Allpeers: now and coming up
p2pnet.net News:- In the winter p2pnet ran a story on Allpeers, the Firefox extension that lets you drag-and-drop into a window so encrypted files can be instantly shared.
At the time AllPeers co-founder and ceo Cedric Maloux told p2pnet Allpeers would be open-source, and that the company would also be releasing its own distinct end-user application built on the AllPeers platform.
Torrentfreak over in Holland had a word with Allpeers’ Matthew Gertner. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Allpeers: review and future plans
Allpeers is a revolutionary Firefox extension that makes it possible to share pictures, music and video’s within Firefox. The files are distributed using bittorrent. Allpeers is not yet squeezing everything out of bittorrent, but Matthew Gertner from Allpeers told torrentfreak that this will definitely change in the near future.
I’ve been testing the Allpeers extension for a couple of weeks now. The current version allows you to add friends to your buddy list, and share files with these people. Adding a file is easy, you just drag ‘n drop, and select who you want to share the file with.
If you navigate through your buddylist you will see what your friend and family share with you. If there’s something interesting, you just click the “download file” button, and the file will start downloading as soon as it is available.
The extension works pretty good, although the download process is still a little buggy. 20% of the files I tried to download stopped or disconnected for no apparent reason (friend was online), but hey, that’s why it’s a Beta.
Overall I’m absolutely positive, but I must admit that I expected more of Allpeers than it is at this point. In my opinion there are a couple of things missing (ability to download torrents) so I asked Matthew Gertner, Chief Technology Officer at Allpeers about their future plans.
Torrentfreak: A lot of people were assuming that allpeers could be used as a “regular” bittorrent client (downloading torrents). Are you planning to integrate this functionality in a later stage?
Matthew: Actually we already support standard torrents. We haven’t added a user interface for this yet because: a) there a still a couple of issues we want to iron out and b) we still want to add features that make it competitive with leading BitTorrent clients (such as the ability to turn on/off individual files in a torrent). We’re 100% focused on getting out the AllPeers public beta and (soon afterwards) the 1.0 version. We’ll finalize our support for standard torrents after we’ve gotten this squared away.
Torrentfreak: Are you considering releasing an “allpeers lite” extension, without the social stuff (just a client)?
Matthew: We haven’t made a decision about this but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out. In any case, we’re planning to open source AllPeers later this year, so I assume someone could do this themselves afterwards.
Torrentfreak: Is there any bandwidth managing going on “under the hood”, so you will have upload speed left to browse properly? Are you planning to integrate a settings/options menu so people van set this, and other options, manually?
Matthew: We don’t do any management of this type at present, but it’s a high priority for us. It won’t be in the first public beta, but the plan is for the 1.0 release to have full support for throttling both upload and download speed.
Torrentfreak: One of the great features of bittorrent is that it “saves” bandwidth. For example, if A shares a file with B and C, and B will share with C as well if they download at the same time. Is this integrated in the extension?
Matthew: Yes, that’s exactly why we’re using BitTorrent. If I share a large video with my whole family, for example, everyone who has started to download will be available as a source for everyone else.
Torrentfreak: Bittorrent is designed to transfer files between large groups of people at once. Are you planning to integrate “open” and searchable groups in the future (the option for people to create open groups, and a searchable directory within the extension), so people can get the best out of bittorrent?
Matthew: Absolutely. We have big plans for letting people set up peer-to-peer communities and share files within them. Once again, this won’t be in the 1.0 release but it is something that we are very excited about.
Torrentfreak: What are the selling points of Allpeers, and how does it differ from for example DirectConnect?
Matthew: AllPeers is designed for sharing specific files with specific people in your buddy list. When you share, metadata about all the files is sent to the recipient, so they can immediately see thumbnails, file sizes, etc. without having to search for anything. This approach is inherently ill-suited to sharing huge numbers of, say, MP3s with a bunch of people.
Note also that sharing copyrighted content is not allowed according to our Terms of Service. The bottom line is that people who are expecting AllPeers to be the ultimate darknet tool are going to be disappointed.
On the other hand, people who are looking for a way to share files conveniently and efficiently with their friends, family and colleagues will find it to be a very compelling product. We also understand that there are legitimate reasons why people might want to share lots of files with lots of people, and we plan to add features specifically targeting this type of use later in the year (as I described earlier).
Torrentfreak: Thanks
Matthew: You’re welcome
Matthew’s answers took away my main concerns and it seems the future looks bright for this extension. In March Allpeers received significant funding by two venture capital firms that also backed Skype in the early days. The Allpeers Beta program started this April, around the same time they were crowned “Guidewire Group Global Innovator” at the Innovate!Europe event.
You can sign up for the Beta program at Allpeers.com
Torrentfreak – The Netherlands
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August 17th, 2006 at 6:21 pm
A friend and I tried Allpeers this week and I hated it. It lived up to all my crappy expectations.
Allpeers would be much better as a standalone app or as a plugun for an IM client. I do NOT want to load a huge filesharing engine replete with extra tab and tray icon every time I open my web browser. File sharing is about sharing with your peers, so why is it bundled with a largely one-way news viewing app? Plus, Firefox isn’t known as a lean and mean program – it consumes upwards of 100MB of RAM at idle. Also, the already atrocious Firefox load time tripled with Allpeers installed.
The interface sucks. Adding a friend wasn’t terribly tough, but I couldn’t see what files either of us had added – I could only share and download everything in our lists. You’re never quite sure when you’ve successfully shard a file, and you can’t be sure when you’ve begun actively sharing. There’s no progress indicator so you don’t know how far you’ve come or how long there is to go and you don’t know how many people are downloading at once. You can’t throttle your bandwidth either so it’s an all or nothing deal.
Don’t get me wrong – private darknets are a great thing and will undoubtedly become a very popular convention in our society as soon as someone does it right. In my opinion, however, making this app a Firefox extension is nothing more than a proof of concept. It’s like attaching a bar fridge to a bicycle just to see if it could be done.
PLEASE, Allpeers, do a complete teardown and start over on a sensible platform. Make it a GAIM extension or, better yet, a standalone app. This program reminded me how difficult it is to casually share files with friends and how badly the world needs such an app, but as it stands, Allpeers is not that app.
August 18th, 2006 at 9:42 am
From someone who is not an active P2Per, I found it a really useful tool.
I guess it comes down to your expectations, if you are hoping for an encrypted darknet spanning the globe, this isn’t it. Even if you are hoping to share your war3z with close friends, according to the T&C’s, this isn’t it. (though quite how they can prove what you send, if it’s truly secure, I am not sure)
From my point of view, as a musician, it’s a great way to share my tracks with friends, contacts, and acquaintances. There are other ways, but this seems to work in a way which fits my systems. Firefox is always on, and I have never had speed issues with it, so I don’t see why having a client as part of it would ever cause me a problem. Its a good interface, I would use it for more if I could. (actually spent ages going through the hundreds of extensions last night)
I have been on the beta for a while now and look forward to the new features described. Just hope I can find some more people to share with soon….
August 18th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Did you know that you can significantly speed up Firefox? You can find manual how to easily tweak Firefox over here: http://www.miscproject.com/blog/about/
August 18th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
I’m a musician too (original poster you replied too) and you must admit a darknet is not the best way to distribute your works. Darknets are invite-only by definition. Don’t you want to distribute to people who don’t know about you yet?
AllPeers just makes too many assumptions, the very least being that most people keep their web browsers running 24/7. I don’t know anyone who does this. The program just seems like a poor man’s DirectConnect to me, and even a poor man can afford that freeware app.
August 20th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Allpeers runs in the background just like any p2p or instant messenger when you close Firefox so this is not really an issue.
You’re right, allpeers is not about wide-spread distribution of content but for sharing with friends. These are 2 different things imo.