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Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

nofile.io

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Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#61

Post by alexwebb2 »

NoFile wrote: post #20
amelius wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's ridiculously difficult to share a single file online without a bunch of hassle. Most sites either riddle their pages with ads so you have to guess where the correct download button is and usually restrict useful features to their premium users. Imho, if you really want to be the "Google of file-sharing", then the UI should be a lot less distracting.

"Google of file-sharing" would be a too heavy title to hold right now. The animations are there in the background to give the site a comfortable touch, but it should be easy to distinguish them from the actual site content (e.g the download button comes inside a "box" with a different background color and animated icons hidden underneath). Perhaps it would be useful to add an option that toggles the animations on/off…

> Perhaps it would be useful to add an option that toggles the animations on/off.

If hundreds of people are telling you the animations are too much, kill the animations.

If a small handful of people are saying it, ignore them.

But please, please, do not add _any_ complexity to a small-margin, intentionally simple service like this in the hopes of pleasing everybody.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#63

Post by skrowl »

popey456963 wrote: post #59
ferbivore wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't storing and serving terabytes of stuff pretty expensive? How many heavy users do you think you'll manage to win over in the first place, much less convince them to pay for the privilege of uploading their 100GB of illicit car diagnostic software to your website? Do you have an actual niche you plan to target? I don't mean to be negative, it's just that I've seen the transition from free to freemium to ad-suppor…

I generally see prices of 2 cents per gigabyte per month for active storage, even less, most under half a cent per gigabyte per month for long-term archival. Assuming there were willing to fork out 10 dollars a month, they would be able to get around a terabyte of storage. Lets imagine our average citizen uploads quarter of a gigabyte, that means 4,000 visitors uploading files per $10 client. Assuming you can keep ot…

You're forgetting the transfer / bandwidth costs.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#64

Post by megawatthours »

From looking at "upload.js" you are using AES in counter mode.

    var aesCtr = new aesjs.ModeOfOperation.ctr(encryptionKeyBytes, new aesjs.Counter(-1));
Please use https://github.com/bitwiseshiftleft/sjcl which supports a very high-level sjcl.encrypt(passphrase, plaintext) API and has been audited, instead of using crypto primitives.

One specific issue is you are only encrypting, not authenticating, so if the servers are compromised someone could send back a fake plaintext.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#65

Post by orless »

I liked the service but I'm afraid it will end up like all the 1-click-hosters: as a storage for pirated content, blacklisted in most corporate networks.

Few comments:

Animated backgroud is very distracting. I'm constantly reacting to the new icons floating into the screen.

Underlined "Or" in "Click Here Or Drag & Drop To Start Uploading" makes me think it's some kind of a link. Any reason to underline it?

If I upload multiple files (which worked well) I want to be able to copy all the URLs at once. Displaying them in a text box would be good.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#66

Post by NoFile »

mrspeaker wrote: post #32

Just in the way of feedback (and I might be really out of the loop/not your target market!) but here was my brain-in-action after I clicked on the link from HN: "Hmm, this looks pretty... what is it for? It has a huge area that says "click here or drag and drop to start uploading"... but uploading what? And why? Let's scroll down and read the 'about'!: "Fast", "Compatible", "Encryption"... um... ok but WHY?! Is it pe…

Thanks for the feedback.

The upload box is the first and almost only thing that you see when you go to the page and the purpose is to make the process simple so that you don't have to click through to a second page in order to start uploading.

You do however have a point as it could be confusing for some new user who haven't uploaded files before. We'll try to add an info box or some additional text to make the message more clear, thanks for pointing it out.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#67

Post by megawatthours »

NoFile wrote: post #58
fcremo wrote: post #39

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that the encryption key for the file is the truncated SHA256 hash of the file itself. This is not how you want to generate an encryption key. Edit: also, password protection is enforced server side, and has nothing to do with encryption

The key is the truncated hash of the file for the purpose of file deduplication. However, it will not impose any security risks as the person who wishes to decrypt it would have to know the hash of the file which requires them to already know the contents of the file making it useless. The password encryption is indeed server-side, but it is mainly there to protect the file against anyone who somehow finds/guesses th…

> would have to know the hash of the file which requires them to already know the contents of the file

That is incorrect. Knowing the hash does not mean you know the contents of the file. You should generate encryption keys randomly, preferably using a secure random method such as that shipped with SJCL, rather than JavaScript's random API.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#68

Post by orless »

A few more:

Console gets spammed with "not active or paused - skipping speed" messages, what are these?

There seems to be an onclose-like handler which warns me that I might have not saved the changes (I've uploaded 6 files). Do I need to "save" somehow? I see no "Save" button, nothing similar.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#69

Post by NoFile »

orless wrote: post #65

I liked the service but I'm afraid it will end up like all the 1-click-hosters: as a storage for pirated content, blacklisted in most corporate networks. Few comments: Animated backgroud is very distracting. I'm constantly reacting to the new icons floating into the screen. Underlined "Or" in "Click Here Or Drag & Drop To Start Uploading" makes me think it's some kind of a link. Any reason to underline it? If I uploa…

The reasons to why NoFile won't become a storage site for pirated content is that uploaders aren't rewarded for downloads.

"Animated backgroud is very distracting. I'm constantly reacting to the new icons floating into the screen."

Another user pointed this out and a toggle for the animations will be added to the settings so that you can turn them off.

'Underlined "Or" in "Click Here Or Drag & Drop To Start Uploading" makes me think it's some kind of a link. Any reason to underline it?'

It's underlined just to separate the two options (clicking and dragging) for those who just read the "Click Here" part and assume that the rest of the sentence is just a description to why they should click here (e.g "Click here to start uploading your file").

"If I upload multiple files (which worked well) I want to be able to copy all the URLs at once. Displaying them in a text box would be good."

Instead of a text box there could be checkboxes next to each file allowing you to copy URLs and delete files in bulk. We'll work on adding this as soon as possible, thanks for your suggestion.

Re: Show HN: NoFile.io – A simple file storage site with lots of perks

#70

Post by NoFile »

orless wrote: post #68

A few more: Console gets spammed with "not active or paused - skipping speed" messages, what are these? There seems to be an onclose-like handler which warns me that I might have not saved the changes (I've uploaded 6 files). Do I need to "save" somehow? I see no "Save" button, nothing similar.

"not active or paused - skipping speed" is sent from the upload speed and estimated time measurement function and won't affect your upload.

The warning message that you receive when trying to close the page is only there to prevent accidental exits and in case you're in the middle of an upload or if you haven't copied the URLs of the uploaded files.

Unfortunately browsers no longer allow you to change the warning message, hence why it's telling you to save.

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