Rate/Review my startup - streamfile

http://www.streamfile.com

by kimovski • 18 years ago

42 55 18 years ago

streamfile.com

attack• 18 years ago

It streams it? That's very useful.

btw0• 18 years ago

The site is slow.

kimovski15• 18 years ago

The site may appear slow to north american visitors due to the fact that all servers are located in Sweden, Nothern Europe (this is why we also can afford the bandwith at the moment).

Plans are soon to add server nodes in U.S, Middle East and Hong Kong.

cstejerean4• 18 years ago

I'm curious, how does the cost of bandwidth in Sweden compare to the US?

davo11• 18 years ago

It's a bit slow from Australia to.

It's a really excellent idea and a very simple implementation, like others though I think it needs some more explanation. Good luck.

natch• 18 years ago

So, if I understand this correctly, I could start uploading a 2GB file, and, while it is still uploading, my recipient could start downloading it, even before the upload has finished?

Did I get that right?

nailer2• 18 years ago

It might be good to have some kind of visualization to show the process (along with a better explanation).

zacharye2• 18 years ago

On this note, I love the concept and the simple design but with all of that open real estate on the homepage you might consider one short explanatory blurb to greet visitors and pull them right in.

kimovski15• 18 years ago

Agree. Actually, We will shortly add an embedded movie clip that greets visitors with a short presentation and explanation of the service.

there• 18 years ago

what happens when your recipient is on a faster connection and "catches up" with your upload?

nickb• 18 years ago

You probably get blocked until your browser times out. Then the question is if your browser can resume (tools like wget can easily resume, for example).

marcus2• 18 years ago

Why shouldn't I just seed a file as a torrent? torrents let the people who started downloading, upload segments they have already downloaded...

tlrobinson• 18 years ago

This seems a bit simpler, especially if you don't already have a BitTorrent client. But perhaps Streamfile could be a frontend to a simplified BitTorrent tracker.

I don't know the details of how the BitTorrent protocol works, could it start seeding a partially uploaded file, or does it require knowledge of the entire file before seeding can begin?

marcus2• 18 years ago

Yes you start seeding, without uploading a single bit. People connect to your public/private tracker, and start downloading the data from you and from other downloaders who have already downloaded very small chunks of the file.

But you're right this solution is a bit simpler for the average user.

cstejerean4• 18 years ago

I would have a hard time explaining bit torrent to my parents.

sosueme• 18 years ago

Very nice concept. I would use it with my coworkers that can not get ftp or web folders working.

nailer2• 18 years ago

Agreed. SFTP isn't always allowed through firewalls, FTP is worse, and WebDAV is a bitch to set up easily.

This fulfills a decent need, better than the competitors where you have to wait till you're finished uploading the file.

aaroneous• 18 years ago

Haven't seen this idea before, and I really dig it.

There are a lot of times where I want to transfer something over Adium, but the connection between the parties can't be established. I always was frustrated by the asynchronous workaround of uploading the file, waiting for its completion, and then distributing the url, so your site will come in handy for me. I also like the https option.

Right now the site is running a bit sluggish, hopefully you guys can remedy that shortly.

rossriley• 18 years ago

Really like this idea, gave it a try and sure enough I was simultaneously downloading and uploading the same file.

It seems to do what Dropsend and YouSendIt do in a much simpler way.

quickpost• 18 years ago

I actually read about this earlier this week on this site here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=249823

I've used it several times already to exchange files with friends. Just today I sent a 700mb movie to a friend of mine - love the service...

jgamman• 18 years ago

i was the poster of that question and this service and using a complicated name on limewire were the two options i could come up with for my non-IT friends (and even then limewire was 10 steps too far). well done.

louislouis2• 18 years ago

Love the simplicity of the site. Awesome service. I just sent a pic of myself to myself: http://www.streamfile.com/id/ZmkDG4QW1YhbiI90YNbCNgyM754Ke/1...

It's a shame I cant view the jpg in the browser but great work nonetheless. Though I think bandwidth will get very costly quick.

cstejerean4• 18 years ago

I can view it in a browser just fine.

louislouis2• 18 years ago

Oh yeh, looks like it works in IE but not FF. I get presented with a download box in FF

noonespecial• 18 years ago

Its tight. Its useful. It works.

Well done, I'd say. Good luck to you.

kimovski15• 18 years ago

Streamfile is thought to work as a service aimed to enterprise environment where bittorent clients and ports are blocked on most client computers & networks. I agree that the streaming progress can be presented in a better way, we are working on this as we speak.

avinashv• 18 years ago

So this is very similar to eatlime.com.

I love the idea (I use eatlime on a very regular basis). Unfortunately, eatlime is faster for me. I'll give you major points for a super clean interface.

kimovski15• 18 years ago

I don't believe eatlime have any "streaming" functionality such as starting the DL before the uploader is finished? They may be fast now, but can their platform scale?

danohuiginn• 18 years ago

Neat idea. Quibbles:

1) No explanation of what you're doing. Minimalism is good, being completely text-free not so much.

2) Entering an invalid email address, I get something that looks like a mangled smartquote (opera on ubuntu): 'Email address Recipientâ€™s email(s) is not valid.'

kimovski15• 18 years ago

Will look in to the Opera + Ubuntu bug asap. Thanks for that.

danhak• 18 years ago

There's no need for a flash navigation bar.

You may disagree, but It's my opinion that flash should only be used when absolutely necessary.

Great idea, though. Great domain and great design.

kimovski15• 18 years ago

Thanks. Got your point and to some parts agree, let's see what we deside on.

nirmal• 18 years ago

some jQuery code can give you the same effect

UPDATE: here's my shot at it: http://www.nirmalpatel.com/menu.html

The font sizes and padding may not be exact, but I got it close.

agentbleu• 18 years ago

how will you charge for this?

kimovski15• 18 years ago

In the beginning we will add customers manually and charge them via www.kreditor.se

mstevens• 18 years ago

Some explanation would be nice...

mmelin• 18 years ago

This is a very useful service, kimovski, and I wish you the best of luck with selling it.

I still think you should implement my suggestion of: a) having a splash screen explaining that the file isn't finished yet for recipients or b) sending all files with a content-type to make the browser download instead of trying to play media files.

MMC @ WN.se :)

kimovski15• 18 years ago

We got a bunch of feedback actually on the content-type issue. Definitely something to fix.

truebosko• 18 years ago

Simple, works great, and great concept. Love it. Curious to see how it would truly work on a large file though, will try a bigger one later today ..

thorax• 18 years ago

Man, I tried this a bunch of times and it never sent any email and just stared at me pretty blankly.

Until I realized the problem is that your site doesn't except "+" characters in emails and then fails silently entirely, leaving me the expectation that it might be waiting for me.

Anyway, please change the site to something that allows + signs in email addresses so I can try this out that way. Thanks in advance!

You should also fix it such that it doesn't ever fail blankly without any feedback to the user of the problem.

kimovski15• 18 years ago

Will look into and solve this asap.

randome• 18 years ago

Cool idea... I understood instantly what it does ... and I think most of your audience will too... the term "streaming" has become pretty ubiquitous. How do you plan to monetize?

kimovski15• 18 years ago

The plan is soon to launch an API where you pay a monthly fee to integrate streamfile functionality into your own site/domain. Plus we will charge for the regular service, that are currently for free until the 31st of August.

timm5• 18 years ago

Great idea. Most likely recipients of a streamfile dont know what a "stream" as opposed to a "file" so in the recipients email, the subj shouldnt be "you have a new stream..." it should be "You have a file...". This will help minimize users passing it over as spam.

kimovski15• 18 years ago

Good point, thanks.

Rate/Review my startup - streamfile

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