Amishare -- private file sharing with your friends

[amishare]

Hi Everybody,

There's a new file sharing program called Amishare that let's you securely share files with your friends. Its free and includes no spyware or adware. The first release just came out yesterday. You can download it at http://www.amishare.com/

The first release is a beta, and we would be thrilled to have people try it out and send us any comments or feedback. Over the next few days we'll be adding a lot more information to the website. Please stay tuned.

Thanks,

The Amishare Team

[notbob]

Hi Everybody,

There's a new file sharing program called Amishare that let's you securely share files with your friends. Its free and includes no spyware or adware. The first release just came out yesterday. You can download it at http://www.amishare.com/

The first release is a beta, and we would be thrilled to have people try it out and send us any comments or feedback. Over the next few days we'll be adding a lot more information to the website. Please stay tuned.

Thanks,

The Amishare Team

i didn't think the amish used computers

amish-are? it smells like cattle

[XtraNtnse]

Umm..how 'bout NO ?

[hawkburn]

Somehow it looks useful. Except.. is there a chat feature? Otherwise.. it would seem more useful to just use DC or waste.

[lion7718]

How about some Screenshots........

[Miniver]

Amishare contains encryption technology subject to U.S.A. export regulations.

In order to download Amishare, you must certify as follows:

I understand this download contains cryptographic software subject to export controls under the Export Administration Regulations and cannot be exported without a license, license exemption, or other authorization.
I acknowledge that this software is not intended for use by an international governmental organization or a foreign central, regional or local government department, agency, or other entity performing governmental functions, including governmental corporations and research institutions engaged in the manufacture or distribution of items or services controlled on the Wassenaar Munitions List.
It's on the internet but you can't export it?

Download here (http://www.amishare.com/download/amishare075beta.msi?stime=1090629292&skey=%2501%257B%25C3%2512%25FA%2510H%2540x%2516%25 1C%25D3%2528%25F0%2582gs%25DEh%25B5)

[Miniver]

"You currently have no friends"Thanks, Amish Bunny.


Looks like someone took your name already. http://sourceforge.net/projects/amishare

[notbob]

Amishare contains encryption technology subject to U.S.A. export regulations.

It's on the internet but you can't export it?

Download here (http://www.amishare.com/download/amishare075beta.msi?stime=1090629292&skey=%2501%257B%25C3%2512%25FA%2510H%2540x%2516%25 1C%25D3%2528%25F0%2582gs%25DEh%25B5)

cold war crap

can't let the commies have our crypto

[lion7718]

Kinda plain huh....thanks

[Miniver]

Kinda plain huh....thanks
Well, in its defense, it was a quick download, has no apparent spyware or adware, installed quickly and easily, and has an easy to use interface. I'd say it's a good program for what it is. I doubt it will get very popular though. People just aren't that interested in private networks yet.

Turn it into a public filesharing program with encryption and you'll have the masses jumping on it in droves. Just look at Mute, 350,000 downloads, or somewhere around there, and maybe 100 people using the network at any given time. If you provide a program that people think will give them more protection against the acronym organizations, they will come by the thousands to check it out. If it actually provides some value, unlike Mute currently, they will stay.

[amishare]

Hello Miniver,

Thank you for your comments. Amishare's user interface is fairly plain -- in fact, the icons are downright lame :-). What we can say -- we're programmers, not graphic artists, and we prefer spending our time on the technology. :-) Maybe someday we'll find someone to help us snazz it up.

In the meantime, what you do get is a program that's straight forward and secure. There's also some very sophisticated technology under the hood. For instance, Amishare contains a high performance, multi-threaded, priority-based communication engine that will allow us to easily add chat and instant messaging, while file transfers continue in the background. Because we have such a well designed comm engine, the UI is going to the hard part, not the underlying technology :-)

We also have a unique security system that allows you to verify your friends without digital certificates. There are a number of reasons not to use digital certificates, including (a) certificates are difficult to manage (even more so in a peer-to-peer environment); (b) certificates rarely change which makes it easy for an eavesdropper to identify users by monitoring the certificate exchange; (c) certificates are subject to numerous security attacks including social engineering and off-line or interactive cryptanalysis, and finally, (d) certificates usually rely on a third party (a certificate authority) to vouch for the identity of a user, instead of allowing you to verify your friends for yourself.

In contrast, Amishare has a unique method of authenticating friends without certificates. In Amishare, when your computer exchanges encryption keys with your friend's computer, the keys are "signed" using a secret, randomly generated 37-bit authentication code. After the key exchange, you and your friend compare authentication codes. If they are the same, you are ensured the person connecting to your computer is actually your friend. There is only a one in 2^37 chance the key was sent by an imposter.

We understand there are many programs that have "public" file sharing and these programs are very popular. We also understand several "public" file sharing programs are adding encryption. We're not sure what this accomplishes because without authentication, anyone in the world can connect to your machine and see your shared files, and any computer that data passes through can do a key substitution and see what is being sent and received (also known as a man-in-the-middle attack.) But in any event, that's not a technology we are trying to provide.

We think there are many instances in which you may want to privately share files with your friends, and you want to ensure only your friends can see what you are sharing. You don't want to download files from anyone in the world, and you don't want anyone in the world downloading your files, only your friends.

That’s what Amishare does. It may not become the most popular file sharing program, but we hope it does become the most popular program for private file sharing :-).

Best Regards,

The Amishare Team

[Ticalrida]

not a good Interface

[amishare]

Hello Ticalrida,

Thank you for the feedback.

Despite the simplicity of the user interface, there a number of things going on that we believe makes Amishare easy to use.

The main screens are accessed by buttons at the top: My Shared Folders, My Friends, Net Browse and Downloads. Underneath are a row of buttons that change for each screen. For example, the My Friends screen has sub-buttons for Add a Friend, Verify a Friend, and Remove a Friend. The My Shared Folders screen has sub-buttons for Add A Share, Edit Properties, Set as Default and Remove. These buttons disable themselves whenever they don't make sense to use. If you hover over a button, a tool-tip pops up with a longer description of what the button does.

The My Friends screen lets you see your list of friends, and add and remove friends. Clicking "Add a Friend" starts up a wizard that guides you through the process of sending a secure invitation, or responding to an invitation sent to you. At each step, the wizard explains what it is doing and what you need to do, so you're not left wondering.

My Shared Folders let's you select any number of folders and individual files to share with your friends. You can also set a "share as" path to organize your shares into a virtual directory structure. This can make it easier for your friends to find specific files on your machine. Also on this screen, you can browse your own shared files, to see exactly what you are sharing and what your friends will see when they browse your files.

On the Net Browse screen, you can browse your friends' shared files and folders. Double clicking a folder opens it, just like Windows Explorer. You can select one or more files and click the Download button to download them. You can also select a folder and download its entire contents, including all files and subfolders.

Amishare queues downloads and fetches them one at a time (one from each friend at a time, that is). The Download screen lets you see the download progress. Files are shown as Queued, Downloading, Canceled, Complete or Error.

While the download is in progress, Amishare shows you the file size, number of bytes transferred, and the estimated time of completion. If the connection is broken, Amishare will automatically resume when it reconnects. At the end of the download, Amishare checks the file size and hash to make sure the file was transferred correctly. If there is a problem, you can click the Retry button to try again.

Until the download is complete, the status is also reflected in the file name. So for example, if you look in the destination folder, you might see the files "File_X (Downloading).mp3" and "File_Z (Canceled).mp3".

You don't have to wait for the download to complete to see what you're getting. While the file is being transferred, you can click the Open button to open the file. If the file is a music file for example, this will open the default player and play the file while it is being streamed to your computer. If you decide you don't want to continue the download, you can click Cancel to stop, and Delete to remove the file from your computer.

Most importantly, the user interface doesn't do anything dumb. The buttons are clearly labeled and intuitive. There is extensive error checking to make sure what you ask it to do actually happens. If something goes wrong, it let's you know. We think anyone with experience using a P2P application will have no trouble operating Amishare without referring to the documentation.

If you have specific suggestion on how we can improve the user interface, that would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

The Amishare Team

[Mels_Smileys45]

I think this is a project many people have wanted. I know I've seen many posts of people asking for an app that does just this sort of thing. I may give it a try out soon if I can get some of my friends to install it too.

I also love the disclaimer not allowing the government in any form to use the network! rock on!

[notbob]

I also love the disclaimer not allowing the government in any form to use the network! rock on!

those warnings are so beyond worthless i laugh at the stupidity of anyone who uses them

hooker to man "are you a cop? if you are you have to tell me!"

hilarious

http://www.snopes.com/legal/privacy.htm

[amishare]

Hello Everyone,

We've added Release Notes and a list of Known Bugs to our website, http://www.amishare.com/software.

Thank you for the comments and suggestions we have received so far. They are very much appreciated.

Cheers,

The Amishare Team

[shawners]

what do you do if you dont have amish friends?? I would use it but you need to start a online community on the website so people can become friends with filesharers and such. I have friends at work or in other places.. I just burn a 100 mp3's on cdr and give it to them, or they give me them.

[amishare]

Hello Everyone,

We released a second beta version that can be downloaded at our website, http://www.amishare.com.

Beta 2 solves a problem that occasionally prevented two computers from completing the Invite/RSVP sequence and establishing a secure connection. We apologize for the error, since we could have and should have found it with more thorough testing. If you were affected by this problem in beta 1, please give beta 2 a try.

After five days of beta testing, the program is looking pretty solid. If you've been waiting to give it a try, now would be a good time to jump in. We appreciate the feedback and suggestions we've gotten so far.

Thanks,

The Amishare Team

[amishare]

Hello Shawners,

This is a good suggestion. We'll have to think about how/if we could host an online community at our own website, or if this might be something that could grow out of an existing online community. Its a very good idea though.

Thanks much,

Amishare

[amishare]

Hello Everyone,

We updated our website this morning with a FAQ. It can be found on our Software page, http://www.amishare.com/software.

If anyone has additional questions, please feel free to ask.

We're also working on a description of the techniques we use to implement secure communication, and hope to have that document posted soon.

Best Regards,

The Amishare Team

[Miniver]

Hey Amishare team,

You might want to consider adding your beta to the filesharing program releases on the front page. It would send a lot more users your way than this thread can. See here http://www.zeropaid.com/php/creator.php

[shawners]

you hear that, my idea was good =)

If you ever had audiogalaxy. It be a nice setup to have people create rooms of styles, artist, and make others OP's.. and let people in that they want to let in, and in any cases, being able to verify their content or files before being a member... Gives their join date, brief description of the person, and always able to close rooms that have been jeopardise by third party corporates.

[rebirth]

i didn't think the amish used computers

amish-are? it smells like cattle
Not Amish. Ami-Share. Ami is french for friend. See? Friend-Share :)

[stecbine]

Hmmm this sounds very promising! I will be taking a hands on look at it very soon maybe in the next beta or one after. As a rule of thumb I don't usually install any of the first 3 versions of a beta program. However I do use SoulSeek for private sharing I just share with a handful of friends and have public sharing turned off so essentially you can do the same thing with SoulSeek but I will still take a look at Amishare. For public sharing I use Shareaza!

Question how did you come up with the name Amishare?

[coldcopper]

Wow. I didn't think the Amish were allowed to dabble in any technology, much less p2p.

Will wonders never cease.

[nasr]

I just wanna recommend having a zipped version of the program. Don't get me wrong the Microsoft Installer could still be there, but If one slowly transverges to normal-not-shitty-installers, the whole world would be graceful.

GET THE MICROSOFT INSTALLER OFF!!

[nasr]

And Now i have to download 1.7 MegaBytes of stuff. Tell Me Amishere What Nullsoft installer Doesn't have that Windows Installer Does?. and Does WASTE Does the same thing As Amishare?

[black_magiic]

This looks pretty cool I just need to con some of my friends into trying it.

[rebirth]

Wow. I didn't think the Amish were allowed to dabble in any technology, much less p2p.

Will wonders never cease.
it's not AMISH, for fuck's sake. It's AMI - Share. Ami = FRIEND in French. Got it? Friend-share. Heh. Clever, EH?

[black_magiic]

I just noticed how much abuse the amish are taking in this thread, and they have no means of defending themselves. This is just low ;-)

[rebirth]

Wow. This thread is annoying.

[stecbine]

Wow. This thread is annoying.Well fuck :finger you too. :;)

I get you now but IMO I think they should have picked a better name because this is going to happen all the time & I'm sure people who aren't French will be turned off simply by the name of the program. I will still try the program but I have to admit the name at first made me feel uneasy about the program and still does somewhat. There is a lot in a name!

[notbob]

Not Amish. Ami-Share. Ami is french for friend. See? Friend-Share :)
no shit

where do you think the ami in amish came from?

see how i broke the word amish-are? it was part of the joke--i can't help it if dumb people really thought it was amish

[rebirth]

Yeah, and Mercora is a whole bunch better :P

[amishare]

Hello Zeropaid Members,

Yes, our name comes from "ami" which means friend. This word is common in many languages decended from Latin, including the French "ami", the Spanish "amigo", and English words such as "amicable".

We're not sure what features Amishare has in common with Waste or D.C.

We do know that Amishare is easy to setup, it is cryptographically secure, and it allows each person to have their own network of friends. We don't know if Waste or D.C. share these features, but maybe someone who has experience with these programs can help with this question.

Best Regards,

The Amishare Team

[mp3MaStA88]

i'd like to try this only if i can get my other friends to try it out... i have been waiting for a private network program, but i origanally used waste to share files with my friends... This program was pretty good, but i gave up on it to see what else could come out in the private network world

[Miniver]

Hey Amishare team,

You might want to consider adding your beta to the filesharing program releases on the front page. It would send a lot more users your way than this thread can. See here http://www.zeropaid.com/php/creator.phpWe have many visitors who will never see this thread. If you put you client up in the program listings on the front page, everyone who visits the site will see it.

[amishare]

Hello mp3MaStA88,

We're glad to hear you're interesting in trying Amishare. One way to get your friends to try it might be to send them invitations.

If there are features you would like to see in Amishare, or things you liked better about Waste, please let us know. We'll see what we can do about adding them.

Best Regards,

The Amishare Team

P.S., We're currently working on our documentation, and hope to get including in the main Zeropaid program listing when we're done.

[shawners]

shareami would be good.. share a friend =)