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Freenet 0.5.1 Released, P2P Network Stabilizing
mids writes "With version 0.5.1, Freenet isn't only the most secure & anonymous P2P network, but also getting pretty fast!
Reliable downloading of files as large as 700MB from Freenet at average download rates as high as 100k/sec on a broadband internet connection are sighted (which compares quite favorably to more conventional P2P applications)."
'ta
Seems to me that a secure, distributed, encrypted P2P system could be used by (insert dramatic music) terrorists!
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
I think there are really only 3 pivotal factors for any P2P.
1)Speed: If you have a gazillion files but it take 4 hours to get an mp3, no one will use it.
2)Content: I can go to kazaa and find music, software, video's, pictures, basically, everything. If a user has to use 3 different P2P engines to get what they want, it wont last.
3)Searchable: If it's a pain to find the files you are looking for then you wont use it, and so fewer files will be available, and more people will end up dropping it due to content.
Speeds seem to be terrible on all of the services I've used. Kazaa (Kazaalite) has the ability to download from multiple users, making up for that a little bit. I'm curious what speeds freenet can pull down from individual users. I've been thinking that those terrible speeds might just be from restrictive caps that ISP's might be placing on the P2P popular ports.
I know I see 300k/sec downloads on emule, and I find just about anything I'm looking for on it.
Why is freenet better than edonkey?
As it is fundamentally web based, freenet represents the a system where being able to publish is not dependedent on being able to buy server space. This represents a very real democratisation of the net ($10 a month is a lot more in Asia), and the totally anonimous nature of the ntwork allows for much freer political speech.
It is also worth noting that it automatically spreads frequently requested data across the network, meaning no more slashdot effect. This also makes for a more effecient network, as data is stored near to you.
You want to support the freedom of code? Get freenet and do your bit.
"To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
There are copies of every Enterprise episode released on Freenet as well as sites about magic.
I have left it running for weeks and never notice the hits on it from other users. As for downloading files, it is very efficient as long as you have a large upstream. Remember that you are sending data out while downloading because the overhead with communications is very high.
Page insertions are the biggest problems now. Frost has taken care of this problem, but it is still slow to get anything on the network.
This is the type of setup we need for the future. I use it everyday.
The bandwagon rolls on though. The only way to stop P2P IMO is go after the ISP's. I'm no sysadmin, but I'm sure it would be possible for block certain ports, report heavy downloaders etc. At the moment nobody dare do this for fear of a mass exodus of customers, but if the law made sure that all of these ISP's had to comply, I'm sure they alone would be able to stop the spread. How feasible is it for the ISP's to put barriers in place?
Vacancy for signature. Apply within.
Well if we use the new Napster we can make sure to give the music industry what they need: money to make bombs. So maybe in some twisted business relation that download really does indirectly support terrorism by reducing money to the war machine! ... Though, we have yet to see proof that music sales are really hurt.
It's just one massive web of headache.
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Free your mind.
There is a slight benefit under oppressive governments, but in all likelihood the government would just ban the use of encryption in private communications and they'd still be screwed. The power of Freenet is that a)they don't know what traffic is being sent and b)even if they did know what was being sent, they don't know who requested it. A government that didn't care about trying to save face in free speech could just ban Freenet outright. They can always tell if you are using it, just not what you are using it for.
The real benefit is under a government that is moving towards restrictions on free speech, but can't afford to make such a bold move as banning Freenet totally.
Class, can anyone think of why this might be helpful RIGHT NOW?
Also, check out Freeweb. Easy Freenet Web publishing. Servereless. Beautiful. Windoze-only, but nice for daily news sites. Used to run one back in Freenet 0.3.9.
You are not the customer.
The reason I haven't tried it yet is that it's written fully in Java. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except I can't afford to overload my Pentium II 333 Mhz box anymore. Already running a webserver on it. But I'll be sure to give it a go when I get more hardware.
The most up to date version of the Java FEC library can be found here.
That reputation will only be built by latching onto a highly visible project in more than just name. It would be interesting, for example to have a client built around a project like Gutenberg that somehow restricts the content shared to legitimate project material. That way people and organizations could adopt Freenet without worrying about the content...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
I wonder if anyone has done a survey to see how much child porn is on freenet? I am not game to, because AFAIK you can be thrown in jail just for possesing child porn!
But freenet is not alone. I know that there is some child porn on KaZaA. Heh, don't you love porn that will not allow previews(.avi files), you have to wait until the entire file is downloaded, that turn out to be child porn. Quick view and then delete is their fate.
I'd like to use freenet, but I can't. I can't risk the possibility, however remote, of having child porn cached on my computer. I have too much to lose.
And I'm sure the chinese will use it to discuss democracy and angles and kittens will trade muffin recipies over it.
Or else the only people "hiding" their speech on it will be pedophiles and Ku Klux Klan members.
I dont want a single electron in my PC devoted to storing or serving data for either of those groups.
I wont be part of any 'network' that doesnt let me control what data is being stored and served from my machines, not just because I could be held liable, but because I find the stuff morally repugnant.
The fact that it's Open Source or Written in Java(TM) doesn't make the tiniest bit of difference to me.
I like some of the tech, and it intrigues me as to how this could be used in a corporate intranet setting (massive redundant databases distributed over all those PCs in the cubicles, rather than another rackmount?).
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I'm not sure about that. If you make it plainly obvious how to avoid sharing your own files, people will quickly turn that off and you'll get a bunch of leeches. If you obfuscate it somewhat like most current P2P programs do, and make it scan your hard drive on first install then your average user just forgets about it. I'm not saying it's good or right, but I think that's probably the way it is.
Random is the New Order.
Try posting the source code to microsoft windows on the regular internet, see what happens. Hell just post an exploit for Microsoft windows and see what happens.
News? our news is limited, we cant talk about certain questionable subjects without being labaled communist, socialist, liberal, or something, you cant talk about hacking anymore, when I was growing up on the net, I remember hacker sites were everywhere, we had chatrooms and everything, a whole culture, and now its gone.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
It has NEVER EVER been the case, nor the INTENDED case with the US Constitution and Bill of Rights that ALL speech be protected. Freedom of Speech comes from the start with restrictions. It has never been, nor ever will, nor ever should be OK to yell "Fire" in a crowded movie house, etc. Child porn is NOT protected speech nor should it EVER be, under no banner about Rights is it legitimate. Advocating murder is not protected speech, inciting riots with "speech" is also not protected (nor has it ever been).
Me thinks what you want is anarchy, which cannot work and doesn't work. It is a state that people as a whole will not tolerate for long. Free speech is great until you get into black areas (advocating murder, inciting riots/violence, inducing panic vis a vis "Fire!" in a movie theater, etc). Then it is rightly punishable and not protected in any way, shape, or form. Never has been, never will be.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
The most popular P2P application in Japan is called Winny and is built around Freenet. There's some english information about it here, as well as a translated client. The last time I tried, though, the translated client was an older version and I couldn't get it to connect, but the latest Japanese binary worked for me.
I agree that Freenet has the potential to replace the web. Just imagine if Google started pointing to Freenet documents, and spidered Freenet documents as well as regular web pages. Freenet would would become the new web with load balancing and built-in traffic encryption.
And regardless of if you know or not, you're still responsible, legally and/or criminally.
If that is true, explain why every owner and operator of every ISP and phone company in the civilized world isn't already in jail? Their computers undeniably carry child porn on their usenet servers.
The problem is, that it could have been your system that made the upsteam system go get this illegal content. So by mearely checking and requesting illegal material, you help spreading it!
This makes it kind of hard for you to argue, that the node you got the illegal material from was doing anything illegal before you asked for it. I think that's what they mean by plausible deniability.
Go read this article for an interesting analysis of the legal consequences of nets like Freenet.
Martin Geisler --- Visit http://www.gimpster.com/
The same could be said about Avation! Why do they want to fly? It's just a rich gentleman's sport, nothing useful ever gets done by airplanes. It doesn't count worth a damn if a bunch of rich guys show off up there!
Or, how about writing and reading? What's the point? All that it's useful for is for priests and the nobility to communicate dry messages to each other! What would I ever want to write down?
Or, how about emerging from the sea? Why would you want to do that? All that would happen is that you'd dry out up there! The world is like 70% water anyway! Just stay down here, or you might dry out!
The true impact of technologies and advancements are not often evident for many years.
Additionally, you are a dolt if you think that just because something isn't on the news, it's not important. What planet are you from, anyway? I would say that sometimes what doesn't make the news is more important than what does. What, in society, is a measurable effect, by the way? Sometimes an effect like freedom isn't measurable with any metric we have right now. Barring the invention of psychohistory, we have no way of knowing, either.
I cry troll upton thee.