[HN Gopher] YouTransfer: Self-hosted file transfer and sharing s...
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YouTransfer: Self-hosted file transfer and sharing solution
Author : janjones
Score : 139 points
Date : 2024-01-13 10:17 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| moontear wrote:
| Last checkin four years ago and README says ,,looking for a new
| maintainer". Is this abandonware?
| h4l0 wrote:
| Demo page also returns an error from Heroku.
| causi wrote:
| I've seen probably four or five different brilliant file
| transfer solutions that totally solved the person to person
| file transfer problem posted to HN and every dang one of them
| was shut down or abandoned.
| theblazehen wrote:
| It's unfortunately not FOSS, but I quite like
| https://wormhole.app/ - It's client side encrypted and P2P
| when possible
| kilroy123 wrote:
| Agreed. That's my favorite as well.
| feross wrote:
| One of the two creators of https://wormhole.app here :)
|
| Now that we've shifted our company's focus to
| https://socket.dev, I'd love to open source Wormhole. I'm
| quite proud of the code - I've worked on P2P and file
| transfer systems for so so long that I think this might be
| some of the best code I've worked on.
|
| It's just a matter of finding the time, but I expect this
| will be open source eventually.
| ckcheng wrote:
| PairDrop works:
|
| https://pairdrop.net/
|
| https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/PairDrop
|
| Other alternatives:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38915909
| XorNot wrote:
| I'm self-hosting Pairdrop on my home network. It's a great
| solution to the problem of moving files around in an
| inhomogenous device environment".
| stavros wrote:
| I've been using Send, which I really like:
| https://github.com/timvisee/send
| 1over137 wrote:
| Oh cool, I didn't realize Firefox Send has survived via a
| community fork. No commits in 7 months though, that's a
| bit long...
| stavros wrote:
| Yes but it doesn't need more commits I guess, it does
| what it does very well.
| ianlevesque wrote:
| That's probably what Maine thought as well
| https://apnews.com/article/maine-moveit-file-transfer-
| softwa...
| rbut wrote:
| We use PsiTransfer [1] in docker. Recently updated, so not
| abandonware. Serves our needs really well.
|
| [1] https://github.com/psi-4ward/psitransfer
| 1over137 wrote:
| Has recent commits, but last release 2022-11-14.
| Andrex wrote:
| I'm starting to think stable software just needs to issue
| an update every few months that changes a few strings,
| just so this mentality dies out.
| skottenborg wrote:
| I can recommend PicoShare which I've been self-hosting for a
| while. It's a couple of years old now and still maintained.
| Also, it's very simple and allows for guests too.
|
| https://github.com/mtlynch/picoshare
| 1over137 wrote:
| So do guests need an account?
| savrajsingh wrote:
| Sharedrop.io ?
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| Apache is still maintaned, so is nginx... just throw the file
| into a folder accessible by the webserver (within
| documentroot), and you're done :)
| nurettin wrote:
| This is what I do. But these projects give you uploading,
| hash url generation and thumbnail previews as well, if you
| care about such things.
| imiric wrote:
| I use `python -m http.server` on the sender side, and
| https://github.com/Densaugeo/uploadserver on the receiver
| side if Python or the network is problematic to setup on
| the sender. This is simple and works well for my use
| cases, since I don't have a need for those features you
| mention. The only feature I miss is encryption, which
| could be done via an SSH tunnel with a bit more work, but
| I usually don't bother if I'm on my home LAN.
| scrlk wrote:
| For a Linux user, you can already build such a system
| yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting
| it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the
| mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account
| could be accessed through built-in software.
| quesera wrote:
| > "getting an FTP account"
|
| There are myriad options if you get a server of some kind.
| A webserver is even easier to get, and to share, than an
| FTP server.
|
| That's not the challenge these projects attempt to meet.
| notso411 wrote:
| That sounds like a whole lot of effort. Just buy iCloud.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| On a mac iirc the ftp setup is a checkbox in system
| settings. Less friction than logging into icloud even.
| usrusr wrote:
| Is it for sale or do you have to take the entire $2.9B
| monstrosity?
| prophesi wrote:
| For context, this is a parody of the infamous
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
| mrehler wrote:
| I was unaware there was copypasta on HN. I know this
| might be generally the sort of post that the site wants
| to avoid, but the phenomenon of copypasta within a given
| community still makes my heart smile a little bit.
| lnxg33k1 wrote:
| For that you can also use sparkleshare, abandoned but its
| just a git frontend
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Because the problem doesn't exist. Non tech folk use stuff
| like imessage to send things and rarely deal with large files
| at all beyond images or video. That works fine for them. Tech
| people use proven existing tooling like rsync or ftp. The
| only market that exist for this I'd guess is resumeware which
| explains why these projects are all built then abandoned.
| Aachen wrote:
| > Non tech folk use stuff like [messengers] to send things
|
| Yes, and tech folks too, but what about if you're not
| already connected friends? You don't want to invite your
| entire audience at a conference to send them slides.
|
| You either need to already have a website and say "click on
| News and find the entry for today", have them type over
| some long URL with perfect accuracy, or use a link
| shortener to the same effect. It always requires having
| hosting, unless there exists file sharing services. That's
| the problem these things solve.
|
| Also mind that there are size limits in most messengers on
| the order of a few hundred megabytes. You don't run into
| them that often, but whatcha gonna do when you do? A
| dedicated file sharing service that supports in the
| gigabytes range solves that situation as well.
| layer8 wrote:
| You SFTP your slides to your self-hosted webspace and
| share a link like
| https://www.mydomain.example/public/foo-talk-slides.pdf.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Tech people don't use rsync or FTP because those are
| terrible solutions. FTP is insecure and requires setting up
| a server. Rsync requires an account on both machines.
|
| In my experience companies usually end up paying for a
| service that solves this problem for their employees. Yes
| really.
|
| Anyway I would suggest using
|
| https://magic-wormhole.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
|
| or RustDesk. RustDesk has a nice GUI and file transfer has
| a really nice two pane file explorer view but that is
| obviously not great for transferring files to people you
| don't fully trust.
| IndySun wrote:
| For a moment there I thought you were saying 'dang' (much
| vaunted hacker user) had shut them down.
| blacklight wrote:
| Before trying it in my lab, could the author elaborate on what's
| its killer feature?
|
| The README mentions that it's an alternative to both Dropbox and
| WeTransfer. My current alternative to Dropbox is Nextcloud, and
| my current alternative to WeTransfer is (formerly Mozilla) Send.
| What's the added value of YouTransfer compared to this solution?
|
| I'm also put off by the fact that the README has a big "looking
| for a new maintainer" disclaimer on top, and the demo page
| doesn't even work. Sure, I could put enough effort into
| maintaining a project if I see its added value, but in this case
| it seems to be a product trying to sneak into a market where
| there are already viable and well-maintained open alternatives.
| sureglymop wrote:
| How do you like Send and is it still maintained?
|
| I also use Nextcloud but use the Floccus browser extension to
| sync bookmarks to Nextcloud. Works well when it works.
| stavros wrote:
| I really like Send, I'm not sure it's still maintained, but
| it works well, so I don't know what there _is_ to maintain.
| It comes with a cli utility as well.
|
| https://github.com/timvisee/send
| 1over137 wrote:
| There's almost always security issues to maintain. Software
| is never "done".
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| If only OS vendors like apple thought the same and
| actually updated the cli tooling
| 1over137 wrote:
| CLI tooling is macOS only, not iOS, visionOS, tvOS, etc.
| Somof course they don't care. Just be happy they even
| keep it. ;)
| adamm255 wrote:
| Used this in the past, imagine WeTransfer, but you run it
| yourself. That's it.
| sebazzz wrote:
| I built something similar in ASP.NET:
| https://github.com/Sebazzz/IFS
| say_it_as_it_is wrote:
| There seems to be a trend of people on HN sharing abandoned
| projects seeking a maintainer
| squarefoot wrote:
| Because there are many unknown, probably worth of being picked
| by some volunteers. I think it'd be worth creating some place
| (HN subsection?) where a list of dead or unmaintained, still
| worth of attention, projects could be kept so that potential
| maintainers could be made aware of their existence. Just a
| simple list, all text, one line per project with a bunch of
| fields: YYYYMMDD formatted date of last update | Name
| (resolving to link to the project page) | Short description |
| clickable short list of say max 5 tags so that users can find
| similar ones just by refining the search to the desired tag(s).
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| It takes so much time and effort though. It would really be a
| labor of love to take up someones abandoned piece of work
| thats probably got deep structural issues if the author
| decided to pack up and leave already.
| stavros wrote:
| I even made a community for that! https://www.codeshelter.co/
|
| It's abandoned, though.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| Haha taking the long play to the punchline!
| stavros wrote:
| I've been setting this joke up for five years!
| jarym wrote:
| Sounds like a perfect thing to fine tune an instruction
| following GPT on?
| beeeeeeee wrote:
| https://github.com/proofrock/sfup a possible alternative, if you
| need upload/download via commandline (curl).
| brudgers wrote:
| Is this easier than self hosting FTP?
| martinbaun wrote:
| I recently started using SyncThing, it seems just perfect to
| share between two people. Maybe I'll put it on a server as well
| so we can sync without being online.
| noirbot wrote:
| It's definitely pretty nice, but the ergonomics of it for
| someone that's not that good with computers can be a little
| hard. I've gotten synced folders into bad states before that
| took a long time to fix. It's also kinda awkward having to send
| over a nominally private and very long ID string to set up the
| share in the first place.
| brnt wrote:
| Having the whitelist all peers on all peers is a chore.
|
| I stick with Resilio for this reason. For over a decade now
| it had been a 100% reliable fire and forget tool.
| martinbaun wrote:
| Resillio is working in the same way? what's the pros/cons?
| brnt wrote:
| Resilio was there first actually, created by the
| Bittorrent company of old. The main con is it is closed
| source and less secure, depending on your threat model.
| Pro is it works really well, and is compatible with less
| skilled users.
| Cyphase wrote:
| > Having the whitelist all peers on all peers is a chore.
|
| You don't have to do that with Syncthing. See
| https://docs.syncthing.net/users/introducer.html
|
| > The introducer feature lets a device automatically add
| new devices. When two devices connect they exchange a list
| of mutually shared folders and the devices connected to
| those shares. In the following example:
|
| > Local device L sets remote device R as an introducer.
| They share the folder "Pictures." Device R is also sharing
| the folder with A and B, but L only shares with R.
|
| > Once L and R connect, L will add A and B automatically,
| as if R "introduced" A and B to L.
|
| > Remote device R also shares "Videos" with device C, but
| not with our local L. Device C will not be added to L as it
| is not connected to any folders that L and R share.
| brnt wrote:
| Thats not the same. It means to designate one device as
| 'primus inter pares', and what I like about Resilio and
| p2p that there isn't a 'server'. I don't have one!
|
| So then I could make all my devices introducers, which is
| really the same amount of work, plus adviced against
| because then no device can ever leave your network
| (remove it from one then all others will re-introduce).
|
| Dealing with devices is really not what I want. I
| understand that Resilio is a bit too basic on security,
| because the share key is the deencryption key (in most
| cases), but Syncthing isnt quite it either. I think it's
| suited for few devices and a knowledgeable person, but
| not my use cases.
| noirbot wrote:
| This is mostly where I am. Syncthing is a great
| replacement for something like Dropbox for me to share
| things between my own computers and not have to care
| about file size or the like. It's not really a reasonable
| P2P file sharing option unless the other person already
| uses Syncthing for their own use case, or you can just
| get it set up for them and then hope it never breaks.
| Even then, it's only really reasonable if it's someone
| you plan to regularly need to send larger files to. For
| smaller files or one-time sends, there's better options.
| martinbaun wrote:
| hey Noirbot, I haven't used it for long. Can you tell me thei
| ssues you had a little in depth?
| noirbot wrote:
| Let's say I want to share a file with a friend
| internationally. First off, while there are some reasonable
| UXes for Syncthing, a lot of them are pretty basic, or rely
| on running a daemon and then connecting a web browser to
| Localhost to see what's up. Once they get it set up, then I
| have to actually set up the share with them. To get them
| hooked up to my share, I have to send them a 50+ character
| ID string somehow, which they then have to input into a UI
| that's far from easy to use. The key is much too long for
| me to want to read over the phone, and putting it in a chat
| somewhere means that if that chat ever leaks, my private
| key for my shared folder is out there. They offer a way to
| send a QR code, but that has the same leak risk, and
| scanning a QR code on the computer you're already on is
| awkward.
|
| In short, it's a great tool, it works well in general, but
| the initial setup is pretty cumbersome if all I want to do
| is send a couple files to someone.
|
| Additionally, I've had a couple time where even just
| syncing between my own devices broke. I think it was
| something where files were changed on both sides and the
| reconciliation algorithm got confused, but it was hard
| enough to debug for me, with direct access to both devices,
| and decades of experience running and programming
| computers, that I'd never want to try to debug that over
| the phone with a friend.
| g_p wrote:
| One convenient feature if you run a third instance on a server
| is that you can "distrust" the server by encrypting the files
| you sync (this is done at share level), then only entering the
| decryption password on the trusted end devices. That way
| plaintext file content doesn't sit on the server.
|
| It's worth checking exactly what is encrypted as I don't think
| folder and file structure and names were encrypted.
| martinbaun wrote:
| that's superb cool!
|
| Can you tell me what this feature is called?
| wadim wrote:
| https://docs.syncthing.net/users/untrusted.html
|
| It's a setting you can find in the advanced tab of devices.
| bayindirh wrote:
| I use syncthing between three different systems and it's great
| for keeping multiple systems in sync. One of them takes daily
| backups of the shares, so I have time-machine like backups too.
| martinbaun wrote:
| sweet! this is the setup I am looking to do as well.
| bayindirh wrote:
| It works very well with SBCs. If you're resource limited,
| Syncthing plays great with Cgroups limitations as well.
| martinbaun wrote:
| Thanks Bay!
| bayindirh wrote:
| You're welcome. Happy syncing and backing up. Lastly,
| check "Back in Time" for backups [0].
|
| [0]: https://backintime.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
| mr337 wrote:
| For one off for technical folks on both ends I like the magic-
| wormhole cli tool. https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-
| wormhole
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| If you are working with technical people might as well just use
| ftp and be done with it
| toomim wrote:
| And for non-technical folks I use wormhole.io.
| factormeta wrote:
| Just FYI, Quiet also allows unlimited file transfer size:
| https://tryquiet.org/
|
| Not saying it is most efficient, but for non tech friends, that
| may be an option.
| Dotnaught wrote:
| Partially open source (the crypto) and easy to use. Free though
| not self-hosted: https://wormhole.app/
| hacb wrote:
| I'm using LocalSend for local network sharing needs (typically
| stuff between my laptop and my phone). It works like a charm, and
| is really easy to use
|
| https://github.com/localsend/localsend
| tamimio wrote:
| I did try a bunch of these peer-peer file sharing, the best
| ones the worked well are localsend and LANdrop, as I have a
| screen (basically a custom android tablet) in my car and I
| needed to send files without the car accessing any wifi, those
| two worked well. The others I tried that didn't work well were:
| Arc, Sharedrop, pairdrop, and snapdrop.
| mekster wrote:
| SnapDrop was so buggy that the transfer speed was very slow,
| sometimes hitting the send button did nothing, and need to
| open browser on the target machine first and recently somehow
| it stopped working completely, I figured installing NextCloud
| client on my Android phone solved it easily to have the file
| arrive instantly without complications.
| luckman212 wrote:
| Been running a selfhosted PairDrop instance for about a year
| now and it's amazingly useful. No apps to install, just web
| based "AirDrop" that works across macOS, Windows, iOS, Linux...
|
| https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/PairDrop
| guluarte wrote:
| last commit 4 years ago... sounds like a security nightmare
| INTPenis wrote:
| I've been self hosting a fork of Firefox Send[1] for years now,
| probably since Mozilla cancelled their Send project.
|
| Lately I've also started self hosting Pairdrop.[2]
|
| 1. https://timvisee.com/projects/send/ 2. https://pairdrop.net/
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| Obligatory xkcd, of course: https://xkcd.com/949/
| hirako2000 wrote:
| Sad reality.
|
| For non sensitive data, ufile.io is the most decent drop app I
| could find. Been around for a while and am surprised they
| haven't yet spoiled it with dark patterns, removal of free
| tier, sold out.
|
| For sensitive data, Google drive. Share.
|
| For very sensitive data, encrypt, ufile.io, or Google drive.
| decrypt on the other end. Quite a pipeline but note that it
| paradoxally doesn't require a self hosted drop app.
|
| Ipfs? Still not nearly as simple as via google drive, needs
| native app app running. Drains phone batteries, requires manual
| encryption for anything sensitive as file access can't be
| gated.
|
| Blockchain? Except for tiny blobs, impossible.
|
| a p2p app that use some open KPI for encryption would be great.
| teddyh wrote:
| Every time someone invents an _actually effective_ method of
| person-to-person file transfer, it gets used for piracy and
| blocked and shunned.
| syeare wrote:
| The age of piracy has dawned upon us yet again! WHO wants to be
| paying $100+ every month to Disney+ Netflix Hulu etc. just to
| watch 1 or 2 shows on each service?? Who the hell wants to pay
| for a game that works worse and hurts the customers more than a
| deDRM'd, cracked version?
|
| POWER TO THE PIRATES
| EduardoBautista wrote:
| I usually only have one active subscription at a time.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| People who don't want to faff about with VPNs, BitTorrent,
| malware scanning, and the anxiety of never knowing if your
| gaming machine has been compromised or not.
| crtasm wrote:
| What do you wish to use that is blocked?
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(page generated 2024-01-13 23:01 UTC)