The Tor comparison is easiest to answer because there's a FAQ entry:
Post by AmuzaHello!
How do nodes discover each other?
In opennet mode ("normal" or "low" network security) they connect to
seed nodes (a list of which is included with the software) run by
volunteers which provide them with an initial set of possible
connections, and during normal operation performs path folding to
maintain and improve its connections. [0]
When not in opennet mode (and therefore in "darknet mode;" if both modes
are in use it's "hybrid") connections must be manually and mutually added.
Can nodes within a LAN connect to each other without any special
configuration?
It depends on what you mean by special configuration. It does require
that the nodes' operators add one another as "friends" by trading node
references, but this is intended as routine configuration.
Do they need Internet access?
No, but note that a completely isolated darknet would have no way to
access the content available through the public opennet network. This
includes updates to the software. As long as one member of the darknet
is also connected to opennet this will not be the case. (Though
performance will be slow.)
Would nodes keep automatically connecting when they are in a LAN where
some days there is no Internet access?
Yes.
Does Freenet have any kind of real asynchronous messaging?
Yes, and it depends what you mean.
Alice is online and sends a message which has Caroline (her Freenet
friend) as the recipient, but Caroline is offline. Fortunately Barbara (who
is a common Freenet friend of both Alice and Caroline) is online. Then
Alice goes offline. Then Caroline goes online and receives Alice's message.
Barbara (or other common online Freenet friend) automatically forwarded the
message without being able to read it.
If so, how does it work?
Darknet peers can send direct messages by clicking on the peer's name on
the friends page. If the peers are not both online and connected the
message will be deferred until they are. The user interface for this is
very poor but it does function.
Otherwise, messaging tools like FLIP, Freemail, or Sone can do that.
[1][2][3] They work by inserting and fetching the messages as files.
I guess some of those three messaging tools do somehow the kind of
asynchronous messaging I meant. Do they?
Thank you!!
Yep. :) Hope this helps.
- Steve
It does! Great explanations! As soon as I have a while I will try Freenet.
In the case you, or anyone in this list, know a bit about other
more-or-less similar decentralized tools like Retroshare, Zeronet, Tox,
IPFS, etc, could you very briefly compare them to Freenet and easily say
some advantage or disadvantage of some of those tools over Freenet?
Thanks again.
[0] https://wiki.freenetproject.org/Opennet
[1]
[2] http://freesocial.draketo.de/freemail_en.html
[3]
_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe at http://emu.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
_______________________________________________
Support mailing list
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.freenet.support
Unsubscribe at
http://emu.freenetproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support