Uhm Gilda is not bad, really.. Maybe i could pick it. Not so much of a girl name anyway Legolas do you know any Gilda in italy?

cronodragon, happy 2^8 post

So i'm preparing a release for who wants to test.

It works like this: your node only talk with node you trust, always. You add nodes just as you would add friends on an IM program, entering their id wich is composed of a diplay name and a unique identifier, possibly with this syntax:

msx@ad3f3d4caf45f53aad3f3d4caf45f53a

the nodes use SSL for communication, and the unique identifier is the hash of the public certificate, so it is not possible to fake someone identity or even connect to a node if the hash is not known.

When you search a file, the search is routed (propagated) for one or two nodes (ie friend of friend).
You can start a download from one of the results or you can just enter the ED2K link (i made it compatible so you can reuse all ed2k links that are around in the internet. Magnet links support could be added too).

Files are only downloaded from friends. This is actually a limitation but i have some idea on how to make a node download from a friend-of-friend (2-step-link or bigger). I'll explain later if anyone is interested

The program is not something like a replacement of emule, it is more targeted to small groups of people, ie groups of densely interconnected friends that want to share stuff (like waste). It will not offer the file quantity of emule but it will offer a better privacy (you know the emule network is under heavy attack recently).

There could be an option to make an "open" node, a node that accept other peers automatically (less secure but add nodes more easily) like on the last releases of freenet. Yet to think of this.

The program doesn't have a GUI, but have an integrated web server and offer an html interface. I experienced this solution with mldonkey and i think it's great: no dependencies on widget toolkits, lot more portable, can run on an headless system, you can connect and manage over the internet, different users on a lan can access the same node, etc etc. Also, you can make a graphically rich interface with html, and different themes.

Ok, that was a brief description. Comments, suggestions, ideas, doubts are welcome I designed all alone so i didn't had much confrontations. I just based on my knowledge of P2P.