Updated itsDargens Website

The www.itsDargens.com website has been updated.

Please report any bugs - thanks.

A further cosmetic update is due within the next week.

The priority for work from now on will be the development of an improved ANts p2p.

New Version of ANts p2p Being Worked On

What is currently being done.

I am developing a better version of ANts p2p.

However, I have the following issues:

• I have zero testers - not a problem now but will stop development of improved client as work continues.
• The content layer (www.itsDargens.com) has no users - this is a problem as means can't test website. The reason for content layer is to make ANts P2P more user friendly and cure two issues:
• As network gets bigger download speed slows to zero. The reason for the slowing is that peers join the network randomly. So you get very long difficult to find paths. Solved by allowing users to join network (via content layer) near to content they are interested. Still one big network as one peer (user) can be in more than one (meetup/swarm/network). Jon Kleinberg has proved mathematically that it works. Downside some loss of anonymity for public meetups(swarms/networks) but upside is bigger total networks leading to more anonymity.
• Most users just want to get content - research suggest that nearly 100% of content on p2p networks comes from 7% of users. So content layer caters for those 93% of users by making it apparent what content is available (only interests are listed not files for legal reasons).
• I have taught myself both Ruby on Rails (I now use this at work on a daily basis) and Java. I also have a developer in China, Vicent, who is a student and working on the project in return for minimal expenses (not much money**) and kudos. However, I need more developers helping. If I can teach myself to code so can others! The situation is not helped by the lack of source code and DOCUMENTATION.
• I work full time for a charity and have very little money or time so the project is moving at a snails pace. I need more help.

CAN YOU HELP?

**I pay Vicent as he is in China and even a Dollar in China is big money. It is OK for us in the rich west to demand that people volunteer to work on open source project for free but we have got everything we are RICH. In the developing world to ask someone to work for free would be exploitation. The money that I pay Vicent gives him some hope for the future, covers his expenses and shows that I understand the difficulties he has in China.

He also gains by developing an understanding of the West. For example although he can speak English (China is on the way to becoming the biggest English speaking country in the world) he had no idea what Christmas really was (and I did not understand the true significance of Chinese New Year). So we are both learning.

kerjodando Faster Anonymous P2P?

Below are some questions on answers form an elite Ants p2p user:


Hi, I tried the mod so now I have a better idea of how it works... some questions:

-it seems faster: why ?

Faster due to three things:

• Network is smaller as there are fewer users - so less bandwidth is used
  
• User are more likely to be nearer to content they want to download so shorter path length and more efficient searches - so less bandwidth used
• Currently only elite users have tried it - these users tend to have higher speed connections - so more bandwidth available.

-I see a list of trusted peers: from where they come and do I connect ONLY to them?

The list of trusted peers are at the heart of the system.

You only connect DIRECTLY to who you want to connect DIRECTLY to. For a public meetup like the current test meetup (swarm) anyone who clicks on the start link gets their ip added to the trusted peers for that meetup (swarm) link.

They will only directly connect to those ip addresses.

As each user can connect to two meetups (swarms) - users bridge meetups (swarms) so making a large network.

You can download from ANY user on this network.

-I can't add a trusted peer: true?

No not via the client.

If you want to only connect to certain people you need to set up a PRIVATE meetup (swarm) and only tell those who you want to connect to about it.

-I can't see files from outside my small network: true?

FALSE, the small networks are connect by users who are connected to more than one meetup (swarm).

To connect to more than one meetup (swarm) you need to register, then login. You then bookmark the swarms you want to connect to. Then go to the bookmark page, select two swarms and then launch the modded ants p2p (kerjodando) client.

How to Make Ants P2P Scalable (Bigger)

Often Ants users have said, "It would be nice to have the option to be able to connect to both the general ants and your variation simultaneously. This way we don't dilute the ants between two separate networks."

I agree that it would be nice to connect to the general Ants network and the "Ants network Mod" at the same time.

However, this would defeat to objective which is to make it possible for ANts to have networks bigger than 60.

When 60 users connect together in ANts, the average path lengths become very long and so uploads and downloads grind to a HALT.

Jon Kleinberg has proved why this happens. It is due to the fact that although large random networks have very short path lengths they CANNOT be navigated (one user cannot find a path to a next user).

Jon Kleinberg has also proved that small world networks have short path lengths and ALSO can be navigated.

So if ANts was a small world network rather than a random network it would scale beyond 60.

So how do you make a small world network?

With great difficulty except for the fact that humans generally form small world networks in their social interactions.

Hence, kerjodando and itsDargens.com, people join ANts network according to their interests or friendships. And as each user can be a member of 2 meetups (swarms) then ONE LARGE NETWORK is formed with short path lengths between most users and long path lengths between a minority of users, a small world network.

Then the ANts network is scalable, it can grow to as big as any other 2nd en network without reducing the upload and download speed of users.

See:

http://kerjodando.blogspot.com/2006/07/only-small-world-p2p-networks-scalable.html

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/nat00.pdf

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Only Small World P2P Network Navigation (Search) Scalable

Only small world networks are scalable i.e. can grow in size without becoming very inefficient.

A small world network, where nodes represent people and edges connect people that know each other, captures the small world phenomenon of strangers being linked by a mutual acquaintance.

The small world phenomenon (also known as the small world effect) is the hypothesis that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase six degrees of separation after a 1967 small world experiment by social psychologist Stanley Milgram which suggested that two random US citizens were connected on average by a chain of six acquaintances.

This has far reaching consequences for 'anonymous' P2P file sharing. A leading researcher on small world networks, Jon Kleinberg, states the following:

Moreover, α=2 is the only exponent at which any decentralized algorithm can achieve a delivery time bounded by any polynomial in logN: for every other exponent, an asymptotically much larger delivery time is required, regardless of the algorithm employed.

Jon Kleinberg
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/nat00.pdf

Lets take this phrase by phrase to see what does this actually mean for anonymous file sharing clients like ANts P2P, MUTE and Freenet.

• α=2 is the only exponent at which any decentralized algorithm can achieve a delivery time bounded by any polynomial in logN.
• 
  
• logN refers to the width of a network.
• 
  
• As the number of users (N) increases, the average number of hops between any two users, the width, increases by a factor of logN.
• 
  
• However, it is expected delivery time (T) for messages sent between users that is important for file sharing.
• 
  
• T increases by a factor of logN only for small world networks (α=2). For other networks T is very much larger.
• 
  
• T for a ad-hoc overlay p2p net (like ANts, MUTE or Freenet) is the number of users a file or query has to be forwarded via to reach its destination, the path length (L).
• 
  
• For a small network the path length is small so that a workable amount of bandwidth in total is used in uploading and downloading for each hop along path length.
• 
  
• For a large network L is far too large unless the network is small world although ironically the width of the network still scales by logN.

• for every other exponent, an asymptotically much larger delivery time is required, regardless of the algorithm employed.
• 
  
• So you can come up with whatever clever message routing method you like, it will not scale unless it is small world.
• 
  
• It is the network structure, the topology not the routing algorithm that determines if a network scales.
• 
  
• So neither ANts P2P or MUTE will scale by improving routing algorithms while they remain networks with a random topology(structure).
• 
  
• However, Iain Clark of Freenet seems to have already made this break through and has redesigned Freenet 0.7 to be small world.

I have decided to do the same for ANts p2p file sharing by making a very simple mod that will force the network to be small world.

kerjodando, the name of my ANts p2p mod, will force users to connect to only friends or others that share a similar interest to themselves, a p2p small world social network.

I call these groups, swarms and they are controlled, like bit torrent, by a simple tracker. Users can be members of many swarms covering all their interests and social networks. Swarms can either be private (invitation only) or public.

In this way kerjodando will be more scalable and be able to grow much bigger.

I hope this make sense.

But as you can see ANts has to change if is going to get bigger rather than gradually die.

Beta Testing of New Ants P2P File Sharing Mod - Your Help is Needed [Urgent]

Sorry to ask but please could you help me to test the new mod of ANts p2p (kerjodando).

Would you also pass this post on to anyone who can help in testing.

To focus the testing it is BEST if everyone uses this meetup (swarm):

http://www.itsdargens.com/swarm/show_one/6ad9b233a173d19782cd03ac4b175fe6

Click on Start to launch the modded ANts p2p client (kerjodando).

Bug fixes to the itsDargens.com (ANts content layer) website are currently been worked on.

Also, an new USER FRIENDLY GUI for ANts p2p II that will be web based.

Please let me know your ideas.

I also need people to help me with the admin of a new sourceforge project site for:

• ANts p2p II
• kerjodando ipfilter.dat sharing and
  
• itsDargens.com content layer for anonymous p2p

So please email me if you can help.

ezzy.elliott@gmail.com

Pow! kerjodando and ANTs p2p II Moving to Sourceforge

I have decided to speed up the project by doing the following:

1. Move code for kerjodando ipfilter.dat sharing to sourceforge.
2. Develop the improved Ants p2p II at sourceforge.
3. Recruit 2 or 3 Ants p2p enthusiasts to help move ANts p2p2 II along
4. Advertise the kerjodando/Ants p2p separately to content layer itsDargens.com
5. Make a comprehensive help site for kerjodando/Ants P2P II
6. Make application software available only from content layer itsDargens.com or other content layer sites.
7. Make big soft launch with 100 users
   

Ez

New Content on itsDargens.com Private File Sharing

Loads of bugs on itsDargens.com. Will be trying to clear them by end of month. The site basically works. It does what it says on the tin. I've added some new content, as you can see above.

kerjodando P2P File Sharing Social Network on Ning

Share your files using sites such as www.itsDargens.com on a social network.

Dargens allows users to form public or private groups to share files "anonymously".

Users join group by clicking on a simple link. Share your links on new file sharing social network.

Have fun.

Goto kerjodando p2p file sharing social network (http://filesharing.ning.com/)