Sharing files on a network generally requires some amount of configuration, know-how and time. Things get even geekier when you have different machines running different operating systems. Damien showed you how to use Giver back in March. There is however, a simpler solution if you don't want to go through all the steps of setting up a share. Enter Meiga.

Meiga is one of the best file sharing programs to share files across your network or over the Internet. Meiga is available for Linux (you can access files from other operating systems as well). Download the deb packages for Meiga from here. If you use other non-debian based distributions, you would have to compile from source.

Once installed, fire up the GUI. (Applications > Internet > Meiga in Ubuntu). You would be greeted by a minimalist window like this.

Click on add and browse to the directory you want to share, choose the share name, you should remove any spaces and make the name as simple as possible.

That is it, you have shared the folder successfully. Was it easy or what?

The person on the other side doesn't need to install anything as long as a web browser or an http download manager is available. She would have to know your IP address and the share name to be able to access the files. Meiga makes it easy by showing you the URL in the statusbar as you click on each share. This is the URL other person would have to visit to access the files.

If you are on a network (like your home network) chances are you would be knowing the IP addresses on your machines, so getting a file simply means browsing to http://[ip address]:8001/[share name] and you would see a list of all the files and folders within the shared folder.

If you are sharing files across the Internet, then of course, you would have to communicate the share's URL to the other end via email or chat.

If you have a dynamic IP and want to make your shares available for a longer period of time over the Internet, you might want to look into dynamic DNS which we discussed briefly. dyndns would map your current IP to a domain name, so that it points to your computer, irrespective of IP address changes.

While the ability to share files with ease is the stronghold of Meiga, it can certainly do with some basic features like password protection the ability to view all shares on a particular computer. All in all Meiga is great for easy, no fuss file sharing with minimal effort.

Do you know of any similar application that's also a great file sharing program? Share with us in comments.