Freenet reborn

**Roamerick** · February 28th, 2004, 05:31 AM

Well, it's been a while since anyone had anything good to say about poor old freenet, but...

Anyone even remotely curious about this project should try the latest unstable build!! It actually works pretty damn well, freesites are accessible, speeds more than decent, and large file transfers work (I've managed to pull about 1GB down just last night).

Suggested approach for Windows (for n00bs ;) :

-go to www.freenetproject.org and dload the latest freenet stable build
-Install it, but don't run it
-go to www.freenetproject.org/snapshots and download:
freenet-unstable-latest.jar (rename to freenet.jar)
unstable.ref (rename to seednodes.ref)
-Copy these two files over the originals in your freenet folder
-Run freenet!

You should now be running an unstable (dont be fooled by the name) build. Now double-click on the freenet icon in your tray (for Win), the web interface will load in your default browser (useMozilla FireFox for better anonimity!). Go to the Dolphin's Freenet Index and start exploring the weird world of Freenet.

NOTE for router/firewall users: You may need to right-click the blue icon, click Configure, go into the Serious Geeks panel, allow IP changes, go into Normal panel, and change your IP to your WAN IP (i.e. the one your router has as seen from the internet).

When you're a bit better settled, find yourself Frost and FUQID for all your newsgroup and downloading needs. They work like a charm now.

Good luck, and enjoy.

**Wa_Bally** · February 28th, 2004, 07:02 AM

Hooray,I have been noodling around with Freenet for aaaaaaaaages with little or no success.You write a few lines and Im away and racing,thanx!!!

**Omyn** · February 28th, 2004, 08:15 AM

Can't wait !

**Govern_cannonball** · February 28th, 2004, 11:06 AM

I tried it a couple of weeks ago. It's still very buggy and very slow. I tried downloadig a 13MB file. Three days later it had 50 blocks out of 72 which should be enough to reconstruct the file. It failed due to a hash failure. Restarting the download , it just failed again withot trying to download more blocks.

**z05+3R0p5** · February 28th, 2004, 11:26 AM

mmmmh this sounds interesting... I've tried to fiddle around with Freenet for ages, but dropped it as I never got the hang of the whole shebang. Guess I'm gonna give it another try now. The very concept is worth supporting.

**Roamerick** · February 28th, 2004, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by Govern_cannonball

I tried it a couple of weeks ago. It's still very buggy and very slow. I tried downloadig a 13MB file. Three days later it had 50 blocks out of 72 which should be enough to reconstruct the file. It failed due to a hash failure. Restarting the download , it just failed again withot trying to download more blocks.

A couple of weeks is a LONG time in Freenet development. Try build 6493, you wont be disappointed.

**evilmegaman** · February 29th, 2004, 09:16 AM

Why is it that when I try to go to a freesite it just says: Could not connect to network blah blah blah... I have done everything Roamerick has said but no luck... why is it not working? I think it might be rejecting older versions (5072 and such) do you know why?

**Roamerick** · March 1st, 2004, 12:38 AM

Originally Posted by evilmegaman

Why is it that when I try to go to a freesite it just says: Could not connect to network blah blah blah... I have done everything Roamerick has said but no luck... why is it not working? I think it might be rejecting older versions (5072 and such) do you know why?

Unstable (64xx) and Stable (50xx) are two separate networks. If you're running unstable as you should be if you followed all the steps, there are two main reasons why you may not be able to connect:

a) You didn't download unstable.ref and rename it seednodes.ref and place it in the freenet folder.

b) you did not specify the right IP for your router. It shouldn;t be 192.168.x.x (That's your LAN IP) but it should instead be your IP on the internet. Obviously it helps if you have a static IP.

Sorry if this isn't much help. :P

**eilveron_esp** · March 1st, 2004, 01:10 AM

Do they have enough money to keep funding the creation of that program?

**Roamerick** · March 1st, 2004, 03:12 AM

Originally Posted by eilveron_esp

Do they have enough money to keep funding the creation of that program?

Well the project's recent appearance on Slashdot resulted in a surge of donations (about USD 4K I believe) so at least they'll be able to pay Matthew Toseland's wages for another couple of months. But needless to say, the more donations, the better.

I reckon if anything on the Net is worth supporting, this is it. Or we may one day come to miss the times where the internet was really free.

**Govern_cannonball** · March 4th, 2004, 05:32 AM

>Try build 6493, you wont be disappointed.
I tried it with a fresh install and an empty store.
The pages linked from the unstable links page mostly load. The file I wanted downloaded in a couple of hours but still fails with a hash error. It is a considerable improvement on previous versions.

Freenet web pages can be published daily or be edition based. Why don't they have weekly published sites?
They would work better.

How is the stable version working currently?
Has the new congestion control method improved it?
I have a theory that the unstable network is better because there are fewer peers and that the network collapeses above a certain size.

**cichlidbyte** · March 19th, 2004, 08:36 AM

QUOTE- POSTER -ROAMERICK

[-go to www.freenetproject.org and dload the latest freenet stable build
-Install it, but don't run it
-go to www.freenetproject.org/snapshots and download:
freenet-unstable-latest.jar (rename to freenet.jar)
unstable.ref (rename to seednodes.ref)
-Copy these two files over the originals in your freenet folder
-Run freenet!]

What precisely i meant by the following instruction???-

'COPY THESE TWO FILES OVER THE ORIGINALS IN YOUR FREENET FOLDER'

1-Does this mean replace originals by deleting/removing the originals and pasting the unstable counterpart alternative files into the freenet folder to take their place now they're gone???.
OR --------
2-Do you mean putting the unstable files inside the original file by placing one file literally over the other file with either the the copy-paste command or copy -extract to freenet/....(specified folder) command so theyre in the same uncompressed file folder, if indeed that is possible???

I need some guidance here as i. not sure what you mean by your final instruction step. Could someone please elaborate/expand for beginner here.Appreciated.

**Govern_cannonball** · March 20th, 2004, 08:59 AM

Romerick means 1, delete/rename the orignal freenet.hjar and seed.ref files and replace them with the unstable versions.

There is talk of combing the stable and unstable networks. The new features that make unstable work better have been added to stable. Wether one large network will be better than two smaller ones is unknown.
I still suspect that freenet will work very badly above a certain network size.