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Iroh 1.0

iroh.computer

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Re: Iroh 1.0

#341

Post by grumbel »

apitman wrote: post #255

If you're new to Iroh, my mental model is roughly "Tailscale at the application layer instead of the network layer". If your question is, "why not just use Tailscale?", look at it from an app developer's perspective. If you want to release an app and have instances of your app be able to easily connect to each other, you could theoretically embeded Tailscale functionality into your app, but then the users of your app…

That explanation still seems overly complicated. Iroh isn't a VPN. Iroh just lets apps connect to each other, just like plain old TCP, but without the shackles of NAT, DNS and dynamic IP addresses that made that impossible. It's restoring simple P2P connectivity to the Internet.

Re: Iroh 1.0

#342

Post by otabdeveloper4 »

octoberfranklin wrote: post #201
Thaxll wrote: post #46

I don't understand the problem its trying to solve in the first place, IP works just fine, such as DNS. There is already IPv6 and quic, you need vendor and major software to have any traction in that field.

DNS is highly centralized. Iroh isn't.

DNS isn't centralized at all.

The top-level domain registrars are centralized. But you don't need to use them - you're free to use your own TLD's instead of, or even in parallel to, the official ones.

Re: Iroh 1.0

#344

Post by rklaehn »

nicebyte wrote: post #256
guywithahat wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're missing is that they can't charge you for IP's, and someone else already charges you for DNS/domains. They would like to replace your IP's with keys they lookup. It's a cool idea and I would expect that they'll find a market, but I'm not sure this would be a breakthrough product for me

that just sounds like DNS but more centralized and not super human-friendly...

Iroh endpoint ids are just Ed25519 keypairs. We don't want you to charge per id, and even if we wanted there is no way we could.

We charge you for hosted relays and additional insights into your deployment, but the core is and will always remain free. Everything is licensed MIT and Apache2.

Re: Iroh 1.0

#345

Post by colinmarc »

samrus wrote: post #329
apitman wrote: post #255

If you're new to Iroh, my mental model is roughly "Tailscale at the application layer instead of the network layer". If your question is, "why not just use Tailscale?", look at it from an app developer's perspective. If you want to release an app and have instances of your app be able to easily connect to each other, you could theoretically embeded Tailscale functionality into your app, but then the users of your app…

Its amazing to me how people can make a great a product. And then completely bury the lead because they are so deep into the guts of the system You explained the value proposition so well. The website just didnt get to the "why?" At all

It's primarily an open source library, not a product.

I don't understand why HN seems so concerned about nailing down its "value proposition".

Re: Iroh 1.0

#346

Post by wngr »

Kudos to the n0 team shipping 1.0! Truly exciting, stellar technical approach and execution; I hope you guys will get sufficient commercial traction to keep going!

Re: Iroh 1.0

#347

Post by rklaehn »

aag wrote: post #303

For a side project, I used Iroh to give my web server in the cloud the ability to print directly to my label printer at home. The API is simple and easy to use. It took no time to write a reliable system on top of Iroh.

Very cool project. I seriously wish one of the printer vendors would use iroh to come up with a network printing standard that just works.

We constantly have issues with our printer. I have fewer issues with my bambu 3d printer than with my (also very expensive) epson inkjet.

These people need to get their shit together, seriously. The way things are going we will have full AGI before we have working printers.

If somebody want to do this, please reach out to us. We are eager to help. But this is one of the most annoying things ever with computers.

Re: Iroh 1.0

#348

Post by worldsayshi »

grumbel wrote: post #341
apitman wrote: post #255

If you're new to Iroh, my mental model is roughly "Tailscale at the application layer instead of the network layer". If your question is, "why not just use Tailscale?", look at it from an app developer's perspective. If you want to release an app and have instances of your app be able to easily connect to each other, you could theoretically embeded Tailscale functionality into your app, but then the users of your app…

That explanation still seems overly complicated. Iroh isn't a VPN. Iroh just lets apps connect to each other, just like plain old TCP, but without the shackles of NAT, DNS and dynamic IP addresses that made that impossible. It's restoring simple P2P connectivity to the Internet.

Also, all connections in iroh are end-to-end encrypted.

Re: Iroh 1.0

#349

Post by Arqu »

sva_ wrote: post #244
morphism wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the frontpage doesn't go in depth, the docs quickly do: First with https://docs.iroh.computer/what-is-iroh and then following up with the how it works section. The docs are actually good from what I can see so far. From what questions you brought up so for it seems to answer them pretty quickly.

The doc still doesn't show what such a 'key' looks like? Why can't there be a simple infographic that goes like 127.0.0.1 -> 'key'

I suggest going through https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwAt36Xe3UI for an explainer.

Re: Iroh 1.0

#350

Post by metaketa »

alterom wrote: post #284
rklaehn wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. We use DNS TXT records for our default address lookup system. But we also support fully p2p address lookup via the mainline DHT. And if you have another suitable system, you can also plug it in. E.g. you might want to use another DHT that allows mapping from a key to some address data.

Do I understand this correctly on a semantic level as "MAC address for the Internet"? (Or, in so many words: an alternative for dynamic DNS without a centralized/hierarchical lookup infrastructure that punches through NATs without all the associated hassle). I.e., the problem is "communicate directly with a node on the Internet by its unique ID". The big question is: what do you solve that Kademlia (BitTorrent) doesn…

this is a VERY good writeup of all problems in the stack chronologically that must have cost you time. Thank you for this!
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