FreeWeb User Manual

 

Please excuse the untidiness of the online help.
This page is machine-generated from the FreeWeb Help File.

 


 


User Manual

 


#What Is FreeWeb?

FreeWeb is a software suite which creates an alternative World Wide Web.

What for?
What's wrong with the mainstream Web?

Because there are many problems with the mainstream Web, and many situations when use of the mainstream Web can endanger yourself and others.

For instance, on the mainstream web,

This is where FreeWeb comes in.

FreeWeb creates an alternative "Top-level Internet Domain", called ".free".
Users with FreeWeb software installed can browse and publish websites on .free with complete anonymity.

Also, once a website is published on .free, it can't be taken down by anyone except the site's original publisher.

For example, Peter Wright (an ex-MI5 agent and author of the book "Spycatcher"), could put up a website at www.spycatcher.free, and it would be impossible to prove conclusively that it came from him. More, once such website is up, it's not possible for any government to take it down.


Getting Started
#System Requirements

At this early alpha stage, FreeWeb only runs on Intel-based Windows systems, including:

It's unknown at this stage whether FreeWeb will work on the new Windows XP plaform (but there's no reason to suspect it won't).

Down the track, though, it's likely that FreeWeb will be ported to other platforms, such as:

To use FreeWeb, you will need

Please don't attempt to install or use FreeWeb until you've got Freenet up and running.

To download and set up Freenet, visit www.freenetproject.org/quickguide


Quick Reference
#Quickstart for Power Users

Please make sure that Fproxy is listening on port 8081.

To browse FreeWeb sites:

  1. Start FreeWeb Agent
  2. Set your browser to use the proxy address 127.0.0.1:8888
  3. Use the Settings function to make sure you've got the right port number for FProxy
  4. Start surfing

To publish sites to FreeWeb:

  1. Allocate a folder for your site
  2. Create your site in that folder; the default file must be index.html
  3. Run FreeWeb Publisher
  4. Drag the folder onto the FreeWeb dialog (or you can just click the 'Add' button and browse for the folder)
  5. Choose a domain name (eg 'mydomain.free') for the site
  6. Enter a short description for your site. If you don't want your site to appear on the public site registry, put "NFP:" at the start of your description.
  7. Click 'Update All Sites'
  8. Either wait till the DNS registry picks up your site, or run the DNS utility on your own machine
  9. Surf your new site (see above).
  10. Each day, just after midnight GMT, do 'update all sites' again.

To schedule your sites to update automatically:

  1. Use a task scheduler program (windows has one built in)
  2. Set this program to run launch.exe in the FreeWeb folder, with the argument 'refresh' (no quotes).
  3. Best time to update is shortly after midnight GMT each day.

#Surfing FreeWeb Sites

 

 

 


#Sample Websites on FreeWeb

 

Try these websites:

 

http://www.freeweb.free

 

http://www.dns.free

 

http://www.test07.free

 


FreeWeb Configuration
#Configuring FreeWeb

FreeWeb configuration is fairly simple.

Mostly, you just need to tell FreeWeb how to access Freenet on your system, and tell your Web browser how to access FreeWeb.

Basically, FreeWeb needs to know:

Where Freenet is installed on your system (usually C:\Program Files\Freenet).
How to communicate with 'FProxy', the Freenet Web Interface.

Also, your Web browser needs to be configured to use a proxy server. Unless you change this setting in FreeWeb, you should set your web server to use the proxy address 127.0.0.1 and the port 8888.

The following sections will take you through setting up FreeWeb Agent and FreeWeb Publisher


#Configuring Your Browser

To surf FreeWeb websites, you need to set up your browser to use FreeWeb Agent as a proxy server.

If you are already using a proxy server, you can set up FreeWeb Agent to forward mainstream web requests to this proxy - so that you put FreeWeb Agent into your 'proxy chain'.


#Configuring Internet Explorer

Follow these steps to configure Internet Explorer version 5 to use FreeWeb.
Note that the menus may be a little different for earlier versions.

Once you've done this, then your browser will be ready to surf the FreeWeb.

At this point, you should put a shortcut to FreeWeb Agent in your Start Menu/Programs/Startup menu, so that FreeWeb Agent automatically runs on system startup.

 


#Configuring Netscape

Follow these steps to set up your Netscape Navigator browser to surf FreeWeb.
Note - these instructions are valid for Netscape v4.72. Other versions may require different commands.

At this point, you are ready to start surfing FreeWeb.


#Configuring FreeWeb Agent

In its default state (after installing), most people won't have to install FreeWeb Agent.

You only need to change FreeWeb Agent's settings if you connect to the internet with a proxy server, or if you want your browser to access FreeWeb on a port other than the default 8888.

If you need to use an external proxy server, you can simply run FreeWeb Agent, then right-click on the butterfly icon in the system tray.

When you choose 'Settings' from the menu, you'll get a dialog box which will enable you to set up FreeWeb to use your external proxy.

 


#Configuring FreeWeb Publisher

 

Click the ‘settings’ button in FreeWeb Publisher.

It should be pretty self-explanatory


Publishing Your Sites to FreeWeb
#Using FreeWeb Publisher

FreeWeb Publisher is the program you use to publish websites on FreeWeb.

Publishing FreeWeb sites is very simple - all you need to do is:

Prepare your website in a local directory (folder) on your local machine
Browse your website locally to make sure it looks the way you want it
Run FreeWeb Publisher
Tell FreeWeb where the website directory is
Tell FreeWeb to upload the website

However, once a day, you'll need to run FreeWeb Publisher to 'refresh' your website. If you fail to do this, then your website won't be visible anymore.

More information appears in later sections.


#Creating Your Website

FreeWeb websites are pretty similar to mainstream websites, except for some important differences:

When creating links to other files on your website, make sure you use "relative pathnames". This is just good website authoring technique, however.

 

 


#Testing Your Website

Before you upload your website to FreeWeb, you should test it thoroughly.
That's because once you've published it, you can only update it once a day.
So if there are any mistakes, you'll be stuck with them for up to 24 hours.

If you're not already aware, it's easy to test a website without having to upload it.

All you need to do is:

If your website passes these test when surfing it on your hard disk, it should be ready to publish.


#Choose A Domain Name

Basically, you can choose any domain name you like, as long as:

Try to keep the domain name as short as possible, for convenience of people surfing your site.

Subdomains are ok - as far as FreeWeb is concerned, the '.' is just another character.
What does this mean?
If you want to register the domain "mp3.free", and someone else has already claimed it, you can easily register the sub-domain "punk.mp3.free". This is different to the mainstream web, where owning "mp3.free" stops others from using subdomains without your permission.

When you've decided on a domain name, try to surf on that domain in FreeWeb.

For example, if you want to put up a website "www.palestine.free", then try that address in your browser first.

If a website comes up, you'll need to choose another domain.
But if you get a 'page not found', then that domain is yours to claim.

 


#www Is Insignificant

Huh??

If you publish a site as, say, "www.nazi.free", then FreeWeb Publisher will strip off the "www" at the start, and publish the site as "nazi.free".

Similarly, if you're surfing FreeWeb, and you type in the address "www.communist.free", then FreeWeb agent will try to fetch the site "communist.free".


#Adding Your Website And Domain

When you've typed in a domain name, and pointed to a valid directory, click on OK to close the "Add A Site" dialog.

When you do this, then FreeWeb Publisher will first check that the domain name you've chosen is available. This may take up to 4 minutes, so be patient.

If the domain is already registered, FreeWeb Publisher will tell you so, and you'll have to choose another.

But if the domain is available, then FreeWeb Publisher will claim it, which will take up to 4 minutes.

But once the domain is successfully registered, your site will appear in the 'Sites List' window. When it first appears, its status will show as "stale", which means that you haven't yet done your round of daily updates.

Provided you've chosen a domain that's not already registered, and you've pointed to a valid site directory,

 


#Your Sites List

When you run FreeWeb Publisher, you'll see a white window within the Publisher dialog box.

This window lists the sites you have defined on FreeWeb. If you haven't published any sites yet, the window will of course be empty.

The next step in publishing a website is to add it to your sites list.
Quite simply, all you need to do is click on "Add A Site", enter the domain name, and key in 'or browse to' the directory where the site's files reside.

Note - if the site directory you choose doesn't contain a file called 'index.html' at the top level, FreeWeb Publisher will not accept it.


FreeWeb Site Maintenance
FreeWeb Architecture


#Components of FreeWeb

When you put FreeWeb on your system, you are installing two separate programs:

FreeWeb Agent is a tiny proxy server which relays mainstream web addresses (eg www.yahoo.com) out to the mainstream web, but translates and relays FreeWeb addresses (eg www.activist.free) to Freenet.

FreeWeb Publisher is a program which registers FreeWeb domains (such as www.fbi-corruption.free). It also gives you the simplest way to upload websites on you hard disk onto FreeWeb.

 


#How Does FreeWeb Work?

FreeWeb doesn't use HTTP, the mainstream Web protocol.

Instead, FreeWeb uses Freenet, a revolutionary Peer to Peer networking protocol.

So what's the difference?

With the mainstream Web, a web address (such as www.yahoo.com) is mapped to a single computer. A system of 'registries' (called DNS) lays out a map which enables such web addresses to be forwarded to the one computer which hosts the desired website.

But with FreeWeb, web addresses (such as www.anarchy.free) are mapped into Freenet 'keys', which are used to retrieve information from Freenet. FreeWeb works with Freenet keys completely in the background, and gives you a totally web-based view of Freenet.

Why Freenet?

Freenet is the ideal infrastructure for an anonymous Web.
Some of the features of Freenet include:

Information is not stored at a single location - it is stored on several different computers all over the world.
Freenet is based on a Peer to Peer architecture, and doesn't depend on a central server.
Information is always stored on Freenet in an encrypted form.
Once information is stored to Freenet, it is virtually impossible to determine exactly where it is stored. Any attempt to determine its location results in such information proliferating further around the world.
Once information is written to Freenet, it can't be deleted.
Due to the encryption used, not even operators of Freenet node computers can determine what Freenet information is stored on their system.

In its present form, Freenet requires more technical skill and tinkering than most people are willing to accommodate. One reviewer called Freenet "the foundations of a castle".

FreeWeb is a Freenet Client Program, or a program which uses the Freenet protocol to provide an easy-to-use service, and allows people to use a familiar paradigm - the 'World Wide Web' - for accessing Freenet.

 


#How Does FreeWeb Actually Work?

FreeWeb uses FreeNet to implement a rudimentary DNS for the 'pirate' domain ".free".

Basically, FreeWeb Agent is a stripped-down web proxy server.

When it gets mainstream web requests from a browser, it simply forwards the request out to the mainstream web.

But when it gets a FreeWeb URL (eg www.riaa-sucks.free), it knows that it has to get that page from Freenet, and goes through the following steps:

  1. There is a special SSK tree for the FreeWeb DNS Registry
  2. FreeWeb Agent has this SSK’s publik key hard-wired
  3. FreeWeb Agent requests the key ‘SSK@<dns-public-key>/riaa-sucks’
  4. This key contains the public key for the site’s own SSK tree
  5. FreeWeb Agent then creates the appropriate URI and forwards this to Fproxy
  6. Freenet takes care of the rest – the Date-Based Redirect, the MSK mapfile lookup, and the final CHK request
  7. FreeWeb Agent forwards the response back to the browser

Therefore, as far as the browser is concerned, there actually 'is' a new anarchic domain called '.free'.

FreeWeb Publisher is a bit more intricate.

It keeps records of all directories and domains published to Freenet.
Amongst the site records, a timestamp is kept of when easch site was last uploaded to Freenet.

Therefore, if a site hasn't changed since it was last uploaded, FreeWeb won't try to upload it again.

As for the upload process, this is handled transparently in the background by Freenet developer Mr Bad’s wonderful ‘freenetmirror’ program.

All sites published on FreeWeb can be accessed without the FreeWeb software, because they exist in the standard DBR-MSK format.

For instance, the site ‘www.freeweb.free’, can be accessed with the Freenet URI:
freenet:MSK@SSK@AqJIVm8oexZif-AjvjJNo8woUBQQAgE/freeweb//

To find out the ‘traditional’ Freenet URI corresponding to your site, simply double-click on that site in FreeWeb Publisher (or right-click on the site and select ‘Properties’).


#For Seasoned Freenet Users

If you're quite experienced with raw Freenet, then it's likely you'll love FreeWeb or hate it.

If you hate it, then just pretend it doesn't exist, and it won't bother you.

But if you love it, then get involved - start creating content, reporting bugs, suggesting improvements etc.


FAQs


#Frequently Asked Questions

Is there any way to trace a published website back to me?

Could be, but it's pretty damn difficult.
1) The authorities would first have to suspect that it's you who published the site.
2) They would have to be able to break Freenet's encryption.
3) They'd have to serve court orders on your ISP and/or phone company, and install packet-logging hardware in your ISP or phone line

Also, as Freenet becomes more popular, and Freenet traffic levels increase, it will become increasingly difficult to tell between your site map updates and other Freenet-related traffic.

With all these obstacles, it would be far easier for authorities to physically break into your home (with or without a warrant) and sieze your computer. But if you have your entire Freenet store, plus FreeWeb sites, on an encrypted virtual disk, and your system is set to unmount such disk upon any trace of unauthorised activity, this will prove very difficult too.

Is there any way to trace my surfing activities on FreeWeb?

The easiest way to do this is for someone to get their hands physically on your computer. Unfortunately, Windows leaves all kinds of traces of your activities. Deleting your cache and history folder isn't enough - there will still be traces.

What you need is a good thorough cleanup program like Evidence Eliminator.
Also, make sure to regularly "shred" all free space on your hard drive.

Why do I have to update my site each day?

Because of the security within Freenet, security which protects your privacy and stops others from deleting your files, it is not possible to change a file you've uploaded.

Therefore, when you upload a website, it gets today's date stuck onto it. That's the only way there is at present to facilitate changing content on Freenet.

Future versions of FreeWeb will make the 'daily update' ritual unnecessary, by providing for "today plus yesterday plus first day of month plus first day of year" timestamping scheme.

What happens if I don't update my site?

Quite simply, you site won't be visible.
In future versions, FreeWeb Agent will be smart enough to search for earlier versions of the site. But for now, if a site hasn't been updated today, it just don't exist.

When's the best time to upload a new site?

Anytime.

When's the best version to update my site?

As soon as possible after midnight GMT, which is:
Midnight in London
10am in Australia
Noon in New Zealand
4pm Pacific Standard Time (USA west coast)
7pm Atlantic Standard Time (USA east coast)

Why are you using GMT time?

Because if sites are stamped with local time, then there will be a delay before anyone in earlier timezones can access your site. For instance, the old Javascript date-based redirection meant that users in Australia and New Zealand were constantly having to manually edit Freenet URLs and key in yesterday's date.

How do I take down a website I've published?

Stop doing the daily updates.
Your site will be invisible from tomorrow.
Eventually, the domain registration for your site will expire from Freenet.


Security Features and Issues


#FreeWeb Anonymity Filter

 

FreeWeb Agent has an inbuilt anonymity filter, to protect you against material in FreeWeb sites which may breach your anonymity.

 

Why is this necessary?

 

Because some malicious website publishers may embed web bugs, or security-breaching Javascript, into their web pages.

 

For instance, a web page you visit within FreeWeb may include an image from the mainstream web. If so, your browser will automatically request that image.

 

On receiving such an image request, the mainstream web server at the other end will log your IP address, your browser, operating system, and the address of the FreeWeb site you were visiting.

 

Particularly malicious code can even find cookies on your system containing personal information about you, and send such information to the server as well.

 

Therefore, when you first use FreeWeb Agent, it will be set by default to block all access to the mainstream Web. You will have to explicitly disable this filter to be able to surf the mainstream Web.

 

However, this filter is easy to turn on and off. All you have to do is double-click on the FreeWeb tray icon, or right-click and choose ‘settings’.

 

Also, you can set the filter to off by default. But please take care to turn the filter back on when you are surfing FreeWeb.

 

You can be guaranteed that while the filter is on, no details of your FreeWeb surfing activity can possibly be sent elsewhere. This safety lies in the fact that, while your browser is set to use FreeWeb as a proxy, FreeWeb will have control of all your browser’s access to the mainstream Web.


#Accessing FreeWeb via 'FreeGates'

What's a 'FreeGate'?

A FreeGate is someone else's computer system which allows other non-FreeWeb computers to use it as a FreeWeb Gateway.

For instance, if you know someone with FreeWeb installed, and their system is mapped to the address somesystem.cjb.net, and they have fproxy set up to listen for requests on port 8081, and their firewall isn't blocking external connections coming in to port 8888, then you can set up your own browser to use the proxy somesystem.cjb.net:8888.

That way, you won't even need FreeWeb or Freenet software on your own system to be able to surf FreeWeb (although you do need FreeWeb and Freenet installed to be able to publish FreeWeb sites).

However, the wisdom of allowing your computer to be used as a FreeGate by all and sundry may be questionable. For example, if someone downloads any illegal material from FreeWeb using your system as a gateway, then you can be held accountable the same as if you were personally hosting such material - this can make you liable for potentially serious civil and criminal penalties.

For this reason, to protect you legally, the alpha version of FreeWeb Agent is set up to refuse all connections not originating from within one's local machine. Future versions will stay that way (unless overwhelming user demand results in a feature which allows one to deliberately set one's computer as a 'FreeGate').


#Security Issues

Watch out for Web Bugs

At present, FreeWeb isn't able to coexist with the FProxy filter, so you'll need to have this switched off while you're using FreeWeb.

Future versions of FreeWeb will be able to work through the filter.


Troubleshooting


#The DNS Utility Doesn’t Work

 

Sorry, but that’s something that will be fixed in the next release.

To work around the problem, edit the ‘fwgetdns.ini’ file in FreeWeb install directory, and make sure that you’ve got serverAddress set correctly to point to your own Freenet node.


#Credits and Acknowledgements

 

Dedications:

FreeWeb is dedicated to all people throughout history who have ever suffered as a result of expressing an opinion.

 

FreeWeb is also dedicated to Amnesty International (www.amnesty.org) for your constant labours in bringing respite to prisoners of conscience.

 

Last but not least, FreeWeb is also dedicated to the Free Software Foundation, GNU (www.gnu.org) and other advocates of freely available software

 

Acknowledgements:

Thanks are due to:

 

Ian Clarke, Freenet architect and project founder, for your visionary concept of a truly free network, and your courage as you daily put yourself on the line with the world media and internet community

 

All other Freenet developers, (http://sourceforge.net/projects/freenet) for sharing Ian’s vision, and for your loving unpaid labour and technical skill without which Freenet would not have developed as quickly as it has. Thanks also for tolerating my naïve questions and random rantings on the Freenet mailing lists, and for your supportive answers to my questions.

 

Mr Bad, (www.pigdog.org) Freenet developer and Pigdog Journal publisher, for your excellent  freenetmirror program, the engine used by FreeWeb for uploading and refreshing of sites.

 

Nitallica (www.nitallica.com), Phrozen Crew graphic designer, and acclaimed “Phenomenal Woman of the Web”, for your inspired artwork, and your kind support of the FreeWeb project.

 

Electronic Freedom Frontier (www.eff.org), for your ongoing diligence and courageous actions against those who would undermine the basic human right of privacy and free expression

 

Electronic Privacy Information Centre (www.epic.org) for empowering the global internet community to defend their freedom and privacy.

 

 

Credits:

 

FreeWeb was designed and implemented in C++ by David McNab.

Stunning graphic design provided by Nitallica.

 

 


Miscellaneous
#Bugs and Known Issues

At this early alpha stage, it's very likely that FreeWeb will have some bugs.

Depending on your system configuration, it's even possible that FreeWeb won't even run on your system, or do anything at all. (That's what alpha testing is for - to purge out all 'show-stopper' issues before going to Beta release).

Interference with Hotmail Access

If you access your Hotmail account via Outlook Express, then you won't be able to do so while Internet Explorer is set up to use FreeWeb. This is because, as a proxy server, FreeWeb Agent is very basic, and can't handle HTTP Mail access.

There are five possible workarounds for this:

Sorry about this, but it may take me a little while to fix this.

If you find any more bugs, or want to suggest new features, or just want to express your appreciation and/or loathing of FreeWeb, then please email me: david@rebirthing.co.nz

Turn off Freenet FProxy Filter

If you use FreeWeb’s anonymity filter, you won’t need the Freenet Fproxy filter at all
You would be advised to turn the Fproxy filter off.

 


#Log of Changes

Version 0.1a alpha


#Things To Do

 


 

 



# what-is-freeweb

# system-requirements

# quickstart-for-power-users

# surfing-freeweb-sites

# sample-websites-on-freeweb

# configuring-freeweb-intro

# configuring-your-browser

# configuring-internet-explorer

# configuring-netscape

# configuring-freeweb-agent

# configuring-freeweb-publisher

# using-freeweb-publisher

# creating-your-website

# testing-your-website

# choose-a-domain-name

# www-is-insignificant

# adding-your-website-and-domain

# your-sites-list

# components-of-freeweb

# how-does-freenet-work

# how-does-freenet-actually-work

# for-seasoned-freenet-users

# frequently-asked-questions

# freeweb-anonymity-filter

# accessing-freeweb-via-freegates

# security-issues

# dns-utility-wont-work

# credits-and-acknowledgements

# bugs-and-known-issues

# log-of-changes

# things-to-do