4 ms·

My startup offers a residential IP sharing model where users get paid to share their bandwidth: https://packetstream.io https://packetstream.io

by rdbell 6y ago

bluesign 6y ago
This is the one of the best (if not the best) solution out there I tried so far, congratulations. I am very happy to see it is from fellow HNer.
- rdbell 6y ago
  Thanks for the encouragement! I think I found your username in our DB, and I've added extra bandwidth credits to your account :)
  - saalweachter 6y ago
    I know you're being nice here, and I have no idea if that particular user cared, but like, as someone who has to take frequent user data/trust/privacy/handling trainings, like, don't ever do that. Firstly, you really want to engineer your systems as much as possible so that you can't look at any PII -- and that includes things like usernames that aren't displayed to the public, and maybe even ones that are! -- as an administrator of your system, without going through some sort of "break glass in case of emergency" process that leaves an audit trail with a clear policy of when it is acceptable. Second, even if you have access for job-related tasks, you shouldn't spontaneously try to tie user accounts to outside identities; that should be like line 4 or 5 in your data access policy. The right way to do the above would be something like saying "Thanks for vouching for us! If you message me your username @XYZ, I'll add some extra bandwidth credits to your account. :)"; that turns the interaction/demasking into something voluntary on the user's behalf, rather than you creepily stalking them through your user DB.
- johnx123-up 6y ago
  I can't find the pricing anywhere. How much do they charge?
  - abc03 6y ago
    1 USD/GB which is cheap
oarsinsync 6y ago
My first thought was seeing the 90% cut despite (presumably) traffic not having to transit your network. My second thought was hoping traffic actually does get proxied through your network, and isn’t pure P2P, to provide anonymity between users. My third thought was that I should sign up regardless, as this could be useful!
planetafro 6y ago
Is the 3% fee to "cash out" earned on your end or PayPal? It just feels a little disengenuous to advertise a rate but the only way to receive payment is at a loss of 3%. ...or is the model that the sharers are also customers and you encourage them to use the service while discouraging "cashout"?
- hansvm 6y ago
  It's been awhile since I've done much with PayPal, but at one point a typical fee was $0.30 + 2.9%, so at a 3% fee they'd be taking a small hit in the processing fees for orders below $300 and turning a mild profit when people cash out for more than that. YMMV with their current fee structure. Agreed it's a little scummy to not factor your operating expenses into the price of the product, especially if that's not blatantly obvious from the outset.
fny 6y ago
Can you explain why Go and Postgres are listed as technology partners?
- Keverw 6y ago
  I seen that too. PayPal and Stripe on the list also. I think it's just a list of all the providers and software/tools they themselves used. Seems maybe a little misleading, wonder if people might think they are endorsed by Stripe, etc?
abc03 6y ago
It‘s probably one of the best in terms of value/price as it is pay-to-go. The only commitment is USD 50 minimum top-up. It‘s also pretty fast. Negative is that some countries have few Proxies and they don‘t say how many exactly. They also don‘t have city-level targeting.
apexalpha 6y ago
Hang on I can make money by sharing my internet at night when I don't use it anyway and US persons might need internet from NL? That sounds awesome. edit: The information on how it's secured for packeteers seems a bit limited. (how do you prevent people spraying 192.168.1.1 into all endpoints?). But it's interesting enough to hit up in a seperate docker network. I'm looking forward to seeing if it'll actually use GBs.
- kilburn 6y ago
  I don't know about NL or elsewhere, but I'm pretty sure this can get you in trouble in Spain for several reasons: 1. Check your ISP contract. If it is a residential connection, it probably says you are not allowed to share your connection with people outside your home (and it could be argued that you are doing so by running this). 2. Check your laws. In Spain, if your connection is used to conduct illegal activities and you willingly gave access to the attackers (which is what you are doing here) then you are a "necessary collaborator" and would be found guilty of these crimes.
  - leetcrew 6y ago
    yeah I would think long and hard about 2). if I understand correctly, this would be the same as running a tor exit node. not technically illegal in most cases, but could be very stressful/expensive to defend against anyway. not worth it to save a few dollars a month.
    - oarsinsync 6y ago
      In Spain, if you run a Tor exit node and someone commits a crime via Tor through your connection, you’re party to the crime. In other countries, “not technically illegal” may apply. In Spain, it does not. Or to give another analogy, it’s not technically illegal to sit in a car. It’s a different matter if you’re sitting in the car as a lookout while a crime is occurring. While there’s “intent” that matters in that particular example, when it comes to internet crime in Spain, intent doesn’t matter, facilitation is all that does.
dunce2020 6y ago
What vetting do you do on people purchasing bandwidth? How confident can I be that the Feds wont pay me a visit at 4am?
Kabukks 6y ago
I'm using your service (found it on HN too) for a side project and I'm very happy with it. Good job! One nitpick: I'm seeing occasional timeouts (probably because the residential endpoint went down recently). Do you have a best practice on how to work around that?
rz2k 6y ago
How does your business manage 7 million+ residential IP addresses with 5000+ clients? Is being a packeter safer than running a tor exit node? I'd worry that the people willing to run this risk for a small income couldn't afford adequate legal defense if necessary.

My startup offers a residential IP sharing model where users get paid to share their bandwidth: https://packetstream.io https://packetstream.io

by rdbell 6y ago

My startup offers a residential IP sharing model where users get paid to share their bandwidth: https://packetstream.io https://packetstream.io

bluesign 6y ago

This is the one of the best (if not the best) solution out there I tried so far, congratulations. I am very happy to see it is from fellow HNer.

rdbell 6y ago
Thanks for the encouragement! I think I found your username in our DB, and I've added extra bandwidth credits to your account :)
- saalweachter 6y ago
  I know you're being nice here, and I have no idea if that particular user cared, but like, as someone who has to take frequent user data/trust/privacy/handling trainings, like, don't ever do that. Firstly, you really want to engineer your systems as much as possible so that you can't look at any PII -- and that includes things like usernames that aren't displayed to the public, and maybe even ones that are! -- as an administrator of your system, without going through some sort of "break glass in case of emergency" process that leaves an audit trail with a clear policy of when it is acceptable. Second, even if you have access for job-related tasks, you shouldn't spontaneously try to tie user accounts to outside identities; that should be like line 4 or 5 in your data access policy. The right way to do the above would be something like saying "Thanks for vouching for us! If you message me your username @XYZ, I'll add some extra bandwidth credits to your account. :)"; that turns the interaction/demasking into something voluntary on the user's behalf, rather than you creepily stalking them through your user DB.
johnx123-up 6y ago
I can't find the pricing anywhere. How much do they charge?
- abc03 6y ago
  1 USD/GB which is cheap

oarsinsync 6y ago

My first thought was seeing the 90% cut despite (presumably) traffic not having to transit your network. My second thought was hoping traffic actually does get proxied through your network, and isn’t pure P2P, to provide anonymity between users. My third thought was that I should sign up regardless, as this could be useful!

planetafro 6y ago

Is the 3% fee to "cash out" earned on your end or PayPal? It just feels a little disengenuous to advertise a rate but the only way to receive payment is at a loss of 3%. ...or is the model that the sharers are also customers and you encourage them to use the service while discouraging "cashout"?

hansvm 6y ago
It's been awhile since I've done much with PayPal, but at one point a typical fee was $0.30 + 2.9%, so at a 3% fee they'd be taking a small hit in the processing fees for orders below $300 and turning a mild profit when people cash out for more than that. YMMV with their current fee structure. Agreed it's a little scummy to not factor your operating expenses into the price of the product, especially if that's not blatantly obvious from the outset.

fny 6y ago

Can you explain why Go and Postgres are listed as technology partners?

Keverw 6y ago
I seen that too. PayPal and Stripe on the list also. I think it's just a list of all the providers and software/tools they themselves used. Seems maybe a little misleading, wonder if people might think they are endorsed by Stripe, etc?

abc03 6y ago

It‘s probably one of the best in terms of value/price as it is pay-to-go. The only commitment is USD 50 minimum top-up. It‘s also pretty fast. Negative is that some countries have few Proxies and they don‘t say how many exactly. They also don‘t have city-level targeting.

apexalpha 6y ago

Hang on I can make money by sharing my internet at night when I don't use it anyway and US persons might need internet from NL? That sounds awesome. edit: The information on how it's secured for packeteers seems a bit limited. (how do you prevent people spraying 192.168.1.1 into all endpoints?). But it's interesting enough to hit up in a seperate docker network. I'm looking forward to seeing if it'll actually use GBs.

kilburn 6y ago
I don't know about NL or elsewhere, but I'm pretty sure this can get you in trouble in Spain for several reasons: 1. Check your ISP contract. If it is a residential connection, it probably says you are not allowed to share your connection with people outside your home (and it could be argued that you are doing so by running this). 2. Check your laws. In Spain, if your connection is used to conduct illegal activities and you willingly gave access to the attackers (which is what you are doing here) then you are a "necessary collaborator" and would be found guilty of these crimes.
- leetcrew 6y ago
  yeah I would think long and hard about 2). if I understand correctly, this would be the same as running a tor exit node. not technically illegal in most cases, but could be very stressful/expensive to defend against anyway. not worth it to save a few dollars a month.
  - oarsinsync 6y ago
    In Spain, if you run a Tor exit node and someone commits a crime via Tor through your connection, you’re party to the crime. In other countries, “not technically illegal” may apply. In Spain, it does not. Or to give another analogy, it’s not technically illegal to sit in a car. It’s a different matter if you’re sitting in the car as a lookout while a crime is occurring. While there’s “intent” that matters in that particular example, when it comes to internet crime in Spain, intent doesn’t matter, facilitation is all that does.

dunce2020 6y ago

What vetting do you do on people purchasing bandwidth? How confident can I be that the Feds wont pay me a visit at 4am?

Kabukks 6y ago

I'm using your service (found it on HN too) for a side project and I'm very happy with it. Good job! One nitpick: I'm seeing occasional timeouts (probably because the residential endpoint went down recently). Do you have a best practice on how to work around that?

rz2k 6y ago

How does your business manage 7 million+ residential IP addresses with 5000+ clients? Is being a packeter safer than running a tor exit node? I'd worry that the people willing to run this risk for a small income couldn't afford adequate legal defense if necessary.