5 ms·

Hamachi: A billion-dollar tech revolution that can still happen if you build it.

59 points by rantfoil 17y ago

gsiener 17y ago
Was surprised when I recently tried to setup Hamachi and realized that it was no longer free. Bummer. Will IPv6 be able to fix any of this pain?
- wmf 17y ago
  Yes, Teredo does some of what Hamachi does.
dotBen 17y ago
There is ripe opportunity for someone to build this technology again (perhaps innovate in places, but not necessarily) and work to a free-mium model. A great business could be made from $3-month pro accounts, as there is a massive amount of people who would love to use this but are not going to pay $200 year/seat for this technology.
- aaronbrethorst 17y ago
  I'd be skeptical of any product that guaranteed to keep my data safe and only cost $3/mo. Depending on usage, it could be really interesting to consider a Fog Creek Copilot-like business model: charge a reasonable monthly fee for unfettered access and a small fee for one-off usage. That way, you could nail that $3 a pop sort of usage, and guarantee yourself a steady stream of income at the $20-$30 range.
  - wmf 17y ago
    Did people use Hamachi to keep their data safe or to ease NAT/firewall traversal?
    - noodle 17y ago
      i used it for gaming
      - krakensden 17y ago
        Which is a large part of the reason new PC games don't support LAN play.
    - andrewtj 17y ago
      If it was for the later, I think Wide-Area Bonjour (DNS-SD) is a good substitute. Bonjour handles port-forwarding via NAT-PMP or uPnP as well service discovery. I have a bias or two though (see profile).
    - ericd 17y ago
      I used it for playing games in LAN mode.
- metamemetics 17y ago
  $200/year is only for business license. Hamachi is full featured and FREE for noncommercial use.
robryan 17y ago
Not to mention it used to work a lot better to, more recent versions have been complicated resource hogs which don't just work with LAN gaming.
jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
great article. I love when people put together in depth posts on businesses you've probably never heard of that do really well + had specific insight (mixergy excels at this in the form of interviews). the picture of the hamachi homepage has the graphic of the guy writing something on a glass board. what is it with everyone using stock clipart with random people writing random things that are supposed to look really smart on a clear board? ITS EVERYWHERE.
noodle 17y ago
wanted to point out a comment in the article that notes http://www.remobo.com/ http://www.remobo.com/ looks quite similar to what hamachi used to be. anyone have experience with it?
- rantfoil 17y ago
  Trying it now, will update later when I get back in the office and setup the other machines =)
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
metamemetics 17y ago
downvote. Hamachi is still completely free for noncommercial use. You can download it from their website\1st google result. Still works full-featured and free.
- drewcrawford 17y ago
  No mac client. Deal-breaker for me.
- rantfoil 17y ago
  Besides the point. The product isn't marketed for noncommercial use, and part of the way the entire site is built makes you think "oh man, this is going to cost me down the line," even if it's free now. Plus even look at how buried the product is. Its been subjugated to secondary brand status, plus clip art. All you need are a set of white papers and it is full-on enterprise sell mode. If you make social software you have to sell the software and market the software in a friendly, social way. Not in an enterprise-y way. The entire promise of Hamachi was the potential for social computing to rise beyond the authoritarian domain of IT administrators. Yet to position and build a site that only appeals to IT administrators -- there's the rub. But yes, secondarily, no mac client = non starter for me.

59 points by rantfoil 17y ago

Was surprised when I recently tried to setup Hamachi and realized that it was no longer free. Bummer. Will IPv6 be able to fix any of this pain?

wmf 17y ago
Yes, Teredo does some of what Hamachi does.

dotBen 17y ago

There is ripe opportunity for someone to build this technology again (perhaps innovate in places, but not necessarily) and work to a free-mium model. A great business could be made from $3-month pro accounts, as there is a massive amount of people who would love to use this but are not going to pay $200 year/seat for this technology.

aaronbrethorst 17y ago
I'd be skeptical of any product that guaranteed to keep my data safe and only cost $3/mo. Depending on usage, it could be really interesting to consider a Fog Creek Copilot-like business model: charge a reasonable monthly fee for unfettered access and a small fee for one-off usage. That way, you could nail that $3 a pop sort of usage, and guarantee yourself a steady stream of income at the $20-$30 range.
- wmf 17y ago
  Did people use Hamachi to keep their data safe or to ease NAT/firewall traversal?
  - noodle 17y ago
    i used it for gaming
    - krakensden 17y ago
      Which is a large part of the reason new PC games don't support LAN play.
  - andrewtj 17y ago
    If it was for the later, I think Wide-Area Bonjour (DNS-SD) is a good substitute. Bonjour handles port-forwarding via NAT-PMP or uPnP as well service discovery. I have a bias or two though (see profile).
  - ericd 17y ago
    I used it for playing games in LAN mode.
metamemetics 17y ago
$200/year is only for business license. Hamachi is full featured and FREE for noncommercial use.

robryan 17y ago

Not to mention it used to work a lot better to, more recent versions have been complicated resource hogs which don't just work with LAN gaming.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago

great article. I love when people put together in depth posts on businesses you've probably never heard of that do really well + had specific insight (mixergy excels at this in the form of interviews). the picture of the hamachi homepage has the graphic of the guy writing something on a glass board. what is it with everyone using stock clipart with random people writing random things that are supposed to look really smart on a clear board? ITS EVERYWHERE.

noodle 17y ago

wanted to point out a comment in the article that notes http://www.remobo.com/ http://www.remobo.com/ looks quite similar to what hamachi used to be. anyone have experience with it?

rantfoil 17y ago
Trying it now, will update later when I get back in the office and setup the other machines =)

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

metamemetics 17y ago

downvote. Hamachi is still completely free for noncommercial use. You can download it from their website\1st google result. Still works full-featured and free.

drewcrawford 17y ago
No mac client. Deal-breaker for me.
rantfoil 17y ago
Besides the point. The product isn't marketed for noncommercial use, and part of the way the entire site is built makes you think "oh man, this is going to cost me down the line," even if it's free now. Plus even look at how buried the product is. Its been subjugated to secondary brand status, plus clip art. All you need are a set of white papers and it is full-on enterprise sell mode. If you make social software you have to sell the software and market the software in a friendly, social way. Not in an enterprise-y way. The entire promise of Hamachi was the potential for social computing to rise beyond the authoritarian domain of IT administrators. Yet to position and build a site that only appeals to IT administrators -- there's the rub. But yes, secondarily, no mac client = non starter for me.