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Comment by creamyhorror | Hacker News Reader

Comparison: This looks like an automated desktop version of MediaFire/MegaUpload/YouSendIt, since right now it works by downloading from an intermediary (I assume, from what tashmahalic said: "You run it, it downloads your files"). It has advantages in being ad-free (for now at least), supporting unlimited sizes (ditto), auto-resume, return receipts, and encryption (though I suspect some of the existing sites may have these too).

It'll still be a winner if it provides a better user experience than the others, of course. When it goes fully p2p, it may become the killer p2p file transfer app that the world's been waiting for.* Good luck.

(* or does this already exist?)

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creamyhorror, you have perhaps the best HackerNews username ever. Whatever was your inspiration?

WireOver was born out of sheer annoyance, because it's ridiculous that sending files over WANs and LANs is still such a pain.

Our guiding principle: BE NOT ANNOYING.

Ads would be annoying, so they're out. File size limits are annoying. Failed transfers are annoying, slow transfers are annoying, cluttered UIs are annoying, not sleeping well at night because you're worried about security is annoying.

Transfers should find the fastest route automatically - over internet or LAN - and they should go seamlessly between Mac, Windows, and Linux. That's what we want ourselves as users. We'd be pleased as punch to lower the annoyance level for others too.

That's a great principle to have. Less annoying things make life better - although I have no doubt it can take a lot of effort to eliminate annoyances (especially when you have to build a lot of intelligence into the system). We try to do the same in my own project, although we often have to assign 'nicer' (de-annoying) features to a v2 protoype because of limited dev resources. It's great that you guys are all coders (AFAICT).

My username makes people conjure up all sorts of images, which is why it's great for me to never plant a definitive one in their heads. I'm thinking of changing it, though, since it's none too professional on the rather social startup scene!

Sounds great. I still find it mind boggling how slow MSN 'p2p' transfer can be, I would love a great solution and will definitely give this a shot.

Man, that's a really great starting point.

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