Making Freenet Find Stuff Faster

Sanity writes "Many probably saw the recent announcement of Freenet 0.5.2. This release represented a vast amount of work - primarily in reducing Freenet's CPU and memory requirements. However, streamlining Freenet's current functionality isn't all we've been working on. I just finished an article that describes the most fundamental improvement to Freenet's core algorithm since its original design over three years ago, it is called "Next Generation Routing" and has the potential to dramatically increase the speed with which Freenet retrieves information. It could even make Freenet faster than the World Wide Web in many circumstances, all without compromizing anonymity and while remaining immune to the /. effect."

Comments

Re:Java can't be efficient (OT)

[owlstead]

This is incorrect. For networking related stuff, Java is efficient. It will use some more memory, and it will use (a bit more) CPU power but there are many reasons to go with java for such a project:

- easier language to pick up / understand (this is a collective effort)
- little to no chance of buffer overruns, making the node much safer against attacks)
- runs on Linux, Apple, Sun, Windows, FreeBSD without - any - porting
- java was more or less created with projects like these in mind, so most functionality will be readily available in the default libraries

Nowadays CPU and memory are commodities that can easily be come by. I see it taking about 32 MB right now, but that is out of a single 512 MB pool that can be upgraded to 1 GB for virtually free. My processor usage is max 25%, but note that the freenet guys set the priority to low themselves.

Java means a shift to better programming, with better runtime information and safer programs. This will take CPU and memory, but this is an offer you should consider very well.

This same discussion went on between assembler and C programmers. Look at it now. I think the progress of object oriented, garbage collecting, more secure platforms are as important as that paradigm shift.

Warper

The next level

[mcrbids]

FreeNet will have problems for the forseeable future because the average joe can't easily install it and make it work.

Who will take FreeNet to the masses?

In other words, who will make a simple, usable client/server program that works on FreeNet? (Think Napster/KaZaA/Gnucleus)

Will it be KaZaA? BearShare? Will it be some Open Source project?

How long until somebody with the right skill set takes this to the "next level" so that it's actually usable to people other than geeks?

Re:The next level

[Fred Ferrigno]

Meh. The actual problem with Freenet is that there just isn't enough worthwhile content on it. I've shown my friends Freenet and babbled on about how cool it is that it's totally anonymous and all that jazz, but the first thing they ask is "how fast can I download stuff?" Of course, by "stuff", they typically mean all the sorts of things the MPAA and RIAA don't want you to have.

So I have to explain that, well, there isn't really any "stuff" on Freenet at this point, and frankly if there were, it'd take forever and a day to complete, if you managed to find a node with all the data. But, like, there are all these sites that basically just link to each other, though occaisionally there's a site with some Dilbert cartoons that don't load. Oh, and did I mention browsing Freenet sites makes your $50/month broadband feel slower than a 14.4 modem?

OTOH, I'm all for the concept of Freenet. Every major release I set up a node and run it for a few days to see if it's gotten any better, but I end up shutting it off.

Re:ad for freenet?

[man1ed]

freenet still isint there yet, but feel free to tell us when.

This is just the attitude that is delaying the adoption of many new technologies (IPv6, for one). "Early adopter, what's that? Just tell me when it's done!" How do you expect it to "get there" if no one uses it? Take a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Re:Freenet not a panacea

[RPoet]

Ah, but you can set your node to not store any data, just forward. When you get data from a neighbour node, you have no idea if that node has stored the data at all, and you have no way of finding out.

As for Freenet's stated goal being circumvention of laws, I don't remember having read that anywhere -- except circumvention of certain laws in certain totalitarian states. US officials, being such lovers of freedom, should have no problem with that goal.

meta data?

[DrEasy]

I've been reading about Freenet, and I'm trying to imagine how a potent search engine could be implemented on top of Freenet. Ideally it'd be great to use meta tags and such to index pages, but then how do you find the files if you do not know their keys in the first place?

Yes, I have heard about Frost. As far as I understand, it's some sort of anonymous newsgroup. I guess a search engine could harvest the keys posted on Frost, and index them after retrieving and analysing the content and possibly the meta tags. But then the question becomes: how do you host such a search engine anonymously? Aren't you liable/vulnerable if your search engine is known to help you retrieve questionable content? Can't Frost be attacked ultimately for that same reason? Or is it distributed/anonymous? Am I missing something? Should I RTFA?

Re:good

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, we here at the RIAA would very much like you to keep using Kazaa. It's fast for you, and we get to track you down. You see, it's a win-win situation!