rejected the email. However, sending the URL from Outlook to someone@gmail.com with the URL in the email body or with the URL in a text file attachment were both delivered.

When I choose to share from OneDrive, it asks me who to share with and the system automatically sends out the email with the Microsoft account I am using for OneDrive on my computer. In my case, it happens to be an old @hotmail.com account, but it delivered just fine to other gmail addresses I tried including someone@personaldomain.com (which happens to be hosted by the free Google workspaces account).

Haydon said:
Edit#2: I can set a password on the shared OneDrive folder (at least that was accepted by the system) but that someone@gmail.com was NOT required to enter a password. That means that the level of protection of the shared OneDrive folder is that of the gmail password.

This is correct. Access to the shared folder is based on "who" they are, and because it's their email that you have sent to, as long as they have the ability to provide and log into that email, that's all that OneDrive is going to require. That's the part that makes this shared only with them, they have to have that email and password. Otherwise, you would have had to choose "anybody with this link" and that can be shared to others, forwarded, etc, and would continue to work.

Haydon said:
I am still doing some experiments, but it does not look promising.

Like I said originally, you aren't really using these services for the purpose they were intended for. It's not intended to really be a file transfer protocol server where you setup unique usernames and passwords for each user and manage their access to the files.

TM21 · Feb 14, 2023

I see Dropbox mentioned over and over. I had Dropbox for a while, but when I uploaded a batch file that I had written myself, they declared it Copyrighted Software and deleted it. Arggg! I deleted Dropbox from my computer and I've never used it again.

At some time in the past I got sick and tired of all the Network Police deciding what I can send over the internet, so I just burn the files I want to send to a CD and Mail it!!! But that even doesn't work if the CD is going to Canada. The Gestapo won't allow CD's to be mailed into Canada. Or even hand carried, if they find it.

I'll keep watching this thread and see if I can learn something. I too like to share files, in the simplest manner possible.
TM

flashh4 · Feb 14, 2023

I have a lot of people (clients) send me their logs which sometimes has private info in them. They just send it by email & then i respond with a fix. Soon as we are satisfied we delete everything !

Haydon · Feb 14, 2023

@pparks1 Do you have OneDrive at your workplace? The pic below is cropped from your last pic

Secure and easy file sharing with non-geeks

Well-known member

Attachments

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Banned

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer