33 representatives of 24 organizations (including 20 NRENs) from 22 countries participated in the FileSender Online Infoshare on February 26, 2026. Complementing the annual meeting at GÉANT’s TNC26 conference, this online gathering gave FileSender community enthusiasts – users and developers – the opportunity not just to listen in and be kept abreast of recent updates and new developments, but also to contribute: present their views, exchange experiences, and share expectations.
FileSender aims to be a widely deployed service enabling anyone to easily and securely transfer files of any size from any person or machine to any other person or machine. FileSender explicitly targets mass usage and is built to service the 99% of users who would rather spend their time on other things than figuring out how to perform large file transfers.
Sérgio Leal Fonseca of RNP, the Brazilian NREN that played a major role in implementing the new user interface (UI) available since the FileSender version 3.0 production release on December 18, 2025, after over a year of field testing at various sites, showed its fresh design. FileSender maintained the robust engine from version 2.x, focusing on modernizing the service by enhancing user experience in version 3.x. He presented both options for sending large files: i) getting a transfer link and ii) sending and emailing a transfer. He also highlighted the invitation functionality – the possibility to offer a voucher to individuals from third-party organisations to access FileSender. All these features have become more user-friendly and intuitive. He further shared his experience of FileSender 3.x has been in stable production at RNP for about two years, making it easier for end-users to navigate and perform key actions.
All current Gold- and Silver-level contributors – AARNet (Australia), Asiera (Ireland), Belnet (Belgium), RNP (Brazil), SURF (the Netherlands) and Switch (Switzerland) – benefit from their logos appearing in the FileSender banner as of version 3.0.
Jan Meijer of Sikt, the Norwegian NREN, and Chair of the FileSender Board, urged all current FileSender deployments to upgrade their service from version 2.x to version 3.x by following the upgrading instructions and new sites to install FileSender version 3.x.
Michael D’Silva of AARNet, the Australian NREN, showed a live demo of the updated statistics page, now available as a built-in feature in the 3.x series for FileSender admins. He explained how all relevant detailed statistics regarding FileSender usage at an institutional level – presented with graphs and charts – can be easily shared with the connected organisations. FileSender admins can view all institutes, while institutional admins (special users with the newly added ‘tenant admin’ user role) can only see statistics for their institute. This makes it straightforward to identify heavy users based on transfer size/frequency and to observe trends for peak usage times, supporting effective planning for upgrades and maintenance. FileSender version 3.6 introduces a ‘Generate download scripts’ button on the transfers page. This new feature allows users to download data via some external automation or HPC job. It supports curl, wget, the FileSender CLI Client, and can also simply list the URL to each file selected in your transfer.
Sérgio Leal Fonseca provided an overview of the FileSender mobile client, developed by RNP for their end-users. As people generate more content via smartphones or tablets, such a mobile client application becomes a useful tool. It has the same basic functionality and workflow as the FileSender version 3.x web application, being connected to the RNP FileSender server. At the moment, the mobile client is available only to the RNP community. RNP is open to contributing it to the broader FileSender community, making it a part of the ‘standard package’. The FileSender Board will follow up with RNP to assess the necessary work and long-term commitments required to make the mobile client accessible to all FileSender community members. If you would like to see a mobile client in your hands, share your interest with us by contacting the FileSender Board.
Rogier Spoor of SURF, the Dutch NREN, and member of the FileSender Board, spoke about a feasibility study recently made at SURF (on Belnet’s request). The study examined the creation of an Outlook plug-in that could automatically detect when an end-user is sending a large file and help transfer it via FileSender, or at least inform users about such a possibility. While feasibility has been proven, further automation, better integration, and a simpler process for entering the required API key are still needed.
Ben Martin, the Lead Developer for FileSender, described the recent issues and tasks to be tackled.
The meeting was an interactive one, providing newcomers with the opportunity to ask questions and receive valuable insights from the wider FileSender community.
The encouraging progress of FileSender, as an open source project, happens when individuals and organisations are willing to collaborate and to contribute their time and resources. Any FileSender user can join us and get involved in the FileSender development effort – we would love to see your participation and help! All contributions are always warmly welcomed, big and small. If you think the FileSender software is valuable and you want to support its continued development financially or in-kind, please let us know by sending an email directly to the FileSender Board.
Please see Support and Mailing lists to stay updated on the latest FileSender developments and important news.
