Any of you guys aware of PeerTube?

[YosemiteSam]

Any of you guys aware of PeerTube?

• https://peertube.tv
• https://joinpeertube.org

PeerTube is free, open-source software for running a video-hosting site—think “a YouTube-like site you or a community can operate,” rather than one single website owned by PeerTube. Its main purpose is to offer a decentralized, federated alternative to centralized video platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.

How it works
Instead of uploading everything to one Google-operated infrastructure:

• An organization, individual, university, interest group, or community can run its own PeerTube instance its own video site, rules, accounts, moderation policy, and storage.
• Instances can federate using ActivityPub, the same family of technology used by Mastodon. A site can follow another site or creator and display remote videos without taking over ownership of the original server.
• Each instance chooses whom it federates with; it is not one universal, centrally governed network.joinpeertube+1
• It can use browser-based peer-to-peer delivery; typically WebRTC/WebTorrent. So viewers watching a popular video may share chunks with one another, reducing the bandwidth burden on the original host. That is where the name “PeerTube” comes from.

A useful analogy is email: Gmail is a centralized provider, but email itself is federated. You can run your own mail server and exchange messages with Gmail, Proton Mail, or a university server. PeerTube applies a similar model to video publishing and discovery.

As someone who works in technology, I definitely support these technologies for larger sites as when sites reach the monopolistic sizes which gives them way too much control and they end up abusing it. These types of sites are just very hard to really reach the full Internet population (critical mass) without getting more users to join them. (hence why I am posting this)

 

[Rockport]

Any of you guys aware of PeerTube?

• https://peertube.tv
• https://joinpeertube.org

PeerTube is free, open-source software for running a video-hosting site—think “a YouTube-like site you or a community can operate,” rather than one single website owned by PeerTube. Its main purpose is to offer a decentralized, federated alternative to centralized video platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.

How it works
Instead of uploading everything to one Google-operated infrastructure:

• An organization, individual, university, interest group, or community can run its own PeerTube instance its own video site, rules, accounts, moderation policy, and storage.
• Instances can federate using ActivityPub, the same family of technology used by Mastodon. A site can follow another site or creator and display remote videos without taking over ownership of the original server.
• Each instance chooses whom it federates with; it is not one universal, centrally governed network.joinpeertube+1
• It can use browser-based peer-to-peer delivery; typically WebRTC/WebTorrent. So viewers watching a popular video may share chunks with one another, reducing the bandwidth burden on the original host. That is where the name “PeerTube” comes from.

A useful analogy is email: Gmail is a centralized provider, but email itself is federated. You can run your own mail server and exchange messages with Gmail, Proton Mail, or a university server. PeerTube applies a similar model to video publishing and discovery.

As someone who works in technology, I definitely support these technologies for larger sites as when sites reach the monopolistic sizes which gives them way too much control and they end up abusing it. These types of sites are just very hard to really reach the full Internet population (critical mass) without getting more users to join them. (hence why I am posting this)

Mastodon has done a great job with it's social network, but it's still fringe in it's userbase with maybe 10.7M registered users, 10,000 independent servers, and maybe 1 million active users each day.

• https://joinmastodon.org
• https://mastodon.social/explore

What isn’t clearly mentioned is that anyone can host a PeerTube server so safety standards vary. The last company I worked for blacklisted these types of open source projects for security concerns.

 

[YosemiteSam]

What isn’t clearly mentioned is that anyone can host a PeerTube server so safety standards vary. The last company I worked for blacklisted these types of open source projects for security concerns.

Yes, but the risk isn't always clear and I would counter your argument with the fact that we tend to block Internet access in general in the workplace only allowing required sites. That is both from a "wasting time" and security standpoint. (how many of you are on CBZ while at work?)

PeerTube and Mastodon themselves are not unsafe just because they are decentralized. Though there can be some risk with individual server operators and peer-to-peer delivery can create some specific privacy exposures, but I promise you. Google, Meta, and the likes are doing far worse than most of these operators are with your information. Of course, that doesn't mean they get a clean bill of health, but just don't be confused to what a monolithic site offers you from a privacy standpoint.

I would say the biggest risk these decentralized user managed servers is the security of the site itself. Meaning, are they keeping their servers and services up to date with security patches that could expose their own server to a compromise.

For that, I would say the average Joe / Joanna should not be running an instance of PeertTube or Mastodon. That should be left to knowledgeable and experienced people to host. I'm quite sure that @Reality would agree with that given his extensive experience hosting CBZ. If you don't know what you're doing. You're your own security risk.

 

[Rockport]

Yes, but the risk isn't always clear and I would counter your argument with the fact that we tend to block Internet access in general in the workplace only allowing required sites. That is both from a "wasting time" and security standpoint. (how many of you are on CBZ while at work?)

PeerTube and Mastodon themselves are not unsafe just because they are decentralized. Though there can be some risk with individual server operators and peer-to-peer delivery can create some specific privacy exposures, but I promise you. Google, Meta, and the likes are doing far worse than most of these operators are with your information. Of course, that doesn't mean they get a clean bill of health, but just don't be confused to what a monolithic site offers you from a privacy standpoint.

I would say the biggest risk these decentralized user managed servers is the security of the site itself. Meaning, are they keeping their servers and services up to date with security patches that could expose their own server to a compromise.

For that, I would say the average Joe / Joanna should not be running an instance of PeertTube or Mastodon. That should be left to knowledgeable and experienced people to host. I'm quite sure that @Reality would agree with that given his extensive experience hosting CBZ. If you don't know what you're doing. You're your own security risk.

That’s not exactly true. Financial companies like PayPal or Schwab have much stricter security rules they must follow. Federal and international. Same for Health companies as well as many others.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I'm sorry, what isn't true in the statement that you bolded?

As for financial companies, you're right. Security requirements tend to be higher than your standard "anything" business, though it's not always limited to financial companies. I ran a large e-commerce site and we have tight standards from PCI Compliance. My best friend runs IT for a regional bank. His requirements are higher than mine because he has government auditors that come every year to audit him.

I don't have the government auditors, but we do have audits of our compliance. Mostly from PCI-CSS and our own requested audits.

 

[Rockport]

I'm sorry, what isn't true in the statement that you bolded?

As for financial companies, you're right. Security requirements tend to be higher than your standard "anything" business, though it's not always limited to financial companies. I ran a large e-commerce site and we have tight standards from PCI Compliance. My best friend runs IT for a regional bank. His requirements are higher than mine because he has government auditors that come every year to audit him.

I don't have the government auditors, but we do have audits of our compliance. Mostly from PCI-CSS and our own requested audits.

Exactly and these peer to peer servers would fail those audits.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Exactly and these peer to peer servers would fail those audits.

Those are external to the audits. Unless you are saying access to those networks. Then again, that would usually apply to more than just distributed networks like those.

For instance, the bank whitelists sites and blocked by default. Technically, we do something similar, but have access groups that allow specific groups of people to access specific sites through the security proxy. That means your HTTPS connection IS NOT private from my corporate network. We terminate HTTPS at the proxy on both sides and use IDS, IPS and content filtering for any HTTPS connection from the corporate network.

 

[Rockport]

Those are external to the audits. Unless you are saying access to those networks. Then again, that would usually apply to more than just distributed networks like those.

For instance, the bank whitelists sites and blocked by default. Technically, we do something similar, but have access groups that allow specific groups of people to access specific sites through the security proxy. That means your HTTPS connection IS NOT private from my corporate network. We terminate HTTPS at the proxy on both sides and use IDS, IPS and content filtering for any HTTPS connection from the corporate network.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for open source just have to know the risks. Most companies are using open source in some form or fashion. I retired a few months ago so this is bringing back bad memories

 

[YosemiteSam]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for open source just have to know the risks. Most companies are using open source in some form or fashion. I retired a few months ago so this is bringing back bad memories

Congrats on retirement!

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Any of you guys aware of PeerTube?

• https://peertube.tv
• https://joinpeertube.org

PeerTube is free, open-source software for running a video-hosting site—think “a YouTube-like site you or a community can operate,” rather than one single website owned by PeerTube. Its main purpose is to offer a decentralized, federated alternative to centralized video platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.

How it works
Instead of uploading everything to one Google-operated infrastructure:

• An organization, individual, university, interest group, or community can run its own PeerTube instance its own video site, rules, accounts, moderation policy, and storage.
• Instances can federate using ActivityPub, the same family of technology used by Mastodon. A site can follow another site or creator and display remote videos without taking over ownership of the original server.
• Each instance chooses whom it federates with; it is not one universal, centrally governed network.joinpeertube+1
• It can use browser-based peer-to-peer delivery; typically WebRTC/WebTorrent. So viewers watching a popular video may share chunks with one another, reducing the bandwidth burden on the original host. That is where the name “PeerTube” comes from.

A useful analogy is email: Gmail is a centralized provider, but email itself is federated. You can run your own mail server and exchange messages with Gmail, Proton Mail, or a university server. PeerTube applies a similar model to video publishing and discovery.

As someone who works in technology, I definitely support these technologies for larger sites as when sites reach the monopolistic sizes which gives them way too much control and they end up abusing it. These types of sites are just very hard to really reach the full Internet population (critical mass) without getting more users to join them. (hence why I am posting this)

This sounds cool. Does anyone know if you can watch PeerTube on TV boxes such as Roku? I won't get into the details, but there's been a need for an alternative to Youtube for some time now.

 

[YosemiteSam]

This sounds cool. Does anyone know if you can watch PeerTube on TV boxes such as Roku? I won't get into the details, but there's been a need for an alternative to Youtube for some time now.

Probably with a web browser, but they aren't very big right now and don't have a ton of content, but if we can get people to post there videos there maybe we can make it an alternative to the big brands which will lead to apps on devices.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Probably with a web browser, but they aren't very big right now and don't have a ton of content, but if we can get people to post there videos there maybe we can make it an alternative to the big brands which will lead to apps on devices.

I've been meaning to make my own TV box with a Raspberry Pi that can include a browser, but it's so easy to just use the Roku. But I should make my specialized TV box.

 

[Hardline]

This sounds cool. Does anyone know if you can watch PeerTube on TV boxes such as Roku? I won't get into the details, but there's been a need for an alternative to Youtube for some time now.

Rumble

 

[VaqueroTD]

What isn’t clearly mentioned is that anyone can host a PeerTube server so safety standards vary. The last company I worked for blacklisted these types of open source projects for security concerns.

How many IT Engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? While I understand the security concerns these days, it's tough to get anything through those guys in most companies. I was watching the original Tron the other day and thinking how much I missed the days when it was all so innocent with computers.

 

[Birch_Wood]

I like the concept. How does a neophyte protect their phone/computer if this site is risky?

 

[Rockport]

How many IT Engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? While I understand the security concerns these days, it's tough to get anything through those guys in most companies. I was watching the original Tron the other day and thinking how much I missed the days when it was all so innocent with computers.

The company I retired from was attacked by Ransom ware. You never heard of it just like you don’t hear about all the other ransom ware attacks. Since the company handled PCI data the FDIC came down hard. Big fine and we had to harden what was thought was an already well protected company. The hardening is still going on after 5 years. IT Security guys can only protect against known and perceived threats but every day, every hour there’s new threats introduced.

People that visit those free streaming sites are all loaded with active and dormant pieces of code slowing down their devices, gathering information and doing nefarious things. It’s the dumbest thing you can do. This isn’t Vegas and you aren’t the house. You will eventually lose.

 

[Rockport]

I like the concept. How does a neophyte protect their phone/computer if this site is risky?

Use your common sense. Porn sites - risky. “Free” streaming sport sites that everyone else pays to watch - risky. Peer to peer sites - risky.