What Is Freenet?

[delivi 0]

The FreeNet is a project that aims to create a fully decentralized, free ( free as in free speech and not as in free beer) Internet. In the FreeNet the users can upload and access data anonymously without any monitoring and persecution from the Internet powers like ICANN and the local governments.

The FreeNet is just like the BitTorrent network, where we install a BitTorrent client like Azureus, ľTorrent or TomatoTorrent to share and access files from others. In the FreeNet you need to reserve some space in your harddisk when you install the FreeNet Client. This reserved free space will be used to store web pages and other files in the FreeNet, thus creating a huge storage grid that spans the hard disks of all the FreeNet users.

In the FreeNet an entire site is encrypted and it spans over several hundreds of computers, unlike our sites in the Internet. So it is nearly impossible to track down all the fragments of a site to shut it down or to hack it.

The FreeNet has opened a new uncensored world where you are free to discuss on any topics or share anything you wish to which are not possible or illegal in present Internet. the Chinese are using FreeNet to talk about their politics without the fear of being imprisoned.

The FreeNet will not replace the Internet or the World Wide Web, it is currently used as an underground network, hiding inside the bigger internet. In fact the FreeNet needs a Internet connection to work.

If you are interested head over to https://freenetproject.org/ and get stared into a new world.

Post your comments and views on this.

[teknoTom 0]

Isn't it a breeding ground for terrorists? Sounds problematic and dangerous to me. I can just imagine terrorists exchanging data with it. Kaboom.

[anwiii 17]

Isn't it a breeding ground for terrorists? Sounds problematic and dangerous to me. I can just imagine terrorists exchanging data with it. Kaboom.

it would be a means for a lot of illegal activity. that's for sure. "freenet" to me sounds like the underground internet except "freenet" would be accessed through the WWW. i don't see a difference except when you're surfing, your activities can be more easily monitored. anything more publically available like the WWW will be monitored more closely by the government. WWW isn't the internet anyway so i don't understand the word "freenet". WWW is just a means to access SOME of the information on the internet.

[Sprnknwn 0]

Why do we seem to fear so much things that are not controlled by governments or corporations? I think this is the only thing that Internet needs to be really a source not only for information but also for freedom.

[anwiii 17]

Why do we seem to fear so much things that are not controlled by governments or corporations? I think this is the only thing that Internet needs to be really a source not only for information but also for freedom.

oh, it's not what the government doesn't control, it's what the government controls already(which is more than we know) that i fear. government sticks their hands in everything. you can hardly blink an eye anymore without them knowing it. i am a HIGH believer in using a proxy when searching the web just because i know the government is monitoring all of our internet activities now. it's no secret. the only freenet i know is accessing the internet without the www. the original poster want to accomlish it on the web. that is a dream that will never come true.....and he wanted to do it to promote piracy and other illegal activity. that's what a freenet will promote since you have most everything else at your fingertips and accessable information on the web is growing every day. freenet reminds me of the internet 20 years ago before the www. everyone controlled their own server and everyone controlled who was able to access information from their private site. most everything back then was private and not public. the people who control the private sites now are typically certain governmental agencies and all those wannabe hacker, cracker, phreakers, and the ones who still want to add to the anarchists cookbook to this day.....basically people who don't want to be know and less government exposure unless they do something stupid and get thier local d.a. involved to crack down on them locally.

now anyone can create a free net, but it can't be a part of the WWW. the information that can be accessed would have to be limited unless you had access to some sort of mega severs that can copy all of the information that is already available on the www so that you can make it available in a private sector. you would have to have people that can be trusted to work on it day and night controlling security measures and finding out who is actually accessing this private sector. you would also have to host the same information on many servers around the world and connected. a little redundant, but if a government agency wants to shut down a freenet, then you would have to make it virtually impossible for them to do that.

but see bud....what a hassle....and when you are going through all the security measure, that really can't be considered a true freenet. because the hard work and dedication to making it safe doesn't make it free anymore. it's not like open source code but at least it would protect better against any government entity. any illegal activity would be hard to get back to anyone specific(illegal activity is the only purpose i see freenet having).

it's a stupid idea with stupid people wondering what if. the internet has many layers to it. one of the top layers being the web pages you are able to access publically without a pw. you find out how to get to the 1st or second layer, then you are underneath the common gateways that are publically accessable and you have your so-called freenet.....or as free as it ever will be.

now i love the www personally, and i know how to get to places most other people don't. problem is my identity. not too worried about it now, but in another 5 years, i suggest everyone use a hidden proxy or some other means of hiding your ip even if it means spending an hour everytime you want to access the interent, to change your ip address manually. why? because there will NEVER be a freenet on the WWW and who the #$%$#% knows what website you may be accessing in the near future. for example. you could be entering a back door to a terrorist website. with anti terrorism measures getting strictor and stricter and because of that, the rights we had yesterday are gone today and tomorrow, you need to protect against by hiding yourself. you enter a website that is a back door to something the governement wants to control, you may find yourself questioned or even thrown in jail(innocent ofcourse)

so yea, i am aware of the governemtn and that is why i fear our government. they are making slow changes and slowly taking our rights away by creating more laws that restrict us. if the changes in the last 20 years happened all at once, there would be a war in this country against the government. government is smart though. change is slow so we don't notice or don't care about the little changes when they happen. and when they do happen, they bribe us with free education and grants for businesses, etc just to keep us satisfied for the time being without a complaint. some people right this moment consider ourselves to be in a policed state in all states......but that's for each individual to determine for themselves....so forget about a freenet. the governement is and always will be way over our heads and they will always have that control and that power

and believe me when i say this. when this message hits google in the next day or so, some governemtn employee peon will be taking note of who i am, and putting it in the governments little private file that they already have on me and the millions and millions of people they already monitor. that's a FACT

[Sprnknwn 0]

Well, it seems that you have terrorized people with our last sentence, so no one dares to reply just in case they get into a us government file. As I'm european let's hope they ignore me... too many potential terrorists in here to make a list one by one .Yeah, I see your point, sorry I didn't get what you meant the first time. Anyway I was replying more to teknoTom. I think your view is a bit more catastrophist than mine, but I think you're in the right path and obviously you know more than me about this things. I know that freedom is being restricted there in the last years... and when this happens in the US happens in the whole world, sadly. One of things of globalization and internet is a lot involved in it, is that the control that governments have over population doesn't have neccessarily to put the limits where the boundaries lie. I'm pessimistic about the future but the sadest thing of it all is when people realize that is being monitorized and don't care. They say "well, I have nothing to hide, I don't put bombs". Maybe one day you'll have, or simply get involved in some dirty business without noticing. I must admit that I was more cautious years ago and now I have a more relaxed position about this, because sometimes I think that is no use being so paranoic. Anyway nothing I can do can avoid mechanism that governments have to follow every step I give in the net if they want. And I remember when I didn't give any data about me, not even my real name... and now I have to give them constantly due to work reasons... I think someone could find even the number of shoe I use. So it's like I said, so ---king terrible that maybe it's better try to forget about it.

Edited November 11, 2007 by Sprnknwn (see edit history)

[Above The Rest 0]

The government (in general) is NOT monitoring your daily web browsing habits. Sure, if you're doing illegal things (that are detectable without violating your rights) your ISP might very well tip off the government and they'll come knocking at your door.There's most certainly not some middle-aged suit in an office watching you post on these forums, however.

[anwiii 17]

The government (in general) is NOT monitoring your daily web browsing habits. Sure, if you're doing illegal things (that are detectable without violating your rights) your ISP might very well tip off the government and they'll come knocking at your door.
There's most certainly not some middle-aged suit in an office watching you post on these forums, however.

20 posts....in what...about an hour? don't talk about things you don't know about. not only are they monitoring people, they have programs doing it day and night red flagging key words and topics. then they investigate further and it all gets logged. now tis is a FACT. in fact, there are many many federal crimes being broken every day on the internet and the government isn't doing anything about it just yet. this is FACT. now what my OPINION is that within the next 5-10 years, government will be cracking down heavily. it will be on a federal level, not a state level nad in FACT, they are working on a system to do just that....the question is WHEN. i don't know.

now to stay on topic, this is exactly why a freenet wont work. the government will have it's hands all over the internet soon just like it has been controlling the media on certain levels. i'm not even talking about the thoughts and ideas of national security and the crack down of public information becoming private.

think again before you start talking about a subject you know NOTHING about just to get web hosting here. i've been involved on the internet probably before you were born and have been involved with many of the changes and transitions

you want to debate this? let's go....

[Above The Rest 0]

20 posts....in what...about an hour? don't talk about things you don't know about. not only are they monitoring people, they have programs doing it day and night red flagging key words and topics. then they investigate further and it all gets logged. now tis is a FACT. in fact, there are many many federal crimes being broken every day on the internet and the government isn't doing anything about it just yet. this is FACT. now what my OPINION is that within the next 5-10 years, government will be cracking down heavily. it will be on a federal level, not a state level nad in FACT, they are working on a system to do just that....the question is WHEN. i don't know.

 

now to stay on topic, this is exactly why a freenet wont work. the government will have it's hands all over the internet soon just like it has been controlling the media on certain levels. i'm not even talking about the thoughts and ideas of national security and the crack down of public information becoming private.

 

think again before you start talking about a subject you know NOTHING about just to get web hosting here. i've been involved on the internet probably before you were born and have been involved with many of the changes and transitions

 

you want to debate this? let's go....

Do you have any proof to back up these claims? Wireshark logs perhaps? Do you even know how the internet works? Do you realize the amount of manpower necessary to monitor the entire internet?

 

I understand that you disagree with some of my opinions or positions, but you need to stop with the personal attacks because they doing nothing to help your credibility, and I do not appreciate the way you are handling your arguments.

 

"I disagree with you so you must not know anything and you obviously are just posting to get web hosting, rather than actually having any knowledge about the subject!" -- Yeah, that's a good way to carry a rational statement.

[teknoTom 0]

I agree with 'Above the rest'. The manpower needed to monitor the internet would be huge. They would need 1 billion people sitting in front of computer monitors in a huge room looking at streams of text running across the page...

[Above The Rest 0]

And in this situation, bots wouldn't work. We just don't have the processing capabilities to do this scale of monitoring. Perhaps in the future (depending on how things in America go after the election) there could be this type of thing, but I just really can't see it happening.Now if you were to say that telephone calls were being monitored on some sort of scale, that's probably something that I would believe.

[joeblogg 0]

sounds good. i think its pretty interesting. i want to find out more about this - freedom on the internet would be good wouldn't it?

[Jezstarr 0]

Well yes it does sound like a sort of place that would contain a late of illegal files and activity, but never the less sounds cool!Especially since Australia aka Kevin Rudd is planning to set up a country wide internet filter that blocks anything they consider bad such as pornographic sites of any kind, sites containing illegal material, any torrent/p2p site. This includes Limewire and Frostwire and anything like utorrent. So setting up this site by sounds of it should prevent any Government protection as in they can't block it from our internet. Well this is what I've heard and I have heard rumours of Facebook being banned as well throughout Australia.So therefore maybe setting up these sites isn't the worst idea but it might not long for last. Well in some countries.

[Tran-Gate 0]

If you can't get monitored or prosecuted for doing things on that website, people are going abuse it and do a lot of illegal things. What if Iraq tries to plan a huge attack on us and they use freenet? OMG, they won't get in trouble?

[networker 0]

The internet is the last of the free wild west so tospeak.It wouldn't take billionsof people to moniter it.Software programs could be written to do thatvery easily. Strict liscensing put into place.It wouldn't be hard to do at all.I mean,it's easy if need be, to restrict what sitespeople can see.It would be easy to editcurrent sites also.I hate to sound cynical. I think we should enjoy it while it lasts.