Looking for ideas on private file sharing...

My bud and I were wanting to set up a file sharing system with each other. We both have a fiber line on a public ISP that we will be using. My first thought is to simply set up an FTP server but I have had mixed results with that in the past. I have found that FTP servers tend to be slow for some reason but maybe thats because the connections have always been slow or the computer was slow. We would be looking for simple protection like a username/password only so no encryption would be needed. Would an ftp server be the best thing or would something like a VPN be better? For some reason I cant figure out what would be the best solution here. I'm sure if someone gave me some ideas I could figure out how to set it up.

FTP will cover your needs. What most do not reliese is that your up-link speed is normally slow. Most residential DSL and Cable system limit the up-link speed to 384kbps and lower. So sending is slow but download speeds in the 3-5 mbps. Weather you host the ftp your self or use other servers, you will still have to deal with your uplink speed.