YouTransfer: Self-hosted file transfer and sharing solution

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Additionally, I don't necessarily want a key sitting out there that will let any random person who finds it a dynamic way to look up my current IP address. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it's definitely not something I'd publish publicly.

It's a setting you can find in the advanced tab of devices.

Signed GOG installer? That'll be fine.

File checksum matches known scene release? That'll be fine.

I've heard of more people getting infected via Steam than by torrent downloads recently (see: Slay the Spire on Christmas day).