Am I doing the setup wrong or is syncthing simply inappropriate for this sort of usage?
I have used dropbox and btsync before. Now trying out syncthing, because my friend recommended it.
I create a new audio file (about 50MB) every week, and put it in my dropbox folder. Sharing with about 10 people, they then download from dropbox. Dropbox’s transfer speed is a bit slow, but at least it works. But soon my 2GB is up. Another problem is I have to manually add each new person who wants to join the group.
I moved to btsync. I just put the readonly secret on the website, and anybody who wants can put it on their copy of btsync and pull the files automatically. I no longer have to “approve” people. Files are automatically propagated using bt. My group increased to 50 people. With no 2GB limit, I added a video file pushing the weekly addition to about 500MB.
It seems to me that syncthing only creates point-to-point link between two devices. If I published my device ID on my website, and asked my group to use that, and then share one folder … my puny 5mbps uplink would be hosed. I wouldn’t be able to use the Internet for days, and they would all grow frustrated with the extremely slow transfer speed. Imaging 50 people trying to download the same files from one person.
With more work, I could get 5 people to download from me, and then 5 more to download from each of these 5, and so on. But that seems a lot of work setting up the chain, and all of them would have to leave their computers on until all their “downlines” gets a copy of all the files. I could imagine one or two computers not working, people shutting down the computer too early, turning them on too late, going on holidays, etc, causing unreliability in the whole network.