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A comment on Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time. Parent comment

Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by TheOperator on Friday January 11, 2019 @07:09PM (#18888473)
The issue such devices have in practice is upfront cost, compatibility, the need for port forwarding, and the lack of redundancy so you don't lose your data. Among other problems but these come to mind. Centralization solves those problems because you can connect to a server instead of port forwarding, your data might be stored across 3 servers, the cloud storage might be as cheap as free, and applications are designed to work seamlessly with a small number of big cloud providers.

In the depths of my soul I would love to re-decentralize the web. I truly believe data centralization will cause people to suffer a lot. decentralized tech needs to solve so many problems before alternatives to centralization become viable. Centralized approaches also improve over time and are a moving target to keep up with.

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Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by maccam94 on Saturday January 12, 2019 @04:15AM (#18890419)
IPv6 will help by eliminating NAT (and thus port forwarding problems). IPFS might help with redundancy. But yeah the cost and complexity are major problems. I think the biggest problem is making open standards that can evolve quickly. All the big chat platforms have switched to proprietary protocols so they can iterate and roll out changes on their own.
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Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by ndnxhs on Saturday January 12, 2019 @04:47AM (#18890499)
Basically all home routers block incoming connection because so many shitty IoT devices were built to trust anything that is able to connect to it. My router doesn't even have an option to turn off the block. Can only unblock ports 1 by 1
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Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by nicoburns on Saturday January 12, 2019 @02:16PM (#18892778)
I guess the route around this would be for the maker of these devices to partner with router companies. Alternatively, they could also be routers. That would potentially make quite a lot of sense...
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Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by ndnxhs on Saturday January 12, 2019 @08:05PM (#18894330)
I can see a lot of value in routers becoming mini home servers + IoT device hubs. There should also be some standard way for devices to let the router know if they should have access to the outer internet so things like lightbulbs only have access to the iot hub and then the hub has access to the internet.
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Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by thekyle on Tuesday January 15, 2019 @07:44PM (#18917266)
Doesn't UPnP already solve this? And it enabled by default on most routers.
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Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by MaxBarraclough on Saturday January 12, 2019 @05:24AM (#18890599)
But IPv6 routers will continue to block incoming traffic.

Which NAT/PAT/port-forwarding issues are you thinking of?

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Re:Re-decentralizing the Web, for good this time by deevolution on Saturday January 12, 2019 @01:02AM (#18889948)
Dont forget about device maintenance, which is a huge burden. Users of centralized services never have to worry about upkeep.
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