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Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

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Re: Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

#62
post #19
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started using Firefox Send recently, I have been really impressed with the simplicity and easy of use. I haven’t tried it, but it is open source and possible to self-host if you so chose. But for the time being it remains free, and you can share up to a generous 2.5 GB if you log in with a Firefox account so I see no reason to put in the effort yet. That being said, Sharedrop seems to be a different use case, only…

Meanwhile, I found the 2.5 GB limit on Firefox Send really frustrating this weekend when I was trying to send 80 GB of raw video files to a friend. :) Turns out there's very few options available for really large P2P file transfers, short of hosting an FTP server.

Setup a syncthing folder share with your friend.

Drop your 80gb in the folder

Data syncs over p2p e2ee overnight.

Friend removes the copy from their sync folder and it vanishes from yours

Re: Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

#64
post #19
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started using Firefox Send recently, I have been really impressed with the simplicity and easy of use. I haven’t tried it, but it is open source and possible to self-host if you so chose. But for the time being it remains free, and you can share up to a generous 2.5 GB if you log in with a Firefox account so I see no reason to put in the effort yet. That being said, Sharedrop seems to be a different use case, only…

Meanwhile, I found the 2.5 GB limit on Firefox Send really frustrating this weekend when I was trying to send 80 GB of raw video files to a friend. :) Turns out there's very few options available for really large P2P file transfers, short of hosting an FTP server.

This exact use case - sharing many GB of raw movies and pictures - is solved really well by Resilio Sync.

https://www.resilio.com/individuals/

Re: Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

#65
post #56
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question! I considered it, but I wasn't able to find a clear answer whether it was secure or not. If somebody had access to the tracker backend or were inspecting the DHT traffic, would they be able to download the files without the original .torrent file? (Most of the BitTorrent docs assume you're intending to distribute the files publicly.) Not that the data was really worth protecting — it was just GoPro vid…

Well, you could use a private tracker/one that doesn't dump it's torrent-list publicly, and mark the torrent file itself as private, so your client won't share it on the DHT. Also, encrypting is orthogonal.

Then find yourself shocked when the far end's torrent client ignores the private setting?

Re: Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

#66

To get reliable WebRTC don't you need a Turn server to relay your traffic when the NAT is too bad? Where does this get a Turn server?

Hi! ShareDrop author here. It doesn't use any TURN servers and that's why it doesn't work if one is required.

Re: Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

#67

I guess it would be a bit better to call it “inspired” by AirDrop rather than a “clone”, as it doesn’t use AWDL for discovery (rather, it seems to use Firebase).

Hi! ShareDrop author here. Thanks for the suggestion - I've updated it in the repo description and in README file.

Re: Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

#68
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like it would be a cool side project to create a minimal iOS app that simply acts as a share target for this. Similarly for android and Windows. That would make it much easier to send. You’d still have to either visit the site or scan the QR code to receive, but making sending smoother would be a dramatic improvement. AirDrop is one of those things that is truly wonderful in how easily and simply it works, but…

I want an app in the Share menu of macOS that enables me to send content to any executable (e.g. shell script). Services menu isn't the same and too many steps to set up.

Not exactly what you're looking for, but I do something similar with https://pilotmoon.com/popclip/

Re: Sharedrop – Easy P2P file transfer powered by WebRTC

#70
post #35
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclosure, I work at Dropbox: but did you consider paying for a tool? Or were you mostly interested in free options?

I tried uploading the archive to iCloud, but the server rejected it as too large. None of my other cloud storage accounts had enough free space. Paying for extra space seemed overkill, given that this was literally a one-time P2P file transfer. I really should just be able to send a file to another IP address without having to pay for storage somewhere.

Would rsync have worked? A bit of googling gives this as the best set of answers I can find

https://serverfault.com/questions/53531/copy-large-file-from...

Sorry to keep bike shedding this!

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