zivkovicmilos/peer_drop

A P2P secure file sharing platform

peer_drop.

peer_drop is a safe peer-to-peer decentralized file sharing solution. It leverages enterprise grade security and verification practices to make sure files are safely distributed from one machine to the other.

Users can create workspaces and share their workspace mnemonic so others can join.

Installation

Client server install

The latest version of golang is recommended.

To install the client server dependencies, in the peer_drop/client directory run:

go mod download

Finally, to build the executable, run:

go build main.go

Web UI install

Yarn is used as the package manager, so make sure it is installed on your system. To install the frontend dependencies, in the peer_drop/web-ui directory run:

yarn install

How to run 📝

There are 2 types of nodes in a peer_drop system:

• Client node: handles regular UI actions, connects to other client nodes, does file transfer and handshaking protocols
• Rendezvous node: serves as a bootstrap node for client node discovery, doesn't take part in file transfer

In order for client nodes to discover each other, a rendezvous node needs to be already up and running.

Deploying a rendezvous node

A rendezvous node can be deployed using the following command:

go run main.go --directory=app_data_rendezvous --host=46.101.229.130 --grpc-port=10001 --libp2p-port=10002 --rendezvous 

Flag description:

• directory flag specifies the working directory for the rendezvous node data
• grpc-port flag specifies the available gRPC port for stream protocols
• libp2p-port flag specifies the available libp2p port the libp2p host instance can use
• rendezvous flag specifies that this node is starting in rendezvous mode
• host flag specifies the host that libp2p should use, if running on a cloud server this is the public IP

When starting the rendezvous node, take note of the multiaddr the output provides, for example:

Rendezvous node started with ID: /ip4/46.101.229.130/tcp/10002/p2p/QmdBhgtDwRVkJJ5DbfVHUm4FuhcmpDQ4Qebx66x48MmYu8

This ID needs to be used when configuring / starting the client nodes.

At least one rendezvous node is required for normal operation. To start multiple rendezvous nodes, pass in the --rendezvous-node flag for every new node, with the multiaddr of the running rendezvous node.

Deploying a client node

Before running the client node, make sure it has a set rendezvous node address. In peer_drop/client/config/config.go, set the rendezvous multiaddrs for the DefaultRendezvousNodes value:

// Default rendezvous nodes that are already up and running
var (
DefaultRendezvousNodes = []string{
"/ip4/46.101.229.130/tcp/10002/p2p/QmdBhgtDwRVkJJ5DbfVHUm4FuhcmpDQ4Qebx66x48MmYu8", // DigitalOcean rendezvous
}
)

A client node can be started using the following command:

go run main.go

The command accepts all the previously mentioned flags for setting up the directory and host / port information. The default host / HTTP port is localhost:5000.

Starting the Web interface

Before starting the web interface, create a file named .env inside the peer_drop/web-ui directory. Populate the file so the frontend knows where the client server is running:

REACT_APP_CLIENT_API_BASE_URL=<host/port>

An example of a correct .env file for a client server running on localhost:5000 would be:

REACT_APP_CLIENT_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000

Starting multiple client nodes on the same machine

When starting multiple client nodes, or multiple client nodes with a rendezvous node, be sure to give each starting instance a separate directory and port through the mentioned flags when starting the clients.

The UI can also be started multiple times, just make a copy of the web-ui folder to a different location, and in the new .env file add:

REACT_APP_CLIENT_API_BASE_URL=<host/port>

PORT=<port number>

The default PORT value is 3000. The UI's need to be running on different ports, and reference the correct client servers in order for the system to function correctly.

Example .env of a UI that's referencing a client server running on localhost:5000:

REACT_APP_CLIENT_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000

PORT=5000

Each individual client node / UI needs to be started separately.