On Sunday 17 August 2008 10.17.54 Dalek Invasion wrote: > Hi, > > I'm new to FreeNet. A few questions not found in the FAQs. > > 1) How 'big' is FreeNet, as in how much data and files are available and > how 'useful' is FreeNet as it is now? I've had a look around and there > seems to be a fair amount of sites on the main indexes although after a > few days of exploration it seems most 'interesting' sites would be > exhausted unless I am missing something? I suppose there are many > unannounced sites not open to the public. I also presume FreeNet is > used for some 'closed' networks amongst trusted peers only that is not > accessible to the public FreeNet. > > 2) How can I find 'friends'? I don't know anyone else running FreeNet. > > 3) As FreeNet is 'alpha', is it recommended only to developers or it is > a useful information and communication medium yet with a significant > size of nodes? > > 4) There are no boards or discussion threads available when I start > Frost - how do I find active discussion boards and when I post do I > remain anonymous or am I assigned some sort of FreeMail address to use? > There is not much documentation on Frost. > > 5) And a natural question heard many times, is there much seriously > morally objectionable content plaguing FreeNet? I support the > philosophy of FreeNet but I hope it won't degenerate in to just another > haven for mentally deranged perverts. > > 6) What other index pages / search engines are there or is what is in > the main index pages pretty much what's there to explore in FreeNet? > > 7) When I installed FreeNet I was advised to use an email address as my > node name, why? Won't this compromise the security and anonymity of my > node? > > 8) As FreeNet will undoubtedly attract nasty people, am I running a > major security risk on my computer (Linux based) by running FreeNet, > leaving it open to hacking? > > Any assistance appreciated :-)
I am another enduser of freenet (have been on -and off in periods during the last few years). I find there is lacking a fair amount of documentation: freenet - works fine, and has a fair amount of documentation. jsite - works fine, and has a fair amount of documentation. fms - I have got it installed, but do not know how to use it (lack of documentation)? freemail - I cannot get it installed and cannot find how to use it (lack of documentation)? Here follows some further comments to your questions, and the clever ones will then have to add more comments. :-) 1. Nobody knows how big freenet is. There probably are hidden freenet web sites. 2/3. You cannot find friends. But I think, if you are a group of people who KNOWS EACH OTHER IN REAL LIFE, they could use freenet at their advantage (just my imagination): A group of foreign disidents of some country A group of political opposition people of some country A group of motor cycle gangsters somewhere A group who wants to smuggle cigarettes -and whiskey A group of people who wants to exchange secret pictures/documents/videos/etc A group of people working on some secret scientific/commercial project Only the phantasy sets the limit For not so secret matters you can perfectly well use the strangers (untrusted peers) freenet. 4. You should use fms instead of frost? 5. That's not my problem *humour* 6. You could announce your freenet sites via fms? 7. You do not need to use an e-mail address, you can use a username. 8.You could use an encrypted ubuntu linux, encrypted directories (encfs) -and files (gpg). Check out: www.minihowto.org If you use the automatic untrusted peers strangers net, you could be detected for connecting to freenet, but nobody will know what you are doing. If you are using the trusted friends net (exchanging reference nodes person to person), nobody will have a clue about you being connecting to freenet - so you are completely invisible. Above is what I have picked up, reading freenet documentation - hope it could help, to add something to the freenet discussion etc. I find your questions are very relevant, as I have had some of the same questions myself, and it is hard to find answers? Freenet seems to be very active in France and a few other countries (the rumour says).
