3 ms·

Hmm... it seems like most of the time when I want to transfer a large file to someone (or to another one of my own devices), I just want to do it immediately an

by dmart 9y ago

Hmm... it seems like most of the time when I want to transfer a large file to someone (or to another one of my own devices), I just want to do it immediately and only once, so there's no need to upload it to a third, temporary location. Unfortunately it seems like most of the time a physical USB flash drive is the most efficient way to accomplish this. Seems absurd to me that in 2017 there's not a common, user-friendly way to just establish a direct connection between two web browsers and directly push files through.

pmlnr 9y ago
> between two web browsers They were never inteded to be active senders or p2p workers. I know, we've come a long way in the past 2 decades, but I never expected this to be the job of the browser. I'm also aware of webRTC and I'm a bit uncertain why that can't be used to send/receive files.
- r1ch 9y ago
  There are a bunch of WebRTC file transfer web apps but they unfortunately all suffer from the legacy cruft that WebRTC brought along. The only data channels are UDP and things like STUN / TURN / ICE are needed to have any hope of breaking through NAT, often with disappointing results.
  - filiwickers 9y ago
    Ya, for Dat[1], we had a WebRTC implementation and it was unreliable compared to our other clients. We are hoping other in browser p2p options get developed, e.g. https://github.com/noffle/web-udp https://github.com/noffle/web-udp. [1] https://datproject.org https://datproject.org
Mister_Snuggles 9y ago
> Hmm... it seems like most of the time when I want to transfer a large file to someone (or to another one of my own devices), I just want to do it immediately and only once, so there's no need to upload it to a third, temporary location. When it works, AirDrop between Apple devices seems like it does exactly what you describe. Of course, this assumes that the two devices can see each other via Bluetooth and I'm pretty sure the thing is partly mediated by iCloud. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent in the Windows world. > ...establish a direct connection between two web browsers and directly push files through Is this really a web browser's job? Why does it feel like the default answer to every "Why can't I do X easily?" question is to make the browser do it? I used to transfer stuff between different Windows machines (on the same network) by simply going Start, Run, \\OtherComputerName and authenticating. Regular users, like my parents, would just go to Network Neighbourhood and find the computer in question. It was pretty easy and all built in to the OS.
- ekwogefee 9y ago
  Shameless plug: I created an "airdrop" that works on all major platforms. Device directly to device. No servers. No "cloud". Local file transfers only. http://feem.io http://feem.io
golergka 9y ago
OS X had it for a long time now.
ngokevin 9y ago
Lots of sites where you can drop a file in, get a link, and transfer P2P: https://www.justbeamit.com/ https://www.justbeamit.com/ Somehow just not in the mainstream, integrating into browser should increase some awareness.
Piskvorrr 9y ago
If you're in the same physical space / layer 2 network, many things are Simple and Easy (and Efficient, indeed). For sending to people that are 100 ms out there, not so much.

by dmart 9y ago

pmlnr 9y ago

> between two web browsers They were never inteded to be active senders or p2p workers. I know, we've come a long way in the past 2 decades, but I never expected this to be the job of the browser. I'm also aware of webRTC and I'm a bit uncertain why that can't be used to send/receive files.

r1ch 9y ago
There are a bunch of WebRTC file transfer web apps but they unfortunately all suffer from the legacy cruft that WebRTC brought along. The only data channels are UDP and things like STUN / TURN / ICE are needed to have any hope of breaking through NAT, often with disappointing results.
- filiwickers 9y ago
  Ya, for Dat[1], we had a WebRTC implementation and it was unreliable compared to our other clients. We are hoping other in browser p2p options get developed, e.g. https://github.com/noffle/web-udp https://github.com/noffle/web-udp. [1] https://datproject.org https://datproject.org

Mister_Snuggles 9y ago

> Hmm... it seems like most of the time when I want to transfer a large file to someone (or to another one of my own devices), I just want to do it immediately and only once, so there's no need to upload it to a third, temporary location. When it works, AirDrop between Apple devices seems like it does exactly what you describe. Of course, this assumes that the two devices can see each other via Bluetooth and I'm pretty sure the thing is partly mediated by iCloud. I'm not sure if there's an equivalent in the Windows world. > ...establish a direct connection between two web browsers and directly push files through Is this really a web browser's job? Why does it feel like the default answer to every "Why can't I do X easily?" question is to make the browser do it? I used to transfer stuff between different Windows machines (on the same network) by simply going Start, Run, \\OtherComputerName and authenticating. Regular users, like my parents, would just go to Network Neighbourhood and find the computer in question. It was pretty easy and all built in to the OS.

ekwogefee 9y ago
Shameless plug: I created an "airdrop" that works on all major platforms. Device directly to device. No servers. No "cloud". Local file transfers only. http://feem.io http://feem.io

golergka 9y ago

OS X had it for a long time now.

ngokevin 9y ago

Lots of sites where you can drop a file in, get a link, and transfer P2P: https://www.justbeamit.com/ https://www.justbeamit.com/ Somehow just not in the mainstream, integrating into browser should increase some awareness.

Piskvorrr 9y ago

If you're in the same physical space / layer 2 network, many things are Simple and Easy (and Efficient, indeed). For sending to people that are 100 ms out there, not so much.