Sharing files over network can save you a lot of time especially when the receiver is connected to the same network as you are. This article will go over how to share files in a given directory using a simple http server built into python. This requires the devices you want to share your files with to be connected to the same network as you are.

Getting Started

• Make sure you have python installed: run ‘python’ in the terminal and if it is installed you should get the output for the installed version
• Make sure you are connected to a network
• Make sure your firewall doesn’t block incoming http network requests on the same network.

Starting the python simple server

• Go to your terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and run the following command inside the directory you wish to share

$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer

• You should get output similar to this:

Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ...

Accessing the shared directory

On your device:

Open up your browser and type:

localhost:8000

On another device:

Open up the browser and type:

http://[ip address of the server]:8000
#without the square brackets of course

And you’re done, you should be able to view the files inside the shared directory

Cheers.