Creating a Darknet

[Learnaseyego]

Ok...

Darknet described by wikipedia is a, "a private virtual network where users connect only to people they trust. Typically such networks are small, often with fewer than 10 users each. In its most general meaning, a darknet can be any type of closed, private group of people communicating, but the name is most often used specifically for file sharing networks."

I came across a site explaining what this is and a piece of software (waste) that can be used to accomplish this.

http://www.jason-p-russell.com/articles/darknet.htm

My question is... Have any of you ever done this?

If yes, did you use this method or another?

Please provide any links that you think might be helpful to the topic.

Thanks!

[Trajik]

I've never heard of it. Seems like a kinda cool idea. Basically the 'waste' program is just VPN-like software which comes with a little browser. Sound very gimmicky to me though. 'Darknet'? 'Waste'? 'port forward port 1337'? (wasn't that the subse7en port??)

I guess it would be a 'simple to use solution' for people who don't have the capability to set up real VPN communications.

If you do happen to try it out. Let us know your experiences.

[Swathe]

Darknet is more a less a term to describe this type of network.

Setup your vpn on you own port imo but good for the new guys.

[Sparda]

The problem with waste is that it is too similar to FTP, but with a asymmetric key authentication and encryption structure. It would be better if it was more like bit torrent.

[sablefoxx]

I may have done something like this in the past...here is a tip.

[will-wtf]

We have attempted to do something when I was last online a couple of months ago. It didn't really work as not everyone had a home server they could just leave online. We used waste and it was a simple effective solution, the problem was people only joined the darknet if they wanted something off it, and typically refused to share their content.

just what happened.

[digip]

It's probably easier to set up a private, passworded IRC channel with Fserves and leave an old box online to repsond to requests. Thats how I used to do it back in the day, but I rarely get on IRC any more and don't have any of my old scripts set up for an fserve. IRC was nice, becuase DCC connections between two people were fairly quick and usually safer than torrents and P2P. Torrents have come a long way though, and the speed and ease of use usually gets people to use them more than private shared file servers. Its also why a lot of them get served with warrants by the RIAA though. That is, unless your smart enough to proxy/ssh tunnel all your torrents, then you at least have some anonymity (Not tunneled through your home machine! ;) ).

[ax0n]

Basically, a darknet is any network that is private and invite-only. Usually, it's for file sharing. Some buddies and I ran a Waste network for a while. If people leave their stuff online, it works. At the time, Waste was windows-only. I'm too lazy and uninterested to figure out if that's still the case.

Many serious darknets are using a VPN and are really more flexible than Waste. You can implement whatever you want on the VPN.

[digip]

What I would do is set up a private IRC network on their own server or even extra home machine and start some fserves. Others could connect and set up their own as well, then just give out the address only to people you want to join in. I think when chat comes with the file sharing, it will probably get more people to flock to it, and share more vs leaving some file server up for everyone to browse and download from. you could even set up rules so only people with certain nicks or op level can connect to your fserve while others can only chat. This way you can build your network and keep the chatters in the channel until they are ready to fserve others. Eveyone should be forced to share if they want to download.