G2Peer Shares Your Files Through Gmail
Windows only: Free application g2Peer shares files with friends by using your Gmail account as a virtual “IP address”.
Once installed, you need to log into g2Peer with your Gmail account information. Then it’s as easy as adding Gmail addresses of people you wish to share with and the folders and files you want them to see. Likewise, other users can install g2Peer if they wish to allow you access to their files as well.
If you can’t install g2Peer on a computer but you still want access to your shared files, the application also features command line-esque tools that allow you to access files directly from your Gmail account—using email subject lines for the commands. For example, sending an email to your specified Gmail account with either ?_list or ?_download in the subject line have special meaning to g2Peer. Using ?_list will send you back an email listing all the files that are being shared with you. Using ?_download and adding the names of the files you wish to download to the body of the message will send you the files you wish to download via email, along with instructions on how to download/open them. It’s a little geeky, but also fairly cool.
g2Peer is freeware for Windows only.
g2Peer [via Life Rocks 2.0]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@Jason: Geeky is used affectionately, I assure you.
Cannot believe that Lifehacker is always recommending services / software applications where you have to provide your secret username and password to third party accounts. It's like you recommend people to write and publish their username and password here in the comment form :-(
@Jason: I Like Better Homes & Gardens :D.
And, you're missing an important part of the name, heres a hint, you know its more important because they put it before the 'hacker' part.
Marc Mohon
I find it ironic and insulting that a site with "hacker" in the name would use the word geeky as a pejorative. But then, these days, your definition of a "hack" is saving $5 on an Ikea desktop caddy.
Lifehacker is about as "hacker" as Better Homes and Gardens, a publication which it resembles more and more with every passing day.
Jason
@Mindstyle: No kidding. Gbridge does all this and more.
Cyfun
Whats wrong with Gbridge?
Mindstyle
@ddthesm: This is nothing new, people have used gmail for file sharing since the first private invites went out. Some apps treat it as a newsgroup, some like ftp space... This is just another approach to the same old file sharing shenanigans.
If Google cares to respond to this, there are only 2 ways they can really stop it.
The First way as you suggest, is simply to restrict file types, impose size limits, timed expirations on files etc. The problem is, that won't actually stop it. People will use ASCII encoding and break their files up into pieces of text over several messages. The recipient simply combines and decodes. Or they'll part it out in rar files. There are still dozens of ways you can do this without 3rd party software and fall within their terms of use.
The second way would be for google to provide their users with a legit, above the table way to share files with friends. People use Base, Page Creator, and other such google tools to do this already.
Which method sounds more like the Google we've seen in the past?
@TheBastion: Exactly. When things set of flags, they investigate.
corneliuscrab
@mfusion: o i didn't see that article. i just came up with that idea, i guess i wasn't the first though. good to know that "_" trick too. thanks
@mfusion: maybe because it was a big file, it set off flags on their end which caused them to investigate?
@TheBastion: your doubts are proven wrong.
no i'm not picking on you, but your information is incorrect.
i use Gmail Drive sometimes and the last large file i uploaded got me locked out of that userid before it finished uploading. couldn't restart that account for at least 24 hours.
@TheBastion: you must be new here. this has been covered in depth, at least twice in the last week. really, just this past week.
the best solution seems not to change the whole fileextension, but to append it with a character afterwards like "_"
Thumbs up for Gogol Bordello!
dl__
@TheBastion: At school my class shared a gmail account to exchange notes and stuff. Too many people logged into it in too close a time (long story), and it frequently refused to allow anyone to log in. But then again, that was A LOT of people. If you're sharing between 5-10 people, you're pretty safe. But it occurred frequently for us.
@goodywitch: hmm. good point. im kinda doubting they would do that though
@TheBastion: actually i just realized you can if you change the file extension to .txt before you send
@TheBastion: Yes. If activity is suspicious, then you'll be unable to get to that email account.
@gravi_t: does it matter?
Are you sure this does not break the Gmail TOS?
hm.. i thought this is what Peer2Mail did? =\
@Yoics. If this were truly abusive, I'm pretty sure the Goog would have squashed it long ago.
The mechanism would make for a nice infographic though.
really REALLY bad idea
liku
to bad you
Welp, there goes Gmail's somewhat lenient policy on file uploading....
As cool as this technology is-STOP ABUSING, it's an e-mail client, not limewire
ddthesm
Great in concept. Outrageously lacking in details about security, as in... who's getting the password I'm putting in, what's the security on file transfers, etc.
Lifehacker, we trust that you will research things like this rather than just throw out a link for the eager experimenters of us to follow. Even an acknowledgment that no mention of security is made by the developer (and a privacy statement is absent from their site as well) would be better than nothing.
Having said all that, I just went and installed it.
/slaps back of head/
Are there limitations on the size of files you are transferring? and how are the transfer rates?
Won't be able to try this until i get home tonight >.< stupid work...
Eavangel