Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#211

Post by slt2021 » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 1:35 AM UTC

JadeNB wrote: post #57

pjc50 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Securely" is doing a lot of work here; you need some out of band mechanism to transfer the link in the first place, to determine who you're getting the file from, and then you might as well use that to transfer the file instead. Also people want to be able to do it asynchronously, so they use things like WeTransfer. During the brief period that open Airdrop / bluetooth file transfer was a thing, there was a short fa…

> During the brief period that open Airdrop / bluetooth file transfer was a thing, there was a short fad of spamming porn to nearby people on public transport. So that was the end of that. My recollection is that the end of that was Apple's worry about the protests in China, not any concern about spam on public transit. (The first Google hit: https://restofworld.org/2022/apple-airdrop-china-memes/ .)

I had a lot of fun airdropping rickroll videos to nearby phones while waiting for rides in disneyland

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#212

Post by dicknuckle » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 1:44 AM UTC

rplnt wrote: post #92

mrweasel wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Vivaldi have both RSS and email, it's sort of the spiritual successor to the original Opera.... I miss the old Opera.

Vivaldi is roughly 1000 times slower. You need a pretty good computer to run that UI. It also lacks extremely basic features Opera had; like working LRU tab switching. I liked the idea, but it's impossible to recommend.

have you tried Otter Browser?

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#213

Post by pbhjpbhj » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 1:52 AM UTC

culopatin wrote: post #38

Springtime wrote: post #29

Opera browser used to have P2P file transfers as a short lived feature in ~2010, called Unite. I remember it also had skeuomorphic GUI of a 'fridge' where users could put post-it style notes that could be seen by others. One of many everything-and-the-kitchen-sink features Opera Presto had during its heyday. Others included a separate Bittorrent client, desktop widgets that could be moved outside of the browser windo…

Can we have that do-it-all Opera back? RSS, email, torrents. Feels like we had it all internet wise in 2007-2010 and then decided to throw it all away.

Do you mean Opera Unite, that had p2p file sharing and a 'wall' (I think it was termed the fridge door, all your verified users could leave you notes/images on it IIRC).

I blogged about it back in the day (15 years ago), https://alicious.com/opera-about-to-change-the-world/.

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#214

Post by seanwessmith » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 2:33 AM UTC

is there any tool for p2p audio? something to communicate with friends while gaming would be cool

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#215

Post by toomim » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 2:37 AM UTC

smallerize wrote: post #63

smusamashah wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a p2p tool btw.

It can be, if you send files larger than 5GB. https://wormhole.app/faq

Yeah, it uses webtorrent behind the scenes: https://webtorrent.io

...which is freaking awesome torrent software, by the way.

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#216

Post by tredre3 » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 4:00 AM UTC

j_maffe wrote: post #86

wackget wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my constant frustration with phones. I sit behind a keyboard, mouse, monitor, and an incredibly powerful desktop operating system for 99% of the working day. These devices are pretty much the pinnacle of human-computer interaction; arguably the best tools we have for interacting with digital content with speed and efficiency. But as soon as I want to do something involving my phone, I have to physically reach…

If you're on Windows I highly recommend Link to Phone

Link to Phone sends all your data (Messages, calls, notifications) to Microsoft. It also requires a Microsoft account. Admittedly for file transfers it's a bit different, if you're on the same network it will attempt a direct connection so MS won't get your files. It still sends the meta data (file names, file sizes) to Microsoft, though.

Similar issues with Smart Connect from Motorola.

An entirely local solution like KDE Connect is better, if your situation permits it. Unfortunately it has been quite unreliable for me (and I have tried many devices) but it seems to work just fine for others!

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#217

Post by theendisney » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 4:02 AM UTC

Springtime wrote: post #29

Opera browser used to have P2P file transfers as a short lived feature in ~2010, called Unite. I remember it also had skeuomorphic GUI of a 'fridge' where users could put post-it style notes that could be seen by others. One of many everything-and-the-kitchen-sink features Opera Presto had during its heyday. Others included a separate Bittorrent client, desktop widgets that could be moved outside of the browser windo…

Someone made a torrent website software for it which spawned something like 50 good torrent websites. Combined with the build in torrent client and irc client it made a wonderfull experience.

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#218

Post by anacrolix » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 5:09 AM UTC

latexr wrote: post #151

The thing that usually annoys me about these services is they tend to give you an intractably complex URL to share with the recipient. This poses a problem because every time I need such a P2P transfer, I’m communicating with someone over the phone and they need the file on a computer (which may not even be their own, so email is also cumbersome). https://file.pizza does this better than most, as the URL consists of…

What about creating and seeding a torrent with a CLI then creating a shortlink to magnet link?

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#219

Post by nikisweeting » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 6:19 AM UTC

eptcyka wrote: post #204

nikisweeting wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CGNAT is increasingly common for large ISPs as IPv4 gets expensive. There are entire regions of brazil where all residential internet is CGNAT'ed, making any video calls between those users symmetric NAT.

What part of CGNAT requires the network address translation to be symmetrical?

> A symmetric NAT is one where all requests from the same internal IP address and port, to a specific destination IP address and port, are mapped to the same external IP address and port.

My understanding is that it's not "required", but most of the CGNAT routers I've encountered do symmetric NAT, and they force-randomize the source port for each new connection, then keep it fixed for one external ip:port for some "session" duration, defeating traditional hole-punching.

When I've tried to build WebRTC P2P stuff I've experienced this making direct P2P WebRTC connections between CGNAT users nearly impossible, always requiring at least one node with a re-usable hole-punched public udp port or a relay server.

Re: Peer-to-peer file transfers in the browser

#220

Post by rplnt » Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 6:20 AM UTC

dicknuckle wrote: post #212

rplnt wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vivaldi is roughly 1000 times slower. You need a pretty good computer to run that UI. It also lacks extremely basic features Opera had; like working LRU tab switching. I liked the idea, but it's impossible to recommend.

have you tried Otter Browser?

It's been a while, 8-10 years ago maybe? But quick look now tells me it's still one person effort. That's both awesome and unfortunate. I wish it got more traction back then to attract more active user/dev base.