Now, if you’re using Retroshare for the first time, the first step would be to add friends, something which you can do by accessing the “Add” option present at the top-right of the main window. Once done, you’re asked to confirm your password once again.Īnd then the main window opens – it contains options to send/receive emails, add new friends, chat with friends, access shared files, and more. Basically you just need to fill in some information like your name, a password, and a node name (like homePC or laptop). When you launch Retroshare for the first time, it asks you to create a profile and associate a node with it. Once installed, you can launch the tool from Dash (if running Unity in Ubuntu) or the Application menu. If you’re running a different Linux flavor or a completely different OS, head to the official download page. Sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install retroshare06 Sudo add-apt-repository ppa:retroshare /stable Users of Ubuntu Linux can download and install the software by running the following commands in the terminal: There are no central servers – data is only sent to friends and in some cases relayed by them to their friends – effectively making the tool more secure and less susceptible to snooping. So how does Retroshare solve the problem? It basically works by establishing encrypted connections between authenticated friends. But this is not easy to do, safely and securely, over the Internet.” I don’t want to share with the whole wide world, but I would love to share stuff with my friends. “The problem with existing filesharing networks is that you have no control over who you share information with. To quickly explain it, the tool only connects to trusted friends and not just anyone. Retroshare is a file-sharing network that takes the idea of peer-to-peer (P2P) communication and extends it to something it calls a “friend-to-friend (F2F)” network. In this article we will discuss one such software – Retroshare. Just keep in mind that there will be quite an initial learning curve as you figure out how everything works.While there are many communication and file sharing tools offering security and privacy to users on Windows, there are quite a few of them available for Linux, too. If you and a group of friends would like to also have a more private place, though, somewhere unmonitored, just for you, then it could work very well indeed. Plainly RetroShare still isn't going to replace your other social network accounts. A left-hand panel includes links to common functions like the instant messenger, or file sharing, and a couple of wizards do a reasonable job of helping you get started. A toolbar gives you easy to all RetroShare's key features, listing your friends, taking you to group chat rooms, displaying shared files, forums, channels and more. This isn't quite as polished as regular social networks, then - but it's not really so difficult to use, either. This is easy to do (it takes one click), but they just use an alarming "RetroShare has detected an unregistered plugin" apparent error message which will probably leave some users thinking there's a security issue. On first launch, for instance, it detects any plugins you've installed and asks you to authorise them, much like Firefox with a new extension. This isn't actually that difficult (creating a key is just a matter of filling in a form, for instance), and you only have to do it once, but it's undeniably more complicated than using Facebook.Īnd we found several other situations where RetroShare made few concessions to beginners. You'll need to generate a GPG key to establish your identity, for instance, then exchange it with friends to authenticate the connection. If you're thinking this sounds a little complex to set up, then you have a point, to a degree. And because the system is decentralised - there's no central server control everything - and RetroShare's connections are encrypted with GPG (GNU Privacy Guard), you can be sure that no-one else will get to monitor what you're saying or sharing, not even the RetroShare developers. So you have to explicitly add someone before you can connect to them at all. But you're only connected to trusted friends/ family/ work colleagues (or whoever else you want to invite). The features are very similar, so you can share your news, read what's going on with other people, post on forums, use instant messaging and voice chat, share files, folders and more. The program is what the developers call a "secure social network". RetroShare is a powerful tool which allows you to chat, share files and otherwise communicate with a group of trusted friends.
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