Retroshare: Secure Communication for Everyone | Hacker News Reader

Retroshare: Secure Communication for Everyone

retroshare.cc

66 pointsspking11 comments

Tried this with a co-worker in the first days of smart working. It worked, but the only useful feature (in our context) was the file sharing, and it was confusing to setup and very slow to transfer.

Then I stumbled upon nebula (https://github.com/slackhq/nebula) and I stuck with it. It's by far the easiest way I found to setup an overlay network, and it checks all the marks:

- multi-platform (not tried on Android, but there are binaries for various arm devices, so maybe on termux...).

- P2P, with the option to use a fixed-ip device beacon as sort of DNS.

- works behind NAT if you use the beacon.

- very easy to setup and configure.

Now it's like we are working at the office again, with SVN, file sharing, chat, compilation servers, etc.

Definitely recommended.

I prefer ZeroTier, which is just as easy to set up and doesn't need a beacon to get through NAT. It was also developed by a small, independent outfit and not a bunch of Slack engineers.

It looks really promising, worth to have a look. Thanks!

Same here. I have been using ZeroTier as my primary road warrior VPN for two or three years now and it has been excellent. Has worked in many different hotels, cafes, etc as well as on airplane satellite internet. I have it on my OPNsense router at home and on my Android phone and Chromebook.

I tried this out in 2013, back then it was difficult to set up on non technical friend’s computers.

From what I see now, VoIP, and video calls are modern additions.

For a non technical user, I still think that the marketing is not compelling. Friends and group stuff, “we have Facebook for that”.

> I tried this out in 2013, back then it was difficult to set up on non technical friend’s computers.

Same. I actually walked my mother on how to install on Linux box via sms in a pinch. I wouldn't recommend it. The VoIP was choppy at times and had a lag if you had less than 10mb down rates, which I often did as I was limited to 3g wifi back then. So I used it mainly as a text based system.

Signal is the best alternative to this, VoIP calls are really clear and wprk well once set up and synced. I can't recommend Telegram for anything private anymore and I just use it for group chat stuff.

This uses libretroshare: https://elrepo.io/

"We are developing a decentralized repository of culture that allows the publishing and sharing of content in an organized way, suitable for audio, video, text and other formats. The system is built on top of mature technologies that leverage the capacities of distributed Community Networks. It will allow communities to share culture in a lasting way, priorizing local exchange without losing the ability to reach a global audience."

elRepo has received NLnet funding.

RetroShare was removed from Debian in the past. Anybody any clues why?

I really wish this was more adopted. But the fact that there’s no mobile app (that I know of) keeps a lot of people out.

It’s good software though.

The [download page] does mention a [mobile app] that only supports chat for now.

download page: https://retroshare.cc/downloads.html mobile app: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.retroshare.android.qml_a...

I might give it a shot. If it can be run in a container on a server, that'll make it much more attractive.

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