WebShare

WebShare is a web server app that lets you share files with other PCs. The app was designed to make sharing videos and music files with iPhones and iPads an easy task, and it accomplishes that just fine.

I was able to quickly share an MP4 file encoded using H.264 with my iPad and it played the file just fine. All I had to do was add the files that I wanted to share and start the service. On the iPad I used Safari and typed in the IP address of my Mac. Safari quickly showed the files that I shared and when I tapped one of them, it started playing after a few seconds. The playback was smooth and the iPad didn't have to buffer even once.

There is a help tab that explains how the application works and how to configure it. I also like that when you start the service, your IP address and the port used are shown at the top of the screen, which makes the process of searching for your Mac on an iPad easier.

Perhaps the only bad thing that I found about this application is that you have to restart the service whenever you make changes to your shared files.