my idea for a file sharing network

[lorenzop]

long ago, I had a friend who ran a web server at his house and hosted a website. he'd give out invite codes to friends who could then create a login and have access to this website, where he hosted his shared files. it's been down longer then I can remember, but my idea stems from this. I have a fairly large file server here and I want to do more with it. I use a proxy service for torrents, so seeding to others sucks with no incoming port forward. dc++ is ok, but I'm not a member of any good hubs, nor do I know of any. so my file server is mostly confined to the lan.

my idea is to create a file sharing network using home servers and some php scripts. the base of the idea is what I described above. a website login by invite only. I have a habit of over complicating things, so here goes. there's so much more that could be done with it. bandwidth management would be a requirement, so as to not overload the persons internet connection with uploads. something I'm more interested in, is trusted networking the servers together. someone browsing files on one server could do a search, and it would have a database cache of files hosted on the other servers. people who are running a server could have a queuing feature. select the files they want from other servers and it would download the list over night as bandwidth is available. if a client app is made to connect into this network of servers, the clients could then also have a queuing option too, and also the ability to download a single file from multiple servers at once, kinda like torrents do.

what do you think of my idea? feasible? I would need to find other people interested in the project to help put it together. I have the experience needed to do it myself, but it's a lot to take on for a single person.

[mjmacky]

When proposing an idea, it's customary to point out where this method overcomes the shortcomings of other available methods. I couldn't identify the barrier breaking benefits of your idea.

[lorenzop]

it's easy access for friends/family. no program to install, just log into a website. I don't know if it's barrier breaking, just an alternative method. it's a private network, so like with any network, it's only as good as the available content. it shares a lot of the features of other methods, but it's more of a server side approach. it could probably run on network attached storage devices.

[megabyteme]

my idea is to create a file sharing network using home servers and some php scripts. the base of the idea is what I described above. a website login by invite only. I have a habit of over complicating things, so here goes. there's so much more that could be done with it. bandwidth management would be a requirement, so as to not overload the persons internet connection with uploads. something I'm more interested in, is trusted networking the servers together. someone browsing files on one server could do a search, and it would have a database cache of files hosted on the other servers. people who are running a server could have a queuing feature. select the files they want from other servers and it would download the list over night as bandwidth is available. if a client app is made to connect into this network of servers, the clients could then also have a queuing option too, and also the ability to download a single file from multiple servers at once, kinda like torrents do.

what do you think of my idea? feasible? I would need to find other people interested in the project to help put it together. I have the experience needed to do it myself, but it's a lot to take on for a single person.

Some of what you are describing is already done with Usenet. Subscribing servers download content to be shared on local servers as you described. The amount of bandwidth could easily get impractical for a home user.

The idea of "trusted" is only as good as its weakest link. There are plenty of companies already hosting corrupted files on emule,etc.. I doubt it would take long before a system like this would be sabotaged in the same manner.

As for brainstorming the next step in filesharing, I certainly think you are doing good by kicking this off. I do believe the next concept to take off will involve home users sharing anonymous packets. Privacy is becoming more, and more important, and the thin wall between our ISPs, and lawsuits is becoming a thing of the past. Large amounts of bandwidth are a red flag. Bandwidth shaping is also an issue that needs to be circumvented better. Since we can no longer count on our privacy being protected by ISPs, we need to keep them in the dark automatically.

I'm just throwing out some ideas, I imagine there are programmers working on this sort of thing already. I would like to hear others throw their ideas in, too. Maybe something will spark. With current legislation, we will need something to replace BT/Usenet within the next year or so...

[digitman]

ahhh... you will face legal problem if u do tht from home network

[zot]

This proposed new P2P system is a nice idea. It reminds me vaguely of Hotline, a server-centric file-sharing method which was quite popular 15 years ago, a time when FTP servers were at their peak.

There are also many open-source projects available that might help, so you won't have to start everything from the very beginning yourself.
Software such as HFS (HTTP File Server)

http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/

There was also BadBlue, a HTTP file server that also allowed downloads/uploads using the Gnutella P2P network protocol - basically a hybrid P2P/central server system.

Of course, this is all stuff that's been around for many years ... and gathering cobwebs for most of it.

[joshuatim]

I am trying to run web server my own through which I can share files as well as hosting websites on it. Can you tell me the best tutorial for it?

[jotarech]

I prefer use a linux SO with apache and php,
but for easy mode, u can try use this software, easyphp.org, or others like that.
cya