4 ms·

Peer-to-peer wifi is old technology. It's called ad-hoc mode. Why has it never really taken off until iOS whatever version and Android whatever version?

by jordigh 12y ago

p1mrx 12y ago
Follow the money. Android and iOS are developed by companies for whom decentralization is largely incompatible with their business models. There's no incentive to make it work smoothly.
- orbifold 12y ago
  That's probably also the same reason why there isn't any local peer to peer file sharing software for phones. Sure it would not be quite as amazing as bittorrent, but at a college campus you probably could still get all the music and movies you want without any real fear of legal repercussions.
  - higherpurpose 12y ago
    You can do that with Bluetooth. And since Android 4.0, you can use NFC to automatically pair two phones, and then share between them through Bluetooth. It's called "Android Beam". Samsung modified this technology to work with Wi-Fi, too, and I think you could already do that before with "Wi-Fi Direct", you just had to pair them manually. I haven't looked into 3rd party apps, but I imagine they could use the same protocols as Firechat for file sharing. But I think on Android it would only work through Bluetooth anyway. Google needs to mandate all OEMs to use Wi-Fi Direct otherwise.
    - orbifold 12y ago
      Had not known of Firechat, yes ideally I would want an ad-hoc mesh network network, with peer to peer file sharing, not just one-to-one as Bluetooth allows. I think there is some support for mesh networking in place for Wi-Fi but have not looked into it since a long time (ca. 2007).
Nursie 12y ago
I've used it before to provide net access to two machines when there's only been one wire, and neither machine was able to run in AP mode. It was really, really awkward.... I think I used it once to connect a pair of PSPs to play a two player game.... I think the use-cases for true Ad-Hoc mode are actually pretty limited and in most cases one system (android or iOS these days) can probably run in AP mode anyway.

Peer-to-peer wifi is old technology. It's called ad-hoc mode. Why has it never really taken off until iOS whatever version and Android whatever version?

by jordigh 12y ago

Peer-to-peer wifi is old technology. It's called ad-hoc mode. Why has it never really taken off until iOS whatever version and Android whatever version?

p1mrx 12y ago

Follow the money. Android and iOS are developed by companies for whom decentralization is largely incompatible with their business models. There's no incentive to make it work smoothly.

orbifold 12y ago
That's probably also the same reason why there isn't any local peer to peer file sharing software for phones. Sure it would not be quite as amazing as bittorrent, but at a college campus you probably could still get all the music and movies you want without any real fear of legal repercussions.
- higherpurpose 12y ago
  You can do that with Bluetooth. And since Android 4.0, you can use NFC to automatically pair two phones, and then share between them through Bluetooth. It's called "Android Beam". Samsung modified this technology to work with Wi-Fi, too, and I think you could already do that before with "Wi-Fi Direct", you just had to pair them manually. I haven't looked into 3rd party apps, but I imagine they could use the same protocols as Firechat for file sharing. But I think on Android it would only work through Bluetooth anyway. Google needs to mandate all OEMs to use Wi-Fi Direct otherwise.
  - orbifold 12y ago
    Had not known of Firechat, yes ideally I would want an ad-hoc mesh network network, with peer to peer file sharing, not just one-to-one as Bluetooth allows. I think there is some support for mesh networking in place for Wi-Fi but have not looked into it since a long time (ca. 2007).

Nursie 12y ago

I've used it before to provide net access to two machines when there's only been one wire, and neither machine was able to run in AP mode. It was really, really awkward.... I think I used it once to connect a pair of PSPs to play a two player game.... I think the use-cases for true Ad-Hoc mode are actually pretty limited and in most cases one system (android or iOS these days) can probably run in AP mode anyway.