
Chaosnet Network Protocol - beefhash
https://lm-3.github.io/amber.html
======
dmix
> The design of Chaosnet was greatly simplified by ignoring problems
> irrelevant to local networks. Chaosnet contains no special provisions for
> things such as low-speed links, noisy (very high error-rate) links, multiple
> paths, and long-distance links with significant transit time.

Apologies for going off-topic but it's interesting reading this carefully
optimized <1 mile local network compared to how difficult it has been for so
long to do basic file transfers and interaction between devices on a local
network. ie, transferring photos from a phone or DSLR camera to a laptop and
interacting with annoying printers.

I understand the security barriers and some of the legacy reasons why with NAT
and whatnot but even modern solutions like Airdrop still have a less-than-
desired UX and performance. It's randomly slow, regardless of how fast our
network is capable of being.

I just want a cross platform rsync style program built directly into the OS as
a first-class citizen, that doesn't require complex setups or configuration,
with watching/syncing, while being something a non-technical person can use.

I still default to using HTTP cloud services like Mega/Firefox Send to send
basic files as I at least know it will have predictable and reliable
performance. And on linux I always set up local SSH servers on everything
which comes with its own maintenance baggage.

Admittedly I haven't dug into solving this problem in recent times and tried
to find modern solutions (other than Bittorrent Sync) so this may be a dated
critique. But just looking at OS level stuff.

~~~
userbinator
_compared to how difficult it has been for so long to do basic file transfers
and interaction between devices on a local network_

 _It 's randomly slow, regardless of how fast our network is capable of
being._

Have you tried a pair of netcats? That's raw TCP, and a good indication of how
fast the network can be in practice. Slowness could be caused by other things,
e.g. interference if it's a wireless network, a CPU or disk on one of the
hosts being hogged by some other process, etc.

~~~
pvtmert
also bad tcp configuration...

------
ryancnelson
Fun trivia: have you ever used the trick “dig @192.168.1.1 version.bind txt
chaos” to ask a DNS server what its version is? You’re asking it’s chaosnet
records (this interesting, but obsolete network type).

~~~
rmwaite
To be entirely accurate - it isn’t obsolete.

