Obsolete, the developer continues. (Was: The MuWire project is dead)

[lgillis]

Addendum, Sunday, July 21, 2024: Title change after developer feedback here. The original title was quite banal: »The MuWire project is dead«. End Addendum

Here is an excerpt from the project description dated April 5, 2023, which remains valid unchanged to date.

Shutdown Notice

The MuWire project has been shut down. It is not available for download anywhere and while you are free to build from source, it will most likely not work.

The full project description can be found on github.com.

[ghost92]

Sad news. Hopefully torrents can take over, with continued development.

[FreefallHeavens]

As the project no longer gets updates any features and bugfixes will be stale. But MuWire already works quite well and has even had more work done that never got a release before the project was abandoned.

Another problem is that as MuWire no longer gets updates its version of the embedded router(1.9.0 was in the final commits but I don't remember if MuWire 0.8.13 release had an even older router) falls behind newer I2P releases and as compatibility gradually breaks down those nodes will become more insulated from the rest of the network.

Furthermore Zlatinb also ran a bunch of trackers that functioned as hardcoded meeting points for nodes that are just starting out to learn about other nodes. If you've been on the network for long enough the secondary p2p discovery protocol still operates and all the peers you know will inform you of the peers they know and gradually build up the picture of all the participants on the network.

But if you try to install MuWire fresh from the last release it just won't find any nodes. This can be fixed if you can talk to someone who's running a well-integrated node and add eachother to contacts and try to interact/browse, then once you have at least 1 node connected the p2p takes over and discovers everyone else.

With the exception of updates to MuWire itself, I have a solution to the other issues...

I have a package of MuWire built from the final commits before shutdown that contains the latest unreleased feature and fixes. In addition, the embedded router has been updated to version 2.4.0 and can be further updated by manually running a tiny script included in the folder if you also have the Java version of I2P installed on the system. It will pull the Jar modules, certificates, and blocklist and update the embedded router in MuWire.

Included is also a DB file in the profile that contains a cache of already discovered peers to serve as a bootstrap for getting into the network. That way you don't have to go around asking for users to add you. The list contains about 80-90 known nodes, a number of which are online all the time so eventually the app should integrate without any extra work from the user's side.

It is entirely portable and doesn't need I2P or Java installed, it just runs straight from the folder and also stores its profile+settings within that folder so you can even put multiple copies at multiple different locations on the same machine and each will have their own ID, I2P Node, and shares/settings independent of the others.

This package is only for Windows 64bit however.

I also must put up the obligatory disclaimer: always and forever be wary of random software, especially put up by nobodies but on the dark web even long-timers have been known to doublecross others. There's a bunch of scripts in there that are easily readable for anyone who understands code but also a lot of binaries, including the JRE aswell as the Jar modules that make up the app. At a minimum, the Runtime folder just contains JRE 18 and if you're skeptical you could just delete and replace that with your own download of it(maybe even a newer build!).

If you feel comfortable with all of this and you're interested in trying it out, a Torrent download link is on the main page of my website, which is the same as my username, just add .i2p at the end.

Let's hope MW is eventually adopted and thrives.

[lgillis]

Perhaps it would be best to remove the I2P core and use only I2CP?

I have compiled a torrent from the latest release of the executable programs. MuWire-0.8.13.AppImage, MuWire-0.8.13.dmg, MuWire-0.8.13.exe und MuWire-0.8.13.zip. Also the sparse documentation.

The attached file with the SHA checksums is not compatible with the hash sums developed and used by MuWire. In order to check the correctness of the binaries, it may be necessary to use the possibilities of the "network of trust" (zlatinb).

For those who don't yet know but are interested: Be warned, MuWire has developed into a real dirt slinger in the past, like all programs I know that are not subject to social control. The comparatively high number of requests for child pornography was particularly noticeable. Many consider MuWire to be a kind of black hole into which they put their request and which then disappears from the view of other participants. However, the opposite is the case: a single regular expression logs all requests.

BitTorrent does not log, at least this torrent is completely anonymous.

MuWire-0.8.13.torrent

Code: Select all

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:cfa1698f10f744b98c35ff5831f76724ebf6f526&dn=MuWire-0.8.13&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fopentracker.dg2.i2p%2Fa

[FreefallHeavens]

For ease of portability and no-hassle setup for normies I think embedded node is better.

But for eliminating node maintenance issues, SAM bridge over an existing node would indeed be good.

The package I have doesn't work with an external node for some reason. I've tried and it won't connect. Does your compiled package work with localhost node?

It's known and even included in the readme of my package that search queries are forwarded via P2P between nodes and responded to by each node back to the requester. There is a heads-up that each node is tied to the searches it initiates.

Child porn, malware, and other garbage are unavoidable in an application like this. Even on the I2P network itself anyone can host anything, and the most the developers can do is make sure they don't endow such addresses with a domain name. Again, nothing stopping anyone from running a domain registry whose entire mission is to index illegal websites either. The problems are the same, it's just easier on MW where you drag and drop a file.

There is a block list where you can add nodes whose results and communication are to be ignored. Maybe what would have cleaned up things more would've been the possibility of subscribing to lists maintained by people who block malicious nodes/CP/neo-nazi/whatever else. There is a subscription list but you need to manually review and add whatever nodes those people are blocking or recommending. An automated list would be a nice feature to add. In the meantime a bigger network would at least provide enough sources per file to weigh in on search results as to which ones are legit.

Torrents over I2P are perhaps its number one attraction right now for people who are in closed off nations or under tight copyright infringement surveillance. I am hoping that combining ease of setup with filesharing would draw in more people.

[lgillis]

Does your compiled package work with localhost node?

To avoid possible misunderstandings, the programs offered in the torrent were all created (compiled) by the former developer, zlatinb. I have only bundled them together.

> The package I have doesn't work with an external node for some reason.

No idea what "an external node" means here. MuWire connects to the router daemon (Java or I2Pd) and the settings for this are usually i2cp.tcp.host=127.0.0.1 and i2cp.tcp.port=7654.

Of course, it takes some time for MuWire to establish connections to other MuWires on its own. But as soon as a MuWire has been found out there, things progress quite quickly. The number of directly connected clients at that time was always between 50 and 60. The total of all known participants can be queried via the status menu, as you probably know.

[sha256]

Interesting, readme updated (clearnet) https://github.com/zlatinb/muwire/commits/master, Jul 13, 2024

changes: removed from readme "The MuWire project has been shut down." ++

hmm... maybe an attempt to restart the project?

[lgillis]

hmm... maybe an attempt to restart the project?

Looks like it: "I plan on setting up a discovery service soon."
Maybe they kicked him out of the monastery and now he's picking up where he left off?

There is a parallel discussion going on in the forum next door, which is partly based on this one. To start MuWire, nothing special needs to be installed, as they claim. MuWire can be configured to use an external router and this works after the restart.

BTW, the torrent, that found its way to Postman, is identical to the one above.

[zlatinb]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Hey there,

yes, MuWire is going to be coming back to life, but slowly and to a limited degree. I don't think I will be able to afford to put as much time and effort into it as I used to, so only the very basic infrastructure (such as a discovery server) may come back online. But that's probably a month or two in the future.

Until then I recommend people to build from source, either the latest commit or from the "0.8.14-beta2" tag. Then they can export and import the known peers into a .txt file instead of having to deal with the clunky h2 database file.

zlatinb

P.S. I didn't make it to the monastery. May try again in a few years...
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