Wirehog
Encyclopedia
Friend-to-friend
A friend-to-friend computer network is a type of peer-to-peer network in which users only make direct connections with people they know. Passwords or digital signatures can be used for authentication....
file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
program that was linked to Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and allowed people to transfer files directly between computers.
History
It was created by Andrew McCollumAndrew McCollum
Andrew McCollum is a co-founder of Facebook and an angel investor. He attended Harvard University with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and others on the founding team. He worked at Facebook from February 2004 to September 2006...
, Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating the social networking site Facebook, of which he is chief executive and president...
, Adam D'Angelo
Adam D'Angelo
Adam D'Angelo is the chief executive and co-founder of Quora, an online knowledge market based in Palo Alto, California.He was chief technology officer of Facebook, and also served as its vice president of engineering.He left Facebook in 2008...
, and Sean Parker
Sean Parker
Sean Parker is an American technology businessman and entrepreneur. He co-founded Napster, Plaxo, Causes, and Airtime, and was Facebook's founding president. His net worth is estimated at $2.1 billion.-Early life:...
during their development of The Facebook social networking website in Palo Alto in the summer and fall of 2004. The only way to join Wirehog was through an invitation from a member and although it was originally planned as an integrated feature of Facebook, it could also be used by friends who weren't registered on Facebook. Wirehog was originally launched in October 2004 and was taken down in January 2006. Its target audience at the time was the same as the campus-only file-sharing service i2hub
I2hub
i2hub was a peer-to-peer file sharing service and program designed and intended primarily for use by university and college students. The program was created by Wayne Chang, a student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst...
that launched earlier that year. i2hub
I2hub
i2hub was a peer-to-peer file sharing service and program designed and intended primarily for use by university and college students. The program was created by Wayne Chang, a student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst...
was gaining a lot of traction and growing rapidly. In an interview with The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper of Harvard University, was founded in 1873. It is the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates...
, Zuckerberg said, "I think Wirehog will probably spread in the same way that thefacebook did."
The software was described by its creators as "an HTTP file transfer system using dynamic DNS and NAT traversal to make your personal computer addressable, routable and easily accessible". The client allowed users to both access data stored on their home computer from a remote location and let friends exchange files between each others computers. In ways, Wirehog was a project comparable to Alex Pankratov's Hamachi VPN
Virtual private network
A virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
, the open-source OneSwarm
OneSwarm
OneSwarm is a privacy-preserving P2P client developed at the University of Washington. Although backward compatible with traditional BitTorrent clients, OneSwarm also includes new features designed to protect user privacy when sharing data among friends through creating a distributed darknet,...
private network
Private P2P
Private peer-to-peer systems are peer-to-peer systems that allow only mutually trusted peers to participate. This can be achieved by using a central server such as a Direct Connect hub to authenticate clients. Alternatively, users can exchange passwords or cryptographic keys with friends to form...
, or the darknet RetroShare software.
Wirehog is a social application that lets friends exchange files of any type with each other over the web. Facebook and Wirehog are integrated so that Wirehog knows who your friends are in order to make sure that only people in your network can see your files. Facebook certifies that it is okay to enter your facebook email address and password into Wirehog for the purposes of this integration.
Wirehog has been suspended and one of its uses on Facebook, sharing photos, has been superseded by the introduction of photo-sharing into Facebook itself.
The Wirehog software was written in Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
and was available for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
only. A Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
version had been promised on the service's website. The service ran a custom-written HTTP server, and file downloading and photo viewing was through the web browser, with requested authentication by Wirehog's central servers to allow users to set up custom privacy settings.
See also
- Friend-to-friendFriend-to-friendA friend-to-friend computer network is a type of peer-to-peer network in which users only make direct connections with people they know. Passwords or digital signatures can be used for authentication....
- Private P2PPrivate P2PPrivate peer-to-peer systems are peer-to-peer systems that allow only mutually trusted peers to participate. This can be achieved by using a central server such as a Direct Connect hub to authenticate clients. Alternatively, users can exchange passwords or cryptographic keys with friends to form...
- Virtual private networkVirtual private networkA virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
Software
- i2hubI2hubi2hub was a peer-to-peer file sharing service and program designed and intended primarily for use by university and college students. The program was created by Wayne Chang, a student at University of Massachusetts, Amherst...
- launched earlier than Wirehog in 2004 and quickly rose to prominence. - AllPeersAllPeersAllPeers was a free software extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser introduced in 2006.On March 2, 2008, AllPeers .The extension allowed building a social network and sharing files on a P2P basis...
- Hamachi NAT Transversal technology and file sharing
- I2PI2PI2P is a mixed-license, free and open source project building an anonymous network .The network is a simple layer that applications can use to anonymously and securely send...
- Invisible Internet Project - OneSwarmOneSwarmOneSwarm is a privacy-preserving P2P client developed at the University of Washington. Although backward compatible with traditional BitTorrent clients, OneSwarm also includes new features designed to protect user privacy when sharing data among friends through creating a distributed darknet,...
- private friend-to-friend and BitTorrent software - TorTor (anonymity network)Tor is a system intended to enable online anonymity. Tor client software routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers in order to conceal a user's location or usage from someone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis...
- The Onion Router - WASTEWASTEWASTE is a peer-to-peer and friend-to-friend protocol and software application developed by Justin Frankel at Nullsoft in 2003 that features instant messaging, chat rooms and file browsing/sharing capabilities. The name WASTE is a reference to Thomas Pynchon's novel The Crying of Lot 49. In the...
- DiasporaDiaspora (software)Diaspora is a free personal web server that implements a distributed social networking service. Installations of the software form nodes which make up the distributed Diaspora social network....
External links
- Wirehog defunct
- Wirehog P2P Melds Social Networks and File-Sharing - TechNewsWorld article
- History of Wirehog - Harvard Crimson