31–40 of 120 posts
Does anyone have an idea of how this is built? I wonder if they are using QUIC with relay servers or something like Tailscale's DERP.
If it's truly p2p, some relay would be there in case the client cannot be reached through NAT. Not sure how they would bear the cost of the bandwidth for unlimited transfers in that case
This is a minor OCD nitpick, but > at super fast speeds Fast speeds aren't a thing, just like cheap prices and wet waters aren't.
I wonder how widely usable is file sharing nowadays when most of the non tech people just use cloud services for their data, be it google docs or some cloud photo storage
Really not sure where you got that from, but even if it was true, most non-tech people will still shy away from putting a 250G file in a cloud service once they get prompted to upgrade their plan because they don't have enough space.
Free open source alternative: https://pairdrop.net
Magic Wormhole [1] also exists. [1] https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
I have a few qualms with this app: 1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software. 2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files to themselves or host them s…
Now let see if the founder(s) will reply here and to run it all back from start to IPO.
What would the founders do differently from dhouston this time?
Interesting that it says "Internet sending may be slower during peak times to keep things fair" even though it's supposed to be P2P? Maybe they just mean if you end up with a relayed connection due to NAT issues? Because lower down it says "Send as fast as your connection"
> When a direct connection isn’t possible, files travel through our servers.
Is this AirDrop but cross-platform?
No. AirDrop is for people who are physically nearby. This allows to send files between any computers anywhere. The other person must be a known contact but it doesn't have to be on the same local network like in AirDrop.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It looks like this lets you share files with people using a different operating system than MacOS. Does AirDrop let you do that?
His point is about it being a service vs just a peer to peer app
How do those 2 programs find out about each other?
Well, they need to use some server that will connect all users, allow you to find the other person in order to send them a file.
Even BitTorrent needs tracker servers to connect downloaders to uploaders.
Now, you could try to make it run without a company behind it, like BitTorrent.
I guess it's an exercise for the reader.
Someone still needs to run those connecting servers out of the goodness of their heart.
You would need to degrade the usability (the first thing a user would need to do is to configure the app with the address of at least one connecting server).
BitTorrent is anonymous but for sending files you need to connect to a person you know. If you enable contacting via the protocol, it'll be a phishing nightmare.
So you'll have to degrade usability some more and use a side channel (e.g. an email) to exchange identities with people you want to send file to (or receive files from).
By having a service and a company behind it, they are able to perfect the UX and run the necessary servers to implement that UX.
This is a minor OCD nitpick, but > at super fast speeds Fast speeds aren't a thing, just like cheap prices and wet waters aren't.
I have a few qualms with this app: 1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software. 2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files to themselves or host them s…
Hey isn't this the same famous reply as the one the Dropbox founder got here in HN ?
but yes, sure sounds like it!