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There is no technical reason sending files should be difficult, the problem is entirely political. A file transfer service that works too well immediately beco

There is no technical reason sending files should be difficult, the problem is entirely political. A file transfer service that works too well immediately becomes a hotbed of porn, warez, rips, etc... Then it gets sued and/or shut down by the authorities. So all file services have to suck in specific ways to discourage abuse. The trick is to find the one that sucks in ways that aren't as much of an issue for your use case.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
There's a fairly significant difference between 1:N file transfer (1 person "sends", N "recieve") and 1:1 file transfer. What you say seems like a good summary of the issues for 1:N, but not particularly relevant for 1:1
- jandrese 5y ago
  Being only a 1:1 transfer is itself a problem when you need to send the file to more than one person. There are plenty of cases where you need to send a file to a small group like 4 or 5 people. Worse, this sometimes means you have restrictions like downloading the file one causes it to self destruct, which means if said person clicks the link on his phone then realizes his error and clicks the link on his computer the link will already be dead and you have to re-upload the file.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    That's all fine, but magic-wormhole is a 1:1 file transfer system.
Fiahil 5y ago
My fundamental requirement is for it to be self hosted. Therefore the porn and warez are absolutely not an issue.
- jandrese 5y ago
  If you're willing to self host then the problem is pretty much solved. Most people aren't technical enough to pull this off unfortunately.
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
I find it perverse that the gmail attachment limit is still 25 mb in this day and age. Everyone has UltraPhones with 4k videos they can't share with anyone.
- louis-lau 5y ago
  The problem with email attachments is that they're stored on the recipients inbox forever unless the message is specifically deleted. If the attachment limit is very large, you could fill up someone's inbox with a couple of messages. No host in their right mind would accept such large messages.
- DocTomoe 5y ago
  Emails are sent over different servers, sometimes several, before being delivered. Each of them has to push the attachment forward. Making attachment sizes too permissive opens the door for a pretty neat DDoS vector. Most EMail servers do not accept more than 10MB, and considering the file sizes of your typical PDF, Word Document or photo, that seems sensible.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

There's a fairly significant difference between 1:N file transfer (1 person "sends", N "recieve") and 1:1 file transfer. What you say seems like a good summary of the issues for 1:N, but not particularly relevant for 1:1

jandrese 5y ago
Being only a 1:1 transfer is itself a problem when you need to send the file to more than one person. There are plenty of cases where you need to send a file to a small group like 4 or 5 people. Worse, this sometimes means you have restrictions like downloading the file one causes it to self destruct, which means if said person clicks the link on his phone then realizes his error and clicks the link on his computer the link will already be dead and you have to re-upload the file.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  That's all fine, but magic-wormhole is a 1:1 file transfer system.

Fiahil 5y ago

My fundamental requirement is for it to be self hosted. Therefore the porn and warez are absolutely not an issue.

jandrese 5y ago
If you're willing to self host then the problem is pretty much solved. Most people aren't technical enough to pull this off unfortunately.

JohnJamesRambo 5y ago

I find it perverse that the gmail attachment limit is still 25 mb in this day and age. Everyone has UltraPhones with 4k videos they can't share with anyone.

louis-lau 5y ago
The problem with email attachments is that they're stored on the recipients inbox forever unless the message is specifically deleted. If the attachment limit is very large, you could fill up someone's inbox with a couple of messages. No host in their right mind would accept such large messages.
DocTomoe 5y ago
Emails are sent over different servers, sometimes several, before being delivered. Each of them has to push the attachment forward. Making attachment sizes too permissive opens the door for a pretty neat DDoS vector. Most EMail servers do not accept more than 10MB, and considering the file sizes of your typical PDF, Word Document or photo, that seems sensible.