The Tor comparison is easiest to answer because there's a FAQ entry:
https://freenetproject.org/help.html#tor
On Mon, Jan 23, 2017, 6:14 AM Amuza <am...@riseup.net> wrote:
>
>
> On 22/01/17 19:01, Steve Dougherty wrote:
>
> On 01/22/2017 12:27 PM, Amuza wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> I have never tried Freenet but I already have some questions:
>
> How do nodes discover each other?
>
> In opennet mode ("normal" or "low" network security) they connect to
> seed nodes (a list of which is included with the software) run by
> volunteers which provide them with an initial set of possible
> connections, and during normal operation performs path folding to
> maintain and improve its connections. [0]
>
> When not in opennet mode (and therefore in "darknet mode;" if both modes
> are in use it's "hybrid") connections must be manually and mutually added.
>
>
> Can nodes within a LAN connect to each other without any special
> configuration?
>
> It depends on what you mean by special configuration. It does require
> that the nodes' operators add one another as "friends" by trading node
> references, but this is intended as routine configuration.
>
>
> Do they need Internet access?
>
> No, but note that a completely isolated darknet would have no way to
> access the content available through the public opennet network. This
> includes updates to the software. As long as one member of the darknet
> is also connected to opennet this will not be the case. (Though
> performance will be slow.)
>
>
> Would nodes keep automatically connecting when they are in a LAN where
> some days there is no Internet access?
>
> Yes.
>
>
> Does Freenet have any kind of real asynchronous messaging?
>
> Yes, and it depends what you mean.
>
>
> I mean, something like this:
> Alice is online and sends a message which has Caroline (her Freenet
> friend) as the recipient, but Caroline is offline. Fortunately Barbara (who
> is a common Freenet friend of both Alice and Caroline) is online. Then
> Alice goes offline. Then Caroline goes online and receives Alice's message.
> Barbara (or other common online Freenet friend) automatically forwarded the
> message without being able to read it.
>
> If so, how does it work?
>
> Darknet peers can send direct messages by clicking on the peer's name on
> the friends page. If the peers are not both online and connected the
> message will be deferred until they are. The user interface for this is
> very poor but it does function.
>
> Otherwise, messaging tools like FLIP, Freemail, or Sone can do that.
> [1][2][3] They work by inserting and fetching the messages as files.
>
>
>
> I guess some of those three messaging tools do somehow the kind of
> asynchronous messaging I meant. Do they?
>
> Thank you!!
>
> Yep. :) Hope this helps.
>
> - Steve
>
>
>
> It does! Great explanations! As soon as I have a while I will try Freenet.
>
> Let me ask another one, this one is more difficult:
>
> In the case you, or anyone in this list, know a bit about other
> more-or-less similar decentralized tools like Retroshare, Zeronet, Tox,
> IPFS, etc, could you very briefly compare them to Freenet and easily say
> some advantage or disadvantage of some of those tools over Freenet?
>
> Thanks again.
>
> [0] https://wiki.freenetproject.org/Opennet
> [1]
> USK@pGQPA-9PcFiE3A2tCuCjacK165UaX07AQYw98iDQrNA,8gwQ67ytBNR03hNj7JU~ceeew22HVq6G50dcEeMcgks,AQACAAE/flip/12/
> [2] http://freesocial.draketo.de/freemail_en.html
> [3]
> USK@nwa8lHa271k2QvJ8aa0Ov7IHAV-DFOCFgmDt3X6BpCI,DuQSUZiI~agF8c-6tjsFFGuZ8eICrzWCILB60nT8KKo,AQACAAE/sone/75/
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Support mailing
> listSupport@freenetproject.orghttp://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.freenet.support
> Unsubscribe at http://emu.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
> Or mailto:support-requ...@freenetproject.org?subject=unsubscribe
> <support-requ...@freenetproject.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Support mailing list
> Support@freenetproject.org
> http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.freenet.support
> Unsubscribe at
> http://emu.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
> Or mailto:support-requ...@freenetproject.org?subject=unsubscribe
_______________________________________________
Support mailing list
Support@freenetproject.org
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.freenet.support
Unsubscribe at http://emu.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
Or mailto:support-requ...@freenetproject.org?subject=unsubscribe
