are created channels and shared files publicly visible and available + how to share ?

[ihubgit]

Hi just found out about the project and would like to test it out.
Created my own channel and shared a file.
Is this channel and its shared file publicly visible and available for anyone to download (i.e. without any security measures ?).
How do i inform the other party of the file i wish to share ?
Share him the channel name ?
Share the file hash ?

[MutsiMutsi]

Its sort of public but not blatantly obvious, your channel name is public info on the blockchain. So anyone that would put in the effort can find it, and download the files you share there. To share the files with a someone else you would tell them the channel name indeed, they can then join and find the files.

[ihubgit]

ok so basically there's no real privacy and/or protection for the files shared, like f.ex. by protecting access to either the channel or the files by a password ?
i just tested a file download to make sure it works, but is there a way to interrupt it ?
Don't see any options for that.
There's also no indication (progress bar, percentage) as how the download goes...

[MutsiMutsi]

To the contrary there's absolute privacy and anonymity. But in terms of sharing files to specific groups or invididuals, that could be implemented but that is not in the spririt of file sharing, and not the primary usecase of this application.

You can view progres, cancel, and pause at any time from the transfers tab.

[ihubgit]

ok well, maybe specific file sharing could be implemented as an option to the end user ?
There might be files i wish to make publicly available, others only to specific groups...
Also, when putting multiple files for sharing, is there a way for the downloader(s) to download them one by one and not all together ? Looks like all files get shared simultaneously which yields very low transfer speeds.

[MutsiMutsi]

ok well, maybe specific file sharing could be implemented as an option to the end user ?
There might be files i wish to make publicly available, others only to specific groups...

Definitely possible.

Also, when putting multiple files for sharing, is there a way for the downloader(s) to download them one by one and not all together ? Looks like all files get shared simultaneously which yields very low transfer speeds.

The only way is not to queue them all at the same time, or pause the ones you dont want to simultanously download.

[ihubgit]

Definitely possible.

Thanks, that would be great !

The only way is not to queue them all at the same time, or pause the ones you dont want to simultanously download.

It would be nice though to be able to both batch download a given set of files, while having an option to limit the number of simultaneous downloads allowed, that'd be helpful when bandwith is an issue...

[ihubgit]

another thing that would come in handy (shan't start a new thread just for that) would be the ability to select several files at once for removal. For the moment this needs to be done manually one by one. I do can select multiple files at once with a right-click, but only to start or pauze sharing, not removing them.

[ihubgit]

any approximate ETA for those features ? I see the desktop app hasn't received any updates for almost 2 years now. Hope the app is still under active development.

[MutsiMutsi]

I don't have an ETA for you, surge has been in development for over two years in total, from the initial proof of concept, to the first release, and the the completely redesigned frontend and backend for version 2. It has been well received but usage after the initial release surge has been virtually zero. So after our rather sizable effort we have dropped active development for it. We have opened up the license to a much more open license, and I will definitely review, work with and merge community efforts in form of pull requests. So if you want these features, the fastest course of action would be to open up a PR.