Freenet: the concept of a free web (in short)

[Tomcat]

All in all

Freenet is a decentralized and highly anonymous peer-to-peer network that runs on top of the Internet and includes a large number of peer-to-peer computers that allows any content to be published without the ability to identify the sender.

It is an attempt to eliminate censorship of user communications. Essentially, at the heart of Freenet is the belief that no one is allowed to decide what is acceptable. The network encourages tolerance for the values of others, and in the absence of the latter, users are asked to turn a blind eye to content that contradicts their views.

Principle of operation

The Freenet network is built on the basis of combining into a common pool the bandwidth provided by its members and the disk space of their computers for publishing on the network or receiving various kinds of data from it. Freenet uses a kind of key routing, similar to a distributed hash table, to locate user data. The network stores data and allows it to be retrieved using an associated key, similar to the one used in HTTP.

Data confidentiality is guaranteed by strong cryptography - in order to receive the file, the request must provide the key associated with it. The role of such a key is played by the file hash code, or DSA key, which also forms an integrity check mechanism.

The network provides high efficiency with complete anonymity and decentralization of all internal processes. It has no central servers and is not under the control of any person or organization. Even the creators of Freenet have no control over the entire network other than updating the code. The information transmitted to the network is encrypted and distributed around the world through numerous anonymous computers on the network, constantly exchanging this information. In theory, it is very difficult to determine which participant is storing a particular file, since the contents of each file are encrypted and can be split into parts that are distributed among many different computers.

The network has been in development since 2000, and although its client has not yet reached release status, the current 0.x versions are stable enough to perform their functions. When you first connect to the network, data transfer is much slower than analogs, but as you work in the network, the speed increases.

Installing and configuring the client

The Freenet network client for Windows, OS X, or Linux can be downloaded from freenetproject.org/download.html. After installing the client, you need to open a page in your browser with the address http://127.0.0.1:8888/.

For added security when using the Freenet network, you should use a separate browser for Freenet, preferably in privacy mode. It should be noted that the Internet Explorer browser is not stable enough with Freenet, so it is better to use Chrome, Firefox or Opera.

If the client is successfully installed and launched, you will see a page where you need to configure everything.

At this point, you can:

1) Choose a connection method: open - to any network users, closed - to friends who are already using Freenet, or manually configure the degree of protection. Typically, new users start with an insecure connection method and switch to Safe Mode when ten or more friends are added.

2) During the setup process, you will be prompted to use the private browser mode, select the storage size in the range from 0.5 to 500 GB (the larger, the higher the data exchange rate), specify the connection speed (select a specific value by setting the switch or enter your own - for example: 100 MiB) etc.

* Later you can change these settings in the corresponding section of the page http://127.0.0.1:8888/seclevels/.

* After completing the settings, the network control panel will be available at http://127.0.0.1:8888/.

Enjoy your use!

Project website: https://freenetproject.org/