transfer

This guide explains how to upload a file using the Stellarbridge file upload feature.

Before you stream a file, ensure:

• Streaming requires that the sender has the required role assigned to their stellarbridge account. Users will need the BridgeUser role to upload a file.

In this section, you will initiate a file stream with the receiver.

1. Login to the stellarbridge dashboard.

TODO: using the demo account, capture screenshot of the login page

2. Navigate to the file streaming page.

   2.1. Navigate to the Home tab

   2.2. Select the Upload tab

   2.3. Select the file(s) to transfer with the drop-zone

   2.4. Select the Upload button

   2.5 Copy the share link to the transfer. This can be done either from the transfer page or from the history page.

• File streaming concepts
• Managing RBAC for file streams

This guide explains how to stream a file using the Stellarbridge file streaming feature.

Before you stream a file, ensure:

• Streaming requires that both parties have a stellarbridge account.
• Streaming requires that both parties have the required role assigned to their stellarbridge account. Users will need one of the following roles to stream a file.
  • GlobalAdmin
  • StreamUser
• File streaming is a synchronous operation, meaning both the sender and receiver must be online at the same time to initiate the transfer peer-to-peer.
• Depending on the security configurations of the firewall and or NAT that either party sits behind, a TURN server may be used. This means that in this situation files will be proxied through the TURN server and not be peer-to-peer.

When streaming files, there are a number of things to keep in mind that can cause the speed and efficiency of a transfer to degrade:

• Network conditions - this includes network conditions on both the sender and the receiver end. If either of these cause a bottleneck, transfer speeds will be slower.
• Peer-to-peer availability - if either end is behind a NAT or firewall that is strictly configured to not allow peer-to-peer connections, a TURN server will be used, and transfer speeds will be significantly slower due to each file chunk being sent through a relay between networks.
• Write speeds on the computer - this includes both the sender and the receiver. On both ends, the file that is being streamed between networks is read in to the stream via chunks. If the read speeds on the sender end are relatively slow it will cause a bottleneck in the stream, and inversely, if the write speeds on the receiver end are relatively slow it will also cause a bottleneck.
• VPN use - VPNs can also cause significant network bottlenecks as they add an encapsulation of encryption around each packet that is being sent through the network. Some VPN protocols are significantly slower than others. For example, WireGuard is a lot faster than OpenVPN. Do keep in mind that if either machine is using a VPN while files are being transferred between networks, speed will be degraded.

The stream feature in Stellar Bridge is designed to be as robust as possible, but keep in mind that given the above limitations, file streams may not always be the most efficient method of moving files around.
Another thing that will significantly impact speed is file size. Smaller files can move between networks exceptionally fast. However, larger files (e.g. several hundred GB in size) will move a lot slower. There are several methods that can be employed to increase the speed of a transfer, especially when it comes to large file sizes. Primarily, it is recommended that if your file is a GB or more in size, that you manually compress the file on the sender end.Algorithms such as LZMA2, which is the compression algorithm behind 7-Zip, is extremely efficient and can exponentially decrease the size of the files being moved between networks.This does however involve an extra step on either end in order to stream files between networks. It requires the sender to compress, and depending on how large the file is, compression may take several minutes to several hours to complete. Additionally, it will also require the step on the receiving end in order to decompress the file, which also depending on the file size can take several minutes to several hours to complete. However, even with these extra steps on either end, it is a significant enough decrease in time as far as the actual streaming process goes that it is a worthwhile step to take.

Another important factor to keep in mind are the conditions that will limit the size of files that can be sent between networks via a stream. The first and most obvious limitation will be computer hard disk size. For example, say you have networks A and B. Network A is going to stream a file that is 500 GB in size to a computer on network B. On the receiving end, however, the hard disk size is only 256 GB. Obviously, there is not enough total disk space on the receiving computer to handle a file that is twice its size. However, a lesser-known fact is that browsers are only allowed to access half the amount of GBs as the total size of the hard drive. What does this mean? Well, if you have a hard drive that is 256 GB in size, your browser will only be able to access 128 GB.

The streaming feature inside of Stellar Bridge is smart enough to warn you of these conditions. If a file that it is about to receive would be larger than the amount of space the browser can handle given hard disk and browser limitations, a warning notification will appear inside of the browser. Additionally, different browsers will have different capabilities when it comes to streaming. The underlying technology that we use to stream files between networks is WebRTC. Generally speaking, Chromium-based browsers have the best support for WebRTC. Chromium-based browsers will include Chromium, Chrome, Edge, Brave, etc. Browsers that are not Chromium-based will include Firefox-based browsers, including Firefox and Zen as well as Safari on Mac OS. While all of these browsers technically support WebRTC, their implementation may vary from browser to browser. For the best possible means of success when streaming files between networks, it is recommended that Chromium-based browsers are used on either end.

If you attempt to stream a file from a non-Chromium based browser, the UI will give you a warning letting you know that for best results you should be using a Chromium-based browser. You’re certainly more than welcome to use any browser that you want, but do be aware of the limitations of non-Chromium based browsers.

In this section, you will initiate a file stream with the receiver.

1. Login to the Stellarbridge dashboard.
   

2. Navigate to the file streaming page.

   2.1. Navigate to the Home tab
   

   2.2. Select the Stream tab

   2.3. Select the file to transfer with the drop-zone
   

   2.4. Select the Send file button
   

   2.5 Copy the file stream seed-phrase

   2.6 Send the file stream seed-phrase to the receiver via email or other means as defined by your organization policies.

In this section, you will receive a file stream from the sender.

1. Login to the Stellarbridge dashboard.
   

2. Navigate to the file streaming page.

   2.1 Navigate to the Home tab.
   

   2.2 Select the Stream tab.

   2.3. Paste the file stream seed-phrase into the Receive file field.

   2.4. Select the Receive File button.
   

• File streaming concepts
• Managing RBAC for file streams