FreenetWiki: First Timer's Handbook

First Timer's Handbook

Warning: Please see instructions in the download page∞ before reading on, because instructions on this page could be outdated.

Welcome to the First Timer's Handbook. This page was created to reduce flood on IRC and to educate YOU, the newest Freenet user.

First of all, if you successfully navigated to this page, you have what it takes to run a Freenet node. It isn't as challenging as it looks.

Connecting to the Freenet

In order to connect to the Freenet, you must first establish some connections to others who are already connected to the Freenet. Ideally, you already know someone connected to the Freenet, and you can connect to them (see the "How To Add Known Friends" section). However, for most this is not a reasonable assumption. If you do not know anyone already in the Freenet, you can connect via Opennet.
Please note that you can add Friends at any time, even if Opennet is enable. Your node will automatically connect to fewer strangers if it knows any friends. Your final goal should be to have many friends and no strangers (in the default configuration your node will connect to 20 peers. If you manage to add 20 friends, then your node will not connect to strangers anymore)

How to connect via Opennet

If during the installation, you chose not to enable Opennet, you can follow these instructions to turn it on.

Open up your web-browser. (Note: It is best not to use Microsoft Internet Explorer with Freenet due to security issues. One alternative, if you do not already have it, is have Mozilla Firefox∞.)
Go to http://localhost:8888∞ . If you see Freenet FProxy Homepage of ....., then your Node is up and operational. If not, then either your node is not running, it is still loading, or something else is happening. See the Help section below.
Click on Configuration to open the configuration page.
In the configuration page, look for "NODE.OPENNET"
Set "Insecure Mode" to True
Now scroll down to the bottom and hit apply.
Once you see the confirmation message, click on Home on the side panel.
If a message is shown on the node's homepage, that no seednodes.fref file has been found, you will have to download it from http://downloads.freenetproject.org/alpha/opennet/seednodes.fref∞. Download this to your Freenet directory (right click on the link --> Save target to...").

How To Add Known Friends

You can add Friends at any time. Go out and find some! :-)

Click on Friends on the side panel.
At the bottom of this page you will see a box that says My Reference. It will contain text similar to this:
```
lastGoodVersion=Fred,0.7,1.0,990
sig=02d3d821ce08a552c28c0b09672a16ac1c318ebd963b82001dd9fd5b4d7ed8df,009cccd9f18002d3
myName=IMCensored1
location=0.9342173270717867
testnet=false
version=Fred,0.7,1.0,997
a
few
more
lines
here
End
```
This is referred to your node reference. First check to make sure that your myName doesn't say something like Node created around (number) if it does, please go to the Configuration page in your FProxy and change your node's name. (Note: Some consider this naming of the nodes as a potential security risk, thus it is suggested to re-name the node as soon as possible.)
Copy the entire node reference in to your clipboard.
Paste it in a new email and send it (possibly encrypted) to a friend. Tell your friend to do the same with you.
When you receive a reference from your friend, go to the Friends page and paste the reference in to the box at the bottom.

Note that both you and your friend have to add each other's reference to the node. Otherwise the connection between you and your friend will not work.

I'm Connected, what can I do?

Now that you are actually connected to the Freenet, you are probably anxious to start browsing around. At first you will notice that pages load a little bit on the slow side. Your node is new to the network and your peers are routing data in to your wide open data stores. After a day or two, your cache/data stores will be built, and Freenet will move much faster. Please don't get initially discouraged!!

There are a few different ways to interact with Freenet.

Browse Freesites - These are the websites that are contained within the Freenet. The easiest way to find them is by using the Indexes included in the bookmarks (on the main page of your node, http://localhost:8888∞ ).
Frost - A message board and file-sharing application for Freenet (bundled in the Freenet installer).
Freemail - An email program that sends mail through Freenet

Another thing you may want to do is join #freenet in IRC. This is the channel for the general Freenet discussion. While your at it, join #freenet-chat... This is an off topic channel. Its a good way to get to know some of your fellow Freeneters.

Help

Take a look at Documentation

There are many documents∞ that may help you.

Ask in the mailing lists

You can subscribe to one of several mailing lists∞ available. The "Support" one is the right one if you're looking for help.

How To Use IRC For Assistance

1) If you are not already in IRC, please log in. (Windows users: a good client to download is mIRC∞).

/connect irc.freenode.net 6667

Freenode IRC network does not allow private messages to be sent unless you have a registered nickname. To register a nickname, type /msg nickserv register password. If the nick name is taken, you will have to choose another. Subsequently, every time you reconnect to Freenode, you can type /msg nickserv identify password to login in to your nickname. If you ever plan to stop using IRC for good, type /msg nickserv drop your username your password to remove your account information.

Now you want to join #freenet-Newbie. This channel is for newbie assistance. Freenethelpbot will provide assistance where available, and other freenet users usually sit in there and provide assistance as well, when they are at their terminals. If you cannot get immediate assistance in #freenet-newbie and with none of the help documents provided, then you can join #freenet and ask there. Please note that usually between the hours of 2 AM - 10 AM GMT (or 9 PM - 5 AM United States Eastern Time), less people are active on IRC, and assistance may not be immediate. Stick around or check back with us, thanks.

If at anytime you need to see the listings for any of the help pages, in #freenet-newbie type !freenethelp and you will get a list of all the help pages.

A connection I made always stays at Never Connected!

If a connection you have made to someone else never changes from Never Connected, first make sure that the person has also added your reference. Freenet requires both ends of a connection to have a copy of the other person's node reference, thus if you never gave your friends your reference than they cannot connect to you. It is also likely that your friend you added to your reference list never added you to their reference list. This is why it is important to get verification that your friends has added you, when you add them.

If you are sure that your friend you added has also added you, (or if you are using Opennet and see many Never Connected peers, you may be behind a NAT Router. To make a long story short if you are behind a NAT Router, you can connect to most people but not everyone (usually if both people are using NAT). This limitation is currently trying to be overcome in development. For now, you can try to forward the ports Freenet uses in your router, and going in to the configuration page, and under NODE and under NODE.OPENNET, set "Assume the port is not Forwarded" to true in both places.

I'm lost!

Try going to the #freenet-newbie channel on irc.freenode.com and ask for help. You can also try looking for help on this Wiki.