How can I share files between two Linux machines over LAN?

In Nautilus, select File | Connect to Server ...

There are a lot of options to share a file-system over a network in unix/linux. Nautilus supports some of them: ssh, webdav, ftp, smb and others. Obviously, any of these solutions requires that the corresponding daemon is running on remote host.

NFS is unix native "standard" way to share a file-system in a lan but the time needed to configure and manage such a solution is not worth the result in a so simple network as yours. IMHO, ssh is the best solution in your environment.

Usually ssh is used to log on and to execute commands on a remote machine. The way you connect to the remote machine is not the way to share a file-system but the way to execute remote commands. If you want to mount a remote file system via ssh via command line, try something like: sshfs remoteusername@host:/home/remoteusername /home/localusername/somedir (or use nautilus wizard).

You can use the secure copy command if the main aim behind sharing the mount to point is to copy/ move files:

$ scp [email protected]:foobar.txt /some/local/directory

http://www.hypexr.org/linux_scp_help.php