InFrequentlyAskedQuestions
Please add to this! If you have a question to ask, hit the "Edit text of this page" link (bottom of this page). Edit and organize politely as we go.
Q: Is there any effort (user community not technical development) underway to make Freenet an undesireable place to host content deemed by the masses to be unacceptable (e.g. kiddie porn)?
A: Freenet is designed to bypass censorship and ensure anonymous communications and transfer of data. "Undesirables" will never be completely removed from Freenet due to the design of the network. The reason Freenet exists is to stop the powers that be (governments, companies, etc.) from censoring "undesirables". "Undesirables" are a personal view, and the biggest test of your commitment to bypass censorship is distributing materials that you consider "undesirable". Furthermore, censoring some but not others would directly contradict Freenet's goals. Tolerating speech you don't like is the price of being able to speak freely.
Q: Is there a way to allow non-Freenet users the chance to see what Freenet is like without needing to install it?
A: If the machine running the Freenet server is Linux based, and you wish to browse Freenet using a Windows machine, then there are a few different ways you can do it:
- Remote Desktop Not Encrypted
- Install and run VNC server in the server machine (Linux).
- Install and run VNC viewer in the client machine (Windows).
- Connect to to the remote machine.
- Remote Desktop Is Encrypted
- Install and run VNC Server and sshd on the server machine (Linux).
- Install and run VNC viewer and Putty on the client machine (Windows).
- SSH into the Linux machine, and tunnel the VNC data through the SSH protocol.
- Connect to the tunnel.
- Allow Freenet Remote HTTP Connections (Note: Make sure you only allow trusted connections using this method. Also, the traffic going from the client to the Freenet server will NOT be encrypted unless you take further steps to do so.)
- Modify freenet.ini by changing the following values:
mainport.bindAddress=*
mainport.allowedHosts=(Put here a comma seperated list of IP Addresses that you want to allow access to the Freenet server)
- Modify freenet.ini by changing the following values:
- Use ssh's sock4 proxy (Note: The server must be running opensshd.)
- Launch ssh using the following command:
ssh -D 1984 user@freenet_server
- Set in your browser the sock4 proxy's parameter to localhost:1984.
- Now you can browse Freenet through fproxy ( http://localhost:8888/ ). You can also use FCP but you need to do something more to forward FCP's packets through the ssh's sock4 proxy.
- Launch ssh using the following command:
Q: Is there any effort underway to somehow implement database/dynamic content in FreeNet?
A: The new Freenet architecture should be capable of supporting some forms of real-time communication through the network, however this may not be supported before Freenet 0.8.
Q: Is there a way to make a Wiki inside of Freenet?
A: There is a project that is being developed called Freekiwiki to do just that.
Q: What resources do I need in order to participate? Do I need a web-server, or will any Internet-connected computer work? Do I need to run a particular operating system? What ports need to be open?
A: You can chose yourself which port Freenet will use, so if you only have a range of ports that can be opened, you can alter that. Freenet requires a JVM, so as long as there is a compatible virtual machine for your operating system, you will be able to run Freenet. Freenet acts as a web proxy itself, so no need to have a web server, but a browser would help (if you want to view freesites); please note that Microsoft Internet Explorer compromises your anonymity in a way that will make viewing the sites possibly unanonymous.
Q: Why Java?
A: Java is by far the most efficient cross-platform language available today, with modern JIT compilers it can compete with, and even out-do native compiled langauges such as C, all while remaining cross-platform. Of course we have work to do to make Freenet easier to install on a variety of platforms.
Q: How can you be anonymous on a friend-to-friend darknet?
A: Every time you use the Internet you have to connect to somebody. On an OpenNet, you can't choose who you connect to, and you are assigned connections by the network. On a DarkNet, you choose who you connect to. Either way, you are vulnerable mainly to the people running the nodes you are directly connected to; see the security page. If the person looking for you isn't directly connected to you, then it's going to be very difficult for him to find you. On an OpenNet, your node can be detected very easily; it is much more likely that the existence of your freenet node will be detected, and if there is a national firewall in place then the whole network can be blocked trivially. Worse, the attacker can make a big node, find everyone, pretend to be many nodes and get connected to everyone (at the expense of 'real' connections); then he can attack everyone (including you!) efficiently. On a DarkNet, it is much harder to discover who is running Freenet, and the sybil attack just described is very much more difficult. In general, you get to choose who you are vulnerable to. We regard this as a major improvement in security; certainly opennet is not likely to be of much use in hostile regimes. And you are still anonymous. You are vulnerable to your friends, just like in real life, but only if they do difficult attacks against your node. We are working on making these attacks even harder, but right now some attacks are possible. But it is very expensive in general for an attacker to find the source of a document, and DarkNet does not make it easier: it makes it harder.
Q: How do I reinstall without losing my configuration and peers?
A: Take a backup of these files:
- node-#
- node-#.bak
- peers-#
- freenet.ini
Q: Is there a way to prevent Freenet from automatically starting every time my computer is booted?
A: On Windows: Go to the Service Manager, select the Freenet service, open the contextual menu and select Property. Then change the start type.
"A" On Mac OSX: 1) Go to ~/Library/LaunchAgents, and remove com.freenet.startup.plist. 2) Run the remove_cronjob.sh script in /Applications/Freenet/bin.
"A" On Linux/Unix: Run the script in Freenet/bin/remove_cronjob.sh
Q: Why don't newer builds show technical information about darknet and configuration anymore?
A: You can change an option on the configuration page to get the old-style darknet page shown again if you really want to.
Q: How does my node update? I keep getting a message saying that my node is "currently fetching the update", but nothing really happens...
A: Stop your node and update manually using the update script (in the root of freenet, named update.cmd or update.sh (depending on your OS)).
Q: In 0.7 are you supposed to have a blue bunny tray icon?
A: Nope. That is an 0.5 thing.
Q: How do you start and stop Freenet?
A: You can stop Freenet using the button "Shut Down the node".
Q: How do you insert content into Freenet from within the freenet plugin?
A: (I've just done a little (maybe incorrect (but better than nothing (i hope))) page on plugin system )
Q: What are the plans for Internet2 support?
A: ......................
Q: It seems, that when changing freenet node ports, a new store is created. How do change ports without losing anything?
A: (personal test by questioner shows, that changing the freenet.ini and every occurrence in file and folder names accordingly should do the trick. I'd like to have some confirmation from someone more knowledgeable, though)
"Q:" What does the yellow background of a peer mean?
"A:" ...
