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Comment by comex | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately, if this page is accurate, DataChannels don't really work yet:

http://www.webrtc.org/chrome#TOC-Data-Channels-

A shame, because I have a use in mind for them. :)

Firefox has as full DataChannel implementation (SCTP-based), while Chrome has a partial one (RTP-based). They don't interoperate yet. I implemented most of the partial implementation and am working on the full implementation now.

I'm glad that you're excited about them. I am too. I hope to have it ready for you soon :).

Good to hear.

Out of curiosity - do you mean that you're writing a full SCTP-based implementation, or completing the RTP-based one? The standard draft specifies SCTP, right?

edit: this was addressed in another post.

It works on some alpha release of both Firefox and Chrome. There are already some file transfer apps if you're curious, although I haven't tested myself: https://github.com/lindstroem/FileTransfer and https://github.com/peer5/sharefest . Also, the folks from easyrtc ( https://github.com/priologic/easyrtc ) have already started working on adding DataChannels to their library.

A bit-torrent like client in the native browser would be interesting... wonder where Opera is on this one.

I tried this less than a week ago on Linux platform and was unsuccessful. I am also waiting on this feature, want to do some cool stuff :-)

They recently appeared behind an about:flags flag. :)

Well, when I heard that WebRTC was in Chrome stable I thought this must surely include DataChannel, since it's simpler than a full-blown video stack. So although it being behind a flag is better news than it not being there at all, I was still pretty disappointed when I read that page :)

edit: also, I don't see it as an about:flags flag.

edit 2: I should just tunnel data through video then, what could possibly go wrong?

It's not quite that simple. We (I work with the Chrome team) have an RTP-based data channel (sort of what you call "tunnel through the video" already in Chrome), but it provides no congestion control or reliability. To provide those, the IETF has proposed as the standard to use SCTP. Firefox has already integrated SCTP into their implementation, and we're working to get it into Chrome. So, you can start using the API now, but it'll get much better soon.

Sctp is a pretty cool protocol. I'm actually planning on including it as part of a user land network stack I'm slowly working on.

Sorry, I forget not everyone is on the Dev channel, but I have this available:

Enable RTCDataChannel. Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android: Enable experimental RTCDataChannel for peer-to-peer data communications. Disable

Version 26.0.1397.2 dev

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