
README.TXT file for FreeWeb v0.10a alpha

Please read through this - it's very important!!

-------
Welcome
-------

Welcome to Round Two of FreeWeb alpha testing.
Over the last 2 weeks, the 'back end' of Freeweb
has been completely re-written, to overcome the
problems that plagued v0.1 (alpha round one).

I look forward to hearing about your experiences
with this new version.

------------------------
New Features and Changes
------------------------

* Added secure anonymity filter to FreeWeb Agent.
  This filter blocks access to the mainstream web, and
  can be easily turned on and off

* replaced Freenet interface to one that communicates
  directly with the Freenet Java classes

* embedded a full Java runtime environment, plus a
  modified Freenet JAR file, into the FreeWeb installation

* implemented a secure in-freenet DNS for website
  registration

* implemented configuration screen in FreeWeb Publisher

* now using in-freenet key indexes for DNS

* provided more configuration options in FreeWeb Agent

* implemented a 'host cache' for visited FreeWeb sites
  to speed up future visits



---------------
What's Freeweb?
---------------

Basically, FreeWeb is a software suite that
implements an 'alternative World Wide Web'
over the revolutionary Freenet peer2peer network.

With FreeWeb Agent, your browser can surf
FreeWeb sites with familiar web addresses
over the '.free' domain. As far as your
browser is concerned, these sites actually
exist on the real internet. Except that you
enjoy Freenet's encryption and anonymity
features.

With FreeWeb Publisher, publishing your sites
to FreeWeb is an absolute snap. All you have
to do is drag a folder into the FreeWeb Publisher
window (or click the 'Add' button), think up a
domain name (eg www.mydomain.free), and you're
done.

No messing with FTP, no accounts, no fees,
no potential hostilities from outside parties.
No one but you needs to know that it's *you*
who published the site, and no-one can take the
site down (except you).

There's only three catches:

1) For anyone to surf your sites, they must have
   Freenet and FreeWeb Agent running.

2) You need to 'freshen' your published sites once
   per day, preferably just after midnight GMT.
   (But when we go to beta release, there'll be a
   feature to automatically 'fall back' to earlier
   versions of sites).

3) When you publish a site, there will be a delay
   before this site becomes visible. This is due to
   the new secure DNS now in place. The FreeWeb
   developer runs a DNS registry cron job, which
   periodically picks up new sites, and adds them
   to the FreeWeb DNS registry.

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Forget Freenet Keys
-------------------

In creating a familiar web-type environment,
FreeWeb completely does away with the need to
understand Freenet keys. All freenet keys are
transparently handled in the background.

TO PEOPLE NEW TO FREENET: You'll notice that
FreeWeb is somewhat slower than the 'mainstream'
world-wide web. This is because it runs through
Freenet, and Freenet has to do a lot of encryption
and distribute websites around the network, to
protect your privacy and the privacy of anyone
surfing your sites.

-----------------
ALPHA TEST NOTES:
-----------------

I've tested the FreeWeb programs fairly thoroughly
on a Windows 2000 environment, using Freenet version
0.3.8.1, with success.

I have no idea how successfully FreeWeb will run on
your system (though I feel pretty confident that it
should work).

The installation is very conservative - no registry
keys, no system config changes etc, so even if it
flakes out completely, it won't do any damage to your
system. The (very unlikely) worst case scenario is
that your system may crash, and need a reboot and a
scandisk. Very unlikely though.

It's possible that one of the FreeWeb programs -
FreeWeb Agent or FreeWeb Publisher - may fail to run
at all, due to a missing DLL file etc. The purpose
of alpha testing is to weed out such embarrassing
stuff-ups.

When you run FreeWeb, please first open up a mail
window for composing a new message to me.
Every thought that hits you - good or bad - just
key in a one-liner into the email.
That way, you can send me a 'running narrative' of
your FreeWeb experience.

Even if FreeWeb fails, and you get an error saying
"cannot find system file MFC42.DLL", I need to know.

Anyway, the URL www.free is a FreeWeb test page.

Thanks guys for reading through all this.
I look forward to hearing from you.

