OnShare Updates File-Sharing Tools

Combo of Web-based and downloadable apps lets you share files with the world or selected pals.

Lincoln Spector, special to PC World

The free OnShare service allows you to share files residing either on OnShare's server or on your own PC. All you need to download files is a Web browser you can point to OnShare's site. But if you want to share your own files, you'll need the OnShare File Manager software, as well.

OnShare just released a new version, 2.01, of the OnShare File Manager for Windows. The company also introduced a Java version that should run on any platform supporting Java 2, and it offers a Linux version.

Alleviating Safety Worries

If you're going to be putting files up on the Internet, security is an obvious high priority. Sure, there may be some files you want to share with everyone, but others will be for a select few.

OnShare allows you to designate who gets access to your files. You can create public groups for everyone, private groups for a select few, or groups that only you can access--a way to make important files available as you move between computers.

With version 2.01, security is beefed up. OnShare now supports Blowfish encryption and Secure Sockets Layer.

But the technology isn't always friendly with other forms of security. One troubling issue involves firewalls. If you've got one, you may not be able to share files on your computer. Since sharing files requires an always-on connection, and anyone with such a connection should have a firewall, this is a serious problem. OnShare is working on a solution.

OnShare has set up its own file-sharing Web site primarily to show off its technology, which it hopes to license to corporations. The site contains a wide range of categories covering every possible interest, from science and architecture to education and business, in hopes that people will post public files for others to download.

As of now, however, these groups are almost all entirely empty. Presumably they will fill up if the site becomes successful.

The one exception to this lack of material is music. You'll find plenty of MP3s on OnShare, begging comparison to the controversial Napster, another combination of software and Web site designed for file sharing. But, according to OnShare vice president Patara Yongvanich, "Most of the MP3s on our site are completely legal."