AllPeers - DRAG 'N' SHARE

The thing with the detailing about a software is that there are already enough people who would have talked about it, reviewed it and asked many others to use it.
AllPeers is one which has been doing a frequent round of reviews, talks, opinions, gossips and what not all over the wide web world for a very long time now!

In simple terms AllPeers is a simple way to share files and chat securely. Almost the same way you would do with other IM clients which have file sharing capabilities. It became open source according to its developers on "Wednesday March 07th 2007, 7:40 pm" (the post on their blog "AllPeers Goes Open Source"). Well at least the client side code is open but I am still not sure about the server side of it. Its integrated with Firefox(you know Firefox right?) as an extension. The source is very tightly integrated with the Mozilla Firefox browser source. Internally the client is modeled as a P2P client based on the bit torrent protocol.
Read what people have said and are saying:
1. AllPeers: Killer app for Firefox?
2. Best new Firefox addin: AllPeers
3. Firefox add-ins lets you easily share files online.
4. AllPeers in Wired
5. Google AllPeers or Yahoo AllPeers

So whats in AllPeers for you. There are a few according to its developers (I will add mine as well)
1. Its a IM and file transfer client, 2 in 1
2. The chat is secure
3. The file transfer (since it uses a P2P model) is supposedly fast
4. It opens in the Firefox sidebar, has drag and drop capabilities.
5. Its private file sharing and almost untraceable. Files are only shared when both the partners are online and only to the ones you want to.
6. It works through firewalls.

What its not and what I did not find it to be.
1. It is not a mass file sharing bit torrent client. It cannot download torrents for us. It would be fun to have it too though, it anyways has the bit torrent protocol support. There is a future upcoming release which will enable it to be a bit torrent client (sometime in September).
2. It is not as fast as it claims. I did try it and it was not spectacularly as fast as claimed. I think I found the reason - its the bit torrent relation it has. The speed is considerable or really observed when you have more friends with whom you share the same file. I tried sharing a file with one friend and it was very slow but the moment I shared the same with another online friend I could see the speed increasing (but not massive mind you). I concluded that the speed of transmission is directly proportional to the number of online friends with whom the file is being shared.
3. The system is not yet very stable - with friends being displayed offline and online in between and at different instances.

But if you wish to have bit torrent capabilities for Firefox and need a quick way to share a large file with many friends then AllPeers could be a good open source choice for you.

Comments

Techknight said…
AllPeers has shut down and closed shop!
Read about that here and here.

AllPeers was a good start to implement P2P services on Firefox. Hopefully someone else can pick up from where they left.

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