5 ms·

Isn’t https://wormhole.app/ https://wormhole.app/ the solution here? Note I haven’t used it, it’s just often brought up here as a good solution for this class o

Isn’t https://wormhole.app/ https://wormhole.app/ the solution here? Note I haven’t used it, it’s just often brought up here as a good solution for this class of problem. Is it surprising that the author mentions a ton of solutions but not this one? I would think a deep dive of file sending applications would include this, it’s old enough and well known enough in circles that its exclusion in a comparison of file sending approaches does feel like a bit of an oversight

vinnymac 3y ago
Here is a list of open source options. This isn't the first time I have shared this on here either. Perhaps this is another sign that web search is failing us. SnapDrop - Site: https://snapdrop.net/ https://snapdrop.net/ - Source: https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop ShareDrop - Site: https://www.sharedrop.io/ https://www.sharedrop.io/ - Source: https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop FilePizza - Site: https://file.pizza/ https://file.pizza/ - Source: https://github.com/kern/filepizza https://github.com/kern/filepizza Original Wormhole - https://webwormhole.io/ https://webwormhole.io/ - https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole
- hulitu 3y ago
  So the solution is to install another app and pray that it works on a PC.
  - vinnymac 3y ago
    Fortunately none of the options above require installation. If properly invested in and maintained instead of being a toy open source project, they’d work seamlessly everywhere the web does.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
  Nice thanks. I think the exclusion of some of these is especially egregious because the author identifies three criteria and then says that none of the solutions they explored fully meet all three. But at least from an early glance at least one or two of the solutions you mentioned do, as well as the solution I linked. Which kind of invalidates the entire point the article was trying to make, that there are not good solutions for this. There are, the author just didn’t consider them.
  - vinnymac 3y ago
    I have used all of these solutions, including the one you shared in the past. Some of them used to work better than they do now, I imagine with browsers updating and the software going unmaintained, it hasn't left them in a great state. These are small open source projects without funding from what I can tell. The fact that they work at all is amazing to me, and says a lot about what we can do with a few Web APIs. If only it was worth getting these individuals to collaborate on a web standard API around file transfers, maybe then we would finally see a long-standing solution.
- karaterobot 3y ago
  I've tried using Wormhole and Filepizza from two devices on my network (a MacOS laptop and a Windows PC) and they just don't work for me. I assume the others use the same approach, and would probably also not work. I'm sure there's some setting I could change on my home network to make them work, but I think the point of the article is that we're looking for a way that a) just works, b) across platforms, c) even if you're a dummy like me.
  - vinnymac 3y ago
    I have used many of these to send files from windows to linux or mac to windows. My point isn't that one of the solutions above is perfect, but that the problem has been tackled in a user friendly way with existing web technologies in a variety of ways. These are very small, often one man projects, compared to something like airdrop for example, and they do 80% or more of what you need them to. I spent less than a minute searching and found another WebRTC based project. - Site: https://perguth.de/peertransfer/ https://perguth.de/peertransfer/ - Source: https://github.com/perguth/peertransfer https://github.com/perguth/peertransfer Imagine what could be built with an actual investment? I don't think the money exists for this type of tech, otherwise we would've seen someone do it in the last 20 years.
  - hn_acker 3y ago
    Just a sanity check: Did you turn off WebRTC and forget that you did? If you're using Firefox, setting both of the about:config flags "media.peerconnection.enabled" and "media.navigator.enabled" to false disables WebRTC. UBlock Origin's "Prevent WebRTC from leaking local IP addresses" setting also might interfere even though I don't think it turns WebRTC off. The same applies to Brave's "Disable non-proxied UDP" option for the "WebRTC IP handling policy" setting.
    - Eisenstein 3y ago
      Don't do this is you ever use a VPN to hide your IP while browsing.
      - 3y ago
- uncharted9 3y ago
  There is also Send.Vis.ee, which is a community fork of Firefox Send. It has always worked very well for me personally. There are many public instances available with varying file size limits and expiring conditions. - Website: https://send.vis.ee/ https://send.vis.ee/ - Source: https://github.com/timvisee/send https://github.com/timvisee/send - List of instances at: https://github.com/timvisee/send-instances https://github.com/timvisee/send-instances
- DeathArrow 3y ago
  None of them work like Airdrop or Nearby Share. You can't right click a file in the file explorer on PC or Mac and share it. Nor you can open a photo on your mobile photo app and chose share.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- antgiant 3y ago
  Adding my favorite as it has worked more reliably than these for me JustBeamIt - Site: https://justbeamit.com https://justbeamit.com - Source: https://github.com/justbeamit/beam https://github.com/justbeamit/beam
nomel 3y ago
No way. The "solution" can't require internet access.
- vinnymac 3y ago
  The tech to do this exists, since WebRTC works without internet. One just needs to run a local server for signaling purposes. https://github.com/coturn/coturn https://github.com/coturn/coturn
  - nomel 3y ago
    I don't think a browser is involved with the solution either. The protocol/transport definitely isn't the problem. It doesn't matter. The problem is integration, and solution, is integration. The tricky bit that makes this hard is discovery. I think Apple does it right. UDP multicast discovery across local intranet, with bluetooth broadcast/NFC proximity for physically near devices that might be on separate networks/locked down. There's the possibility of internet based discovery, but that involves a central authority keeping track of your IP, constant polling, with a nice record of all your devices and transactions. In China, there are apps that use audio, for local discovery, which is neat. I firmly believe we won't ever have a real solution for the next 30 years. It would require three enemies cooperating: Android, Microsoft, Apple. As is, Apple has this solved. Samsung is gettin there. Microsoft has nothing.
geor9e 3y ago
The downside of websites like that is that it travels over the internet, so you're throttled by every bottleneck along the way, which can be very painful if you're out and about and your hotspot is suffering 3G speeds. Meanwhile, Airdrop spawns an ad-hoc network giving you gigabit transfers in the middle of nowhere. Personally, if Airdrop isn't an option, I use TotalCommander to transfer over my hotspot network (no internet connection needed)
- LVB 3y ago
  Not so for WebRTC. We use Snapdrop all the time to transfer between devices, and it just gets the two nodes talking, but the data xfer is peer to peer on our network. Works great.
ajkdhcb2 3y ago
I tried it many times, including when sending other people a file, but it fails for me about 60% of the time. Error or download just never completes.

vinnymac 3y ago

Here is a list of open source options. This isn't the first time I have shared this on here either. Perhaps this is another sign that web search is failing us. SnapDrop - Site: https://snapdrop.net/ https://snapdrop.net/ - Source: https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop ShareDrop - Site: https://www.sharedrop.io/ https://www.sharedrop.io/ - Source: https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop FilePizza - Site: https://file.pizza/ https://file.pizza/ - Source: https://github.com/kern/filepizza https://github.com/kern/filepizza Original Wormhole - https://webwormhole.io/ https://webwormhole.io/ - https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole

hulitu 3y ago
So the solution is to install another app and pray that it works on a PC.
- vinnymac 3y ago
  Fortunately none of the options above require installation. If properly invested in and maintained instead of being a toy open source project, they’d work seamlessly everywhere the web does.
SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
Nice thanks. I think the exclusion of some of these is especially egregious because the author identifies three criteria and then says that none of the solutions they explored fully meet all three. But at least from an early glance at least one or two of the solutions you mentioned do, as well as the solution I linked. Which kind of invalidates the entire point the article was trying to make, that there are not good solutions for this. There are, the author just didn’t consider them.
- vinnymac 3y ago
  I have used all of these solutions, including the one you shared in the past. Some of them used to work better than they do now, I imagine with browsers updating and the software going unmaintained, it hasn't left them in a great state. These are small open source projects without funding from what I can tell. The fact that they work at all is amazing to me, and says a lot about what we can do with a few Web APIs. If only it was worth getting these individuals to collaborate on a web standard API around file transfers, maybe then we would finally see a long-standing solution.
karaterobot 3y ago
I've tried using Wormhole and Filepizza from two devices on my network (a MacOS laptop and a Windows PC) and they just don't work for me. I assume the others use the same approach, and would probably also not work. I'm sure there's some setting I could change on my home network to make them work, but I think the point of the article is that we're looking for a way that a) just works, b) across platforms, c) even if you're a dummy like me.
- vinnymac 3y ago
  I have used many of these to send files from windows to linux or mac to windows. My point isn't that one of the solutions above is perfect, but that the problem has been tackled in a user friendly way with existing web technologies in a variety of ways. These are very small, often one man projects, compared to something like airdrop for example, and they do 80% or more of what you need them to. I spent less than a minute searching and found another WebRTC based project. - Site: https://perguth.de/peertransfer/ https://perguth.de/peertransfer/ - Source: https://github.com/perguth/peertransfer https://github.com/perguth/peertransfer Imagine what could be built with an actual investment? I don't think the money exists for this type of tech, otherwise we would've seen someone do it in the last 20 years.
- hn_acker 3y ago
  Just a sanity check: Did you turn off WebRTC and forget that you did? If you're using Firefox, setting both of the about:config flags "media.peerconnection.enabled" and "media.navigator.enabled" to false disables WebRTC. UBlock Origin's "Prevent WebRTC from leaking local IP addresses" setting also might interfere even though I don't think it turns WebRTC off. The same applies to Brave's "Disable non-proxied UDP" option for the "WebRTC IP handling policy" setting.
  - Eisenstein 3y ago
    Don't do this is you ever use a VPN to hide your IP while browsing.
    - 3y ago
uncharted9 3y ago
There is also Send.Vis.ee, which is a community fork of Firefox Send. It has always worked very well for me personally. There are many public instances available with varying file size limits and expiring conditions. - Website: https://send.vis.ee/ https://send.vis.ee/ - Source: https://github.com/timvisee/send https://github.com/timvisee/send - List of instances at: https://github.com/timvisee/send-instances https://github.com/timvisee/send-instances
DeathArrow 3y ago
None of them work like Airdrop or Nearby Share. You can't right click a file in the file explorer on PC or Mac and share it. Nor you can open a photo on your mobile photo app and chose share.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
antgiant 3y ago
Adding my favorite as it has worked more reliably than these for me JustBeamIt - Site: https://justbeamit.com https://justbeamit.com - Source: https://github.com/justbeamit/beam https://github.com/justbeamit/beam

nomel 3y ago

No way. The "solution" can't require internet access.

vinnymac 3y ago
The tech to do this exists, since WebRTC works without internet. One just needs to run a local server for signaling purposes. https://github.com/coturn/coturn https://github.com/coturn/coturn
- nomel 3y ago
  I don't think a browser is involved with the solution either. The protocol/transport definitely isn't the problem. It doesn't matter. The problem is integration, and solution, is integration. The tricky bit that makes this hard is discovery. I think Apple does it right. UDP multicast discovery across local intranet, with bluetooth broadcast/NFC proximity for physically near devices that might be on separate networks/locked down. There's the possibility of internet based discovery, but that involves a central authority keeping track of your IP, constant polling, with a nice record of all your devices and transactions. In China, there are apps that use audio, for local discovery, which is neat. I firmly believe we won't ever have a real solution for the next 30 years. It would require three enemies cooperating: Android, Microsoft, Apple. As is, Apple has this solved. Samsung is gettin there. Microsoft has nothing.

geor9e 3y ago

The downside of websites like that is that it travels over the internet, so you're throttled by every bottleneck along the way, which can be very painful if you're out and about and your hotspot is suffering 3G speeds. Meanwhile, Airdrop spawns an ad-hoc network giving you gigabit transfers in the middle of nowhere. Personally, if Airdrop isn't an option, I use TotalCommander to transfer over my hotspot network (no internet connection needed)

LVB 3y ago
Not so for WebRTC. We use Snapdrop all the time to transfer between devices, and it just gets the two nodes talking, but the data xfer is peer to peer on our network. Works great.

ajkdhcb2 3y ago

I tried it many times, including when sending other people a file, but it fails for me about 60% of the time. Error or download just never completes.