How to: Running a gwebcache on mac os x
 

(Note to moderators: this should be sticky thanks)

Running a Gwebcache on Mac OS X

Salut tout le monde,
I'm here to tell you how to improve the gnutella network by increasing the number of gwebcaches. It can be an interesting pet project for learning how webserving works and for leading you to hosting your website and share photos, videos and infos with friends,family.

What is a gwebcache?
-It is the entry point for gnutella servents such as LW, Acquisition, Bearshare, Gnucleus and many others. When you first download a servant (or if it has been lot of time since you last ran of a client), the servant doesn't have ultrapeers IP to connect too. It then connects to gwebcaches (websites) to retrieve ultrapeers IP so you can connect. Also, you might argue that it is cool to be involved in gnutella expension (It is).

Why adding one cache (gwebcache) if there are already more than 200 caches?
-Because increasing the number of gwebcaches decrease the number of requests for a particulate cache (many are now swamped by requests as requests are high these months for example LW requests have tripled in 6 months). For example if there are 200 caches and 200 000 requests/hour, each cache will be hit 1000 times/hour. However if the number of gwebcaches is higher, say 500, it means 400 requests/hour or a decrease in requests by 60%.

Is it legal?
-Yes. Even in the US! You are only keeping IP addresses of ultrapeers and addresses of other gwebcaches in memory, and gnutella use is not forbidden because there are many legal uses of P2P (Linux distros, your music band…).

What do I need to have a gwebcache?
1)a connection to the internet and a computer nearly always on like 95% of the time.
2)about a gig of bandwidth available per month
3)a fixed IP (ie your address is always static or the same ie 203.25.16.15. You can ask your ISP about it).
OR
if you have a dynamic ip, you have to suscribe to a dynamic DNS provider to register a domain for linking a web address to your machine (I use dyndns.org for updating the IP of my myname.dyndns.org and) and a deamon to update your IP by contacting dynsdns.org each 15 minutes (I use dnsupdate on versiontracker).
4)web sharing enabled in sharing of system preferences
5)PHP enabled (look at http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...30124054236237 )
6) a gwebcache script (available at http://www.gnucleus.com/gwebcache/di...ache-0.7.5.zip )
7) Port 80 open:
If you have a router you'll have to forward the port 80 to the lan (ie 192.168.1.100) address of your machine
If you have a firewall, you'll have to open port 80

Installing the gwebcache script:
Put the folder gwebcache-0.7.5 (after unzipping it) in harddrive/library/webserver/documents/
(Documents is the folder you can put an index.html if you want to build your personnal website. Mozilla (mozilla.org) has a composer component that makes it easy to build a basic website)

Verifying if it works:
Go in your web browser, type your website address (or your fixed IP)
ie myname.dyndns.org/gwebcache-0.7.5/gcache.php
You should see a Gwebcache title. If you click on the stats link, you should see the servants that connected to your server last hour and this hour.

Reporting your gwebcache to the rest of the world (you won’t have any hits on your cache if you don’t do this step):
Go at http://gwebcache.jonatkins.com/ in the submit field and copy your address ie myname.dyndns.org/gwebcache-0.7.5/gcache.php

Afterwards (might be days after you reported your cache), you'll be able to verify the strength of your cache by visiting
http://gcachescan.jonatkins.com/

Bonne chance à tous!

For more infos : http://gnucleus.com/gwebcache/ forum about gwebcaches at http://www.c0re.net/gnuforum/viewforum.php?f=7