This is my "another goddamn newbie with lots of big ideas" post. Do flame
me for any technical incorrectness[2].
I just started running my first Freenet node, with a 20 gigabyte data limit
(I have one of those obscenely large DiamondMax drives and haven't filled
it up with mp3 tracks yet...), using my meager 22 kilobytes/second upstream
bandwidth limited cable modem connection for bandwidth.
Now, I got to thinking - Freenet seems to have a reliability / data
propagation problem, right? (I mean "reliability" as in "a recently
inserted file can not be downloaded", not "some files should always be
downloadable".) I see two main contributors to this problem:
1) Node impermanence. The network may be large (I've had 50-HTL requests
go unanswered with a timeout - this has to be a sign of *something*...),
but if a large percentage of the nodes are run by Napster refugees (i.e.
running Windows, a 1-minute attention span, "this sucks! I can't download
anything!", kill node), data and references are bound to disappear from
the network faster than they appear. I have no solution to this problem;
perhaps a larger number of really persistent, well-connected nodes would
help.
2) Node connectedness (and network topology). As far as I understand, most
nodes just connect to wherever there may be other nodes. As a result,
without a centralized node location service (frex. inform.php) fragmentation
may occur. Could this problem be alleviated by node operators who would
agree to connect some extremely permanent[1], well-connected, high-bandwidth
nodes to each other, thus creating a kind of a backbone? I'm not sure how
the existence of such a backbone would affect different attack strategies
on the network. On the other hand, since nodes would still do the "fuck
everything in sight" thing, I suppose that once a well-known node comes
down the network would simply route around the missing backbone server (and
trying to cope with lost data).
Thoughts appreciated. Flames, too.
[1] yeah, I know, that's like saying "a bit pregnant" or "more perfect"
[2] but include a "go here for further enlightenment" type reference, too
--
Kalle A. Sandstro"m ksandstr &at& iki &dot& fi
http ohutsuoli 2*viilto www piste iki piste fi viilto mato ksandstr viilto
1ED7 C636: 7728 49D5 F784 D2DD D20F 63CF 655D F19E 1ED7 C636
PGP signature
