Frost is a p2p app that works on top of Freenet. You need to have Freenet working to use Frost.
The WOT means Web Of Trust. Even though you're anonymous while using Frost, you can have an identity (nickname) that nobodoy can steal from you. Different people choose to trust or not trust each other, and a "web" of buddies is created.
Yes, you can share files with Frost, but its different from other p2p apps.
If you know how to use newsgroups, you'll find Frost very easy to use and will feel right at home. If you're used to other filesharing apps, you should know that the best way to find what you're looking for is to ask for it. If you can't find it in the search results, post a message to the relevant board and someone will respond to you.
Board is a place where people hang out. Boards can be public, which means everybody can go there, or protected.
Protected boards have a pair of keys - one for reading and one for writing. If you have the reading key, you can see what messages and files people post on that board. If you have the writing key, you can post messages and share files there.
If you only give out the writing key to people you trust, you can be sure your board won't get spammed. Release groups for example would give out the public key, but keep the private key only for members of the group. They want everybody to be able to see their releases, but don't want other people to put files there.
And if you keep both the reading and writing key secret, only your buddies will be able to see the board.
The only difference between a public board and a protected board whose writing key everybody knows is that if the protected board starts getting spammed, the keys to that board can be changed and that will stop the spam. Public boards need to change their name to get rid of spam. And its much easier to change the keys than to change the name! :)
You can attach the board to a message and post it on another board. Frost will ask you if you want to give out the writing key.
You can encrypt the message which means only one other person will be able to see it. That's useful when you have a protected board, and want to invite someone specific to join it - you send that person an encrypted message and put the writing key of the board in it
Filesharing works different in Frost than in other apps. You don't upload files to other users, but put them in Freenet.
When you select which files or directories to share on the "Shared files" tab, Frost advertises them to other users. Then when someone asks for a specific file, Frost uploads it to Freenet and the other user gets it from there. This way your anonymity is protected.
That means those files are not in freenet yet. Frost will ask the user who shared them to upload them to Freenet, and after that will download them from Freenet. That's why files that are "offline" usually take longer to start downloading.
Freenet splits bigger files into smaller chunks and adds extra chunks to make sure the file downloads faster. When you see for example "1 / 10 (15)" it means there are 15 chunks total, you need to get 10 of them, and already have gotten 1.
When you attach file to a message Frost uploads it to Freenet immediately. That's why if you see a file attached to a message, you know for sure its uploaded already and it will start downloading faster.
Because of the way Freenet works. It can't hold too many files at once, and when you put new files some of the older files fall out. If you upload all of your files at once, many of them will fall out and you'll have to upload them again later.
The more disk space people donate to Freenet, the more files it can hold. (hint, hint! ;-)
Paste the freenet key (like 'CHK@7687fdszs67f8/myfile.txt') into the text box in download view, then press enter. This adds the key to the download table. You can also paste multiple keys, separated by a semicolon or each key on a single line.
In Freenet everybody is anonymous. But to be useful, there has to be a way to guarantee that you can have an identity that nobody can steal from you. Trust helps create groups of friends, and Frost automatically supports the people in your group. It pays to be trusted by many people, and that's explained why shortly.
It is your unique id. It allows many people to chose the same nickname, they will all end up having different ids
Somebody who you've marked GOOD is somebody you trust. You can send them private messages and help them spread their shared lists. You can mark soneone OBSERVE if you start to trust him, but you still are not really sure about him. Somebody marked as CHECK is somebody neutral. You can block their messages if you wish. And BAD is somebody you don't like or don't trust, you can block their messages and won't see any files from them.
NONE means the person who sent the message didn't want to sign it - so its a message from anonymous sender.
When other people trust you, their Frosts help the files you have shared to stay visible and not fall off Freenet Also, people can send you private messages only if they trust you.
When people don't trust you or you are neutral to them, they can chose to block your messages and your files. So if many people out there hate you, you won't be very successful in sharing files.
You're free to do that and others are free to choose not to see your messages and files :-p
More precisely DDOS. When using Freenet, there is a tradeoff between how fast you get the new messages and how protected you are from spam.
Its cool that you're "digging below the surface" and studying Freenet and Frost, but if you use that knowledge to screw other people, you're not cool at all.
If the spammer is more powerful (RIAA, government) then you need to change the keys to your boards. The protected board "frost-announcement" will try to provide new keys for the default boards if that happens. However, if all the people that have the key to that board get arrested or hit by a bus, that won't work.
Never respond to spam messages (don't feed the troll). Ignore them, delete them and mark the spammer BAD when he used an identity. Or choose to not to show anonymous messages at all, but please notify the board members about this.
Have a secured board where to look for new keys for the spammed boards. Only limited number of people should have the keys to that secured board, and all messages sent on it should be encrypted, otherwise the spammer will be able to spam the new board too. Once you get new, spam-safe keys for a given board, give those keys to people you trust not to be the spammer in encrypted message.