[freenet-chat] Web-of-trust questions

[Matthew Toseland]

On Fri, May 19, 2006 at 09:36:13PM +0200, Helge Preuss wrote:
> 
> One, can't everybody discover you run freenet by doing a portscan on
> your computer? I assume that would be a more efficient way to
> mass-detect freenet nodes than smuggling hostile nodes into freenet -
> especially if you're a government agency with broad resources.

No. They can't.
> 
> Two, they mentioned that a major aim is to get many people to run
> freenet. That is obvious. But how would you achieve this goal if
> people are forced to *personally know* other people connected to the
> network? What do I do if I'm, say, a dissident with no special
> knowledge of computers and no hacker friends either?

You're in trouble in any case in that situation, because opennet *will
be harvested and blocked*. Last year the chinese blocked freenet 0.5, not
by harvesting, but by its protocol signature (that shouldn't be possible
with 0.7); they will harvest and block if they have to.

> Do I just give up
> and sit on my single freenet node? Or do I turn to a centralized
> service, thus rendering the web of trust obsolete?

The centralized service will be blocked.
> 
> Maybe (probably) I misunderstood something. But I don't see how the
> two goals - trusted connections and wide coverage - go together. And
> given that you can be detected with a portscan anyway, isn't it
> practical just to forget about the web of trust and maximize coverage
> instead?

No, *you cannot be detected with a portscan*. And if we were *only*
interested in numbers, we'd be building Kazaa, not Freenet.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Helge
-- 
Matthew J Toseland - toad at amphibian.dyndns.org
Freenet Project Official Codemonkey - http://freenetproject.org/
ICTHUS - Nothing is impossible. Our Boss says so.
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