Whats Happening Around Me these days?

So I wondered what is happening today? Well the BBC has highlighted yet another Internet shattering 'bug'. PHP the programming language of nearly all the web sites of the Internet has a major 'security hole'. The war in the Gulf carries on. The war in Ukraine carries on. My friend and fellow radio amateur, 'D' wanted to connect two PCs together and transfer files. 

I can remember a time when two PCs only had RS232 Serial ports or Parallel printer ports. Connecting the two together was fraught with 'problems'. An RS232 cross-over cable had to be found or fabricated. A 'Lap-Link' cable had to be bought or made to suit the printer port connector. At the time the pin-out diagrams were kept secret to some and hoarded by others looking to charge for their services.

Not long after this networking started in earnest. ARCnet, EtherNet (Coax cable then UTP) and others who looked down on us 'plebs'. They were runnning the way of the future - Token Ring.  [That faded away not long after!]

Networking in general really leapt forward with the Windows for Workgroups arriving on just about every PC of the day. People (users) could copy files to a 'shared drive' in seconds or minutes depending on how far away they were... Sometimes it was Cape Town from Johannesburg over the 'Wide Area Network'. This really could spoil your day as printing something in Cape Town by accident meant asking somebody to courier it back to you in Joeys!

But copying from one PC to another, well that mostly meant the copying to a floppy or 'stiffy' and transferring it at home. Nowadays it means copying over the home network or WiFi. Not as easy and needs a lot of head scratching. 

If you are running Windwoes then you will have to jump through some hoops. To enable the PC or Laptop to 'see' the PCs on your network. Or to make your PC 'visible' to others on your network. Once that is done you will have to find the other PC/Laptop. 

In 'D's case he had two linux laptops. It should be simple... but of course it wasn't that straight forward. 

1) Switch on both laptops. Login to both and find the 'dark place' - sorry command line/terminal. So you can type things!

2) Find the ip address of both PCs or Laptops. It used to be a simple. Just type 'ifconfig' [interface configuration] but of course that is so last decade! These days - 2026 - it is 'ip address'. Which will spew a lot of text information. Look closer it will show you the actual number of the laptop on the local network.

3) Now if both are connected to the WiFi or via cable to the router then you should check. For this you use the 'internet groper'! Ha! Look up what PING stands for then use it as 'ping <ip address>'. This should get a response from the other PC. If you forget and type the same address as the laptop you are on you will get a response as well. When you see loads of it wandering off the top of the screen, don't panic! Just use 'control and C' to break the list and return to the prompt.

[As an sidenote: Try https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/computer-networks/what-is-ping/  for a definition]

4) Once you have 'pinged' the other PC and shown there is a connection. You can set up a 'connection'. There are many ways to do this. For simplicity find your 'file manager' and select/click on it. It depends on your PC but most times it has a lot of functions. Just the one you need is a secure connection. So see if it has a 'connect to server' one. I use 'pcmanfm' as I have lubuntu [lightweight Ubuntu]. In  that from the 'Go' menu there is a 'Connect to Server...'. I am sure you can find similar in your PC. 

[In windwoes you might have to read the help!]

5) Once you have 'connected' the one laptop to the other you should be able to 'see' the other's files and folders. Copying should be simple and easy. The file manager will warn you if there is an identical file on the other PC.

6) But what about a 'bare bones' approach? Can you simply copy files? Can you see the other's files and folders? 

Well yes you can. Maybe you remember Xtree or MC [Midnight Commander] ...

Sorry Peter I meant to use your application.

In linux you can use 'mc' - [Midnight Commander] - for all your file utilities. It is a command line useful program. You can set it up to copy between PCs over the network [any network even  the internet].

So this started something...

How about if the two PCs are different operating systems?

How about if they are connected on Ethernet cable or one with and one without?

This sent me into a 'rabbit hole'. I thought about how it had been one of the first  'things' we talked about when we started 'Ham-Comp'. That is Amateur Radio and Computers for the West Rand Club. What if the PCs are old or very old? I wrote a manual for that! Yes I am talking about last century PCs. Not all of them had network cards.

So this meant if I was going to continue down this path, I should consider all the possible options. I sketched out a 'decision tree'. This took me back...

If you want to know more about a 'decision tree'. It should help you 'see' what I am talking about. I started one and ran out of paper!

More to come...