RetroShare User Guide Written for v0.5.5c
Installing RetroShare
Create a new Identity (account)
Using RetroShare for the first time
Adding Friends
Adding Shared Folders
Chatting with Friends
Using the News feed Tab
Using the Friends Tab
Using the File sharing Tab
Using the Chat Lobbies Tab
Using the Messages Tab
Using the Channels Tab
Using the Forums Tab
Tips & Tricks (and Troubleshooting)
Note: Windows and Mac users will see two extra options along the top that some Linux users will not: FeedReader and LinksCloud. Because the usage portion of the guide was created with a Linux version of RetroShare that did not have those plugins, this guide will not explain those sections. The Getting Started tab is a shortcut to features which are explained in this guide elsewhere, so will not be dealt with here. Installing RetroShare
Note: This guide was made for installing on Windows. Other operating systems may be very similar, but you may see some things that are a little bit different.
1. The first dialog box upon opening the installation file allows you to choose the language you want to use to install the program.
Note: You are not choosing the language RetroShare will run in, only the language you will use while you install it. It seems that once installed, RetroShare defaults to the language of the operating system. (This can be changed later if you want.)
Current options: Catalan, German, English, Spanish, French, Polish, Turkish, Russian, and Chinese
2. You arrive at a standard “welcome to the setup” dialog. Click Next to continue.
3. Next you will see a license agreement. Click on the radio button next to “I accept the terms...”, then click next.
If you feel like reading it, it basically says that the creators of the program want you to be free to use it and change it in any way you like, and are giving you a license that gives you as much freedom as possible. (This is a complete contrast to most software written by programmers of companies, who want to take away your freedom to share and change it.)
(This next step may not apply to all operating systems.)
4. Now you are presented with two options: Standard installation, and Portable installation.
A standard installation is tied to the computer you install it on. This is a good choice if you will not be using RetroShare on any other computer.
A portable installation is designed so you can move the files later to another computer and continue to use the program with the same account. This is a good choice if you may change computers, or if you have more than one computer but only one computer is on the Internet at a time.
The portable installation is a little more complicated to use, so unless you know what you're doing, you want to use the standard installation. Note: RetroShare is not like Skype; your account is connected to where you installed the program. If you know you want to use the same account on more than one computer, you will need the portable installation, and will need to move the files from computer to computer in order to make it work.
Click on the radio button next to your choice and click Next when done.
5. In this step, you are given the choice of where the program's files will be installed to (destination folder). The default folder is perfectly fine; you don't need to change it unless you have a special reason to.
Below the Destination Folder box, the dialog box lists the space required and the total space available on the computer. You probably have more than enough space. If you're trying to compare the two, remember that GB is about 1,000 times bigger than MB.
Click Next to continue.
6. The dialog box here lets you select components to install. The program defaults to installing everything necessary, but there are a few things you may want to decide on.
If you don't want shortcuts on your desktop, quick launch, or start menu, this is where you can choose to leave those out. Click on the + sign next to “Shortcut icons” and uncheck the box next to any shortcuts you don't want.
By default, RetroShare will start when you start up your computer. If you don't want that to happen, uncheck the box next to “Auto Startup”.
Click Install when you're ready.
7. The program will show a progress bar as it installs. When it's finished, it will say Completed. Click Next.
8. Now you're at the final dialog. By default, RetroShare is set to run as soon as you click Finish. You can uncheck that if you aren't ready to use the program yet. Click Finish when you're ready. Create a new Identity (account)
This is how you create an account to use to connect with other people.
Note: Your account is tied to the computer you installed it on, unless you chose a portable installation.
1. Upon opening RetroShare for the first time, you will see a dialog that says “Create a new Identity”. The dialog has five things that need to be dealt with.
a) Name This is the name everyone else will see when they connect to you. This can be any name you want to use on RetroShare. Some people prefer to use their real name, since they will only be connecting with people who know who they really are. Because RetroShare is completely secure, this is safe. You will never connect to anyone you don't want to. You can also create a username that is not your real name if you prefer, but you will need to let people know that it's you if they're not used to you using that name.
Note: You can use spaces, numbers, and symbols as well as letters in your name. Important Note: Although you only connect with your direct friends, anyone who is friends with one of your friends will be able to see your name if they look in the right place. This only works one layer deep, so whether you feel safe using your real name will depend on whether you trust your friends' judgment. b) Password This is the password you will use forever with your account. You cannot change this password after you create your account! Make sure you pick something that you can remember. You should also pick a strong password so that no one who uses your computer can guess it. Strong passwords contain a mixture of letters, numbers, and other symbols.
It is recommended to keep a copy of the password in a safe place where no one will think to find it except you, just in case you forget it. If you do forget it, you will lose access to that account (and any messages you had stored there) and will have to create a new one. c) Password (check) Type the same password again. It will not let you continue if the passwords don't match, to make sure that you don't accidentally type a character incorrectly. d) Location This can be used to connect two computers with the same account. Using one account on two computers is complicated to set up, so you don't need to worry about that. Just type something that indicates which computer you are creating the account on.
Examples: Home, Laptop, PC, ... e) Randomness This is the bar at the bottom that has been filling up with blue rectangles. (It appears on Linux as a green progress bar.) The randomness bar is a way to protect you from someone trying to hack into your account. To be sure it is as safe as possible, wiggle the mouse around until it gets to 100% before you move on.
When you have finished all five parts, click Generate New Identity.
Note: The dialog box says RetroShare uses PGP keys for identity management. This is a term for the type of security used to prevent hacking. Because PGP keys have a “private” key that no one else but you ever sees, and a “public” key that you only share with your friends, this means that no one can pretend to be you, or see anything you have saved in your program unless they are using your computer while the program is logged in. 2. Now the program will generate your identity (which is what RetroShare calls accounts). When it finishes, it will ask you to type in your password in order to log in for the first time.
3. You may see a dialog box that says “RetroShare has detected an unregistered plugin.” This is because they are still working on RetroShare and haven't finished some parts of it. This does not affect the safety of your account or keep the main parts of the program from working correctly. Just click Yes to “authorize” the plugin. (You may see more than one of these dialog boxes.)
4. Now RetroShare has started up! You will need to tell any firewall you use to allow access to RetroShare. For Windows users, Windows Firewall will likely default to only check the “Private networks” box, giving a warning that “Public networks” are risky. Because RetroShare is so safe in itself, you can use it on any network you like without any chance of someone seeing what you are doing, so check that box too. Using RetroShare for the first time
Congratulations! You have successfully installed RetroShare and created your account. Now it's time to use it! Before you start chatting and sharing files, let's set everything up the way you want it.
1. On the left side of your screen you will see several icons in a vertical column. The top icon shows a blue figure with a green plus sign. Look down till you see a gray button that looks like a gear (it has spokes and a hole in the middle). It should be just above the red “power” button. Click this gear to bring up the Options dialog box. 2. The Options dialog has a lot of things you can change. If you understand the options, you can change them as you like. The reason you need it open right now is because there are a couple very important things to change before you start to really use the program. They're in the Directories tab, so click on that. 3. In the Directories tab you will see five options: three checkboxes and two address boxes.
a - b - c -
d -
e -
a) Automatically share incoming directory
RetroShare automatically checks this box because it assumes that you will want to share everything you download. If you are using it just to share music, films, games, e-books, or other general content, this is probably true. However, if you plan on using RetroShare for anything sensitive that not every one of your friends should see, you should uncheck the box.
If only one person will be seeing any sensitive files, you can change the permissions on that directory (look under “File sharing” for information on how to do that). However, if you will be getting sensitive files from more than one person, and you don't want them to see what others are sending you, then you will need to uncheck the box and simply move the files into individual folders for each person to see. b) Remember hashed files for …
Hashed files are the files you've chosen to share that RetroShare has already looked at and stored in its memory. The default number is fine. c) Auto-check shared directories every ...
RetroShare defaults to 15 minutes for this option. This means that every 15 minutes it will scan all the directories you have shared and check to see if there are any changes.
If you will only be sharing a small a handful of files at a time, this number will work fine. However, if you plan on sharing a large amount of files (such as many gigabytes of various files), your computer will be slow a lot as it scans all of those files. You should then change it to a much larger amount (the value in the screenshot comes out to 2 days).
Note: If you have made changes to the files available, your friends will not see those changes until RetroShare does this check or unless you tell it to check files right then (there is a button that can do that). You will need to take this into account when you want friends to get files that you have recently created or gotten. d) Incoming Directory
This is the directory (folder on your computer) where any files you download will go when they finish. The default directory is hard to find, no matter which operating system you're using, so you definitely want to change it before you download anything. You may create a separate RetroShare folder under your Documents or Downloads folder, or simply tell it to go to your Downloads folder. e) Partials Directory
This directory is not as important to change, because it's only going to hold the files while they download; finished ones will go to the Incoming Directory. You can leave it as it is.
When you finish changes you can click OK in the Options dialog box to accept the changes. 4. Now you should be back in the main window. The final step of getting your account prepared before connecting to friends is to edit your shared directories. These are the folders of files you share with other people. It's a good idea to share something, but you don't have to share much if you don't want to or don't have much people would like.
To edit the shared directories, click on the Add Share button on the left. It looks like a folder with a green plus sign in front of it. 5. Now, you should see the Share Manager. Only one folder is currently shared, and this is the folder that RetroShare wanted to put your downloads in. You will notice that it says Downloads under the Virtual Folder column. Since you have changed your downloads to go to another folder, you do not want to share this folder. Click on the folder, find the Remove button at the bottom, then click on that. The folder should disappear from the list, leaving an empty Share Manager.
6. You still need to share something, so find the section of this guide titled Add Shared Folders and add at least one folder. This folder should be shared with everyone, so make sure it can be browsed by everyone and searched by everyone. (The Add Shared Folders section will explain the flags; turn on the blue folder and the weird blue mask.) If you can't think of anything to share, try downloading some public domain e-books or music. The King James Version of the Bible is free to download here, and Project Gutenberg has many classic books. The Internet Archive has many older books, films, and music free for download as well.
7. Now you're ready to add friends! Go to the Adding Friends section of the guide to continue. Adding Friends
Friends are what make RetroShare useful. Without friends, all the features are useless. Therefore, this is the most important section of the guide.
Because you connect directly to your friends, you have to exchange certificates. Companies like Skype and Yahoo take care of this step for you—but then they can see what you type. RetroShare trades that easy-to-use aspect for better security. You just have to remember that you have to give your friend your certificate, and they have to give you theirs.
1. The first step in adding friends is to go to the Add a Friend Wizard. You can find the button for this on the top of the left column of buttons. It looks like a blue head with a green plus sign in front of it. 2. Now you should see a dialog box that says Connect Friend Wizard. Here you have four options for adding friends: a) Enter the certificate manually
This means that you would paste the text of your friend's certificate into a box, and copy yours into something for your friend to copy. While this can be done, it is easy to miss a character or two if you copy in a hurry, and the certificate must have every letter and number in order to work properly. This is not recommended for a first-time user.
This option is most useful in a situation where you are communicating with a friend other than by e-mail. Sites like Pastebin, Pastie, and others can be used to hold the text of the certificate for a short while, and the link to the text can be e-mailed or pasted into a chat. If the friend you are connecting with cannot use an e-mail address, this is a possible solution.
If you choose this option and click Next, the next window you see will have your Text certificate. To copy the certificate, you will need to click on the button on the right that looks like two pieces of paper with a tiny RS on them. This copies your certificate to the clipboard so you can paste it somewhere.
The disk button lets you save the certificate to a file (a much easier option), and the envelope button starts up your e-mail client so you can paste the certificate in an e- mail to someone.
The space below your certificate is for you to paste your friend's certificate in. If you use this option, be careful as you copy your friend's certificate, to make sure you don't miss any characters. If you pasted successfully, the red X will change to a green check mark and allow you to click Next. b) You get a certificate file from your friend
This is the simplest method, and easy for new users to learn. It saves the certificate to a file, and lets you import a file with your friend's certificate.
If you choose this option and click Next, the next window you see says Certificate files. You should click on the button that says Export my certificate... This will open up a dialog that will ask you to save a file. You can name it anything you like, but it would probably be more helpful if you included something in the name that showed it was your RetroShare certificate. Note to Linux users: You may need to manually add the extension .rsc to your certificate when saving. A certificate without that extension cannot be used to add friends.)
The address bar below allows you to either drag/drop a certificate your friend gives you, or click Browse to find it on your computer's hard drive. Once you have the address to the file in the line, you can click Next. c) Send an Invitation by Email
This is simply a shortcut to opening your e-mail client and sending an e-mail to your friends to tell them about RetroShare. It is designed to work with a desktop client like Outlook or Thunderbird. If you only access your e-mail using a web browser (such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Opera) then you will not be able to use this option properly.
If you choose this option and click Next, the next window you see says Invite Friends by Email. It has a spot for you to enter your friends' addresses, a Subject line for the e-mail, and a sample introduction text, complete with a spot for you to paste your certificate. When you enter addresses and click next, RetroShare will try to figure out what your default e-mail client is and start it up—even filling a blank e-mail with the information you see in the window. Unfortunately, not everyone uses desktop clients, the English is slightly awkward, and most people will probably do a better job introducing RetroShare to their friends and family without it. d) Recommend many friends to each others
You may be having difficulty understanding the poor grammar of the description. Either way, this option is for recommending existing friends to other existing friends. It is not for adding someone to RetroShare who does not have an account already.
If you choose this option and click Next, the next window you see says Friend Recommendations. You can check any number of friends in the left column; these are the friends you want to recommend to people. You can also check any number of friends in the right column; these are the friends you want to receive the recommendations. The box below lets you type a message to go to all of them. By recommending, it sends a message to the friends in question that lets them click on links to the recommended friends' certificates.
At this point you should have picked one of those four options and clicked on Next or Finish.
Note: You do not have to get and give certificates in the same format. For example, you could send a friend your certificate file, but they might send you an e-mail with their certificate as text. As long as you import their certificate into your RetroShare, and they import your certificate into their RetroShare, you will be able to connect. 3. Now you should see a dialog box that says Make Friend. This is the final step to go through.
RetroShare has good defaults built in here. The two checkboxes in the middle of the dialog box are vital to adding someone as a friend, so they should definitely be checked.
“Authenticate friend” should only be used if you know that the certificate definitely came from that person.
The dropdown box lets you add the friend to a group immediately instead of having to do it later in the Friends tab.
The service permissions are usually good. If, however, you don't trust the friend you're adding to behave well in some way, you can limit their ability to connect with you by unchecking some of the boxes. (You can always change your mind later and edit these boxes in the Friend Details dialog.)
• “Direct source” has to do with making downloads work correctly. If you don't plan on allowing this friend to download from you (or vice versa), you can turn this off. • “Discovery” has to do with finding new friends to add on RetroShare (only possible if allowed, as otherwise you can only see those you trust). Turning off Discovery means you can't recommend friends to them from inside the program. • “Forums/channels” means that you can transfer information about new posts in forums and channels between you two. Turning it off would mean both of you would have to get the information from someone else instead. • “Anonymous routing” means they would not be trusted to transfer pieces of other people's files, and they would not be able to use you to transfer pieces of files from your other friends to them. This may be the most important to turn off, in case you are worried about being prosecuted for sharing files.
At this point you can click Finish.
4. RetroShare will spend a little bit trying to connect with that friend now. It's wise to have them online when you add them (and add each other around the same time), so the initial connection can be made quickly. Be patient while it attempts to connect, and don't worry if it fails at first, especially if you don't know if the other person has their RetroShare running at that particular moment. Try again and you might have better luck. When it finishes, you'll have a new friend in your Friends tab!
Adding Shared Folders
Shared Folders are how you can allow friends to download files from you. These files could be anything from generic e-books, music, videos, or games to a private project you're working on and sharing results with one or two friends. The Share Manager allows you to control exactly who sees your files so that your privacy is never in danger.
1. To edit the shared directories (using the Share Manager), click on the Add Share button on the left. It looks like a folder with a green plus sign in front of it. 2. Now you see the Share Manager. From the Share Manager, you can add new shared folders, edit existing ones, or remove folders you have shared.
To add a folder, click the Add button at the bottom.
To edit a specific folder, click on the folder in the list first, then click the Edit button at the bottom.
To remove a folder, click on the folder in the list first, then click the Remove button at the bottom.
For this section of the guide, we will assume you are adding a new folder and clicked on Add.
3. Now you should see the Share Folder dialog.
The Share Folder dialog has four main parts to deal with:
a -
b -
c - d - a) Local Path This is where the folder is on your computer. Click on Browse to find a folder. If you don't have one you can share already, create one under your Documents or Downloads folder. You can call it anything you like. “RetroShare” is a good name if you can't think of one. Your friends on RetroShare will not see the name of this folder. b) Virtual Folder This is the name everyone on RetroShare will see for the folder you share. It can be different from the actual name on your computer. For instance, you might call the folder on your computer “RetroShare”, but call it “Shared Files” in the Virtual Folder line, so all your friends will think it's called “Shared Files”. c) Share Flags This lets you control who can “browse the directory” or whether someone can “relay anonymous tunnels to the directory”.
Browsing the directory means that one of your friends can go to see what files you have shared and click on the folder to see the files. They can then choose a file to download directly from you if they like.
Relaying anonymous tunnels means that your friends and their friends can search your files. They won't know for sure that you're the one who has those files if they are searching, but they can find them and download them anonymously.
The reason it is called relaying is because no one but your friends can download from you. If someone (who is not your friend, but is a friend-of-a-friend) wants one of your files and finds it in search, when they try to download it, it causes your mutual friend to “relay” the file by downloading pieces and giving them to the friend-of-a-friend.
Note: Anonymous searching can work up to seven layers of friends from you, so you have no idea who could be seeing those files. You should allow relaying anonymous tunnels only for folders with non- personal files in them.
There are three share flags to control:
• (green folder) You can restrict it so only friends in particular groups can browse the folder. (See more information on groups later.) • (blue folder) You can allow all of your friends to browse the folder. • (weird blue mask) You can allow the folder to be searched anonymously by people up to seven layers deep. By default, every new Shared Folder will have this turned on; be careful to turn it off if you don't want everyone to see it!
For a folder of non-personal files, you probably want to allow everyone to browse and search the folder. You can do that by turning on the blue folder and keeping the weird blue mask showing.
For a folder of personal files that you feel comfortable sharing with everyone you plan on connecting with on RetroShare, turn on the blue folder only, and turn off the weird blue mask. This will allow your friends to browse the folder, but no one will be able to find those files in search (which prevents a friend-of-a-friend from finding them).
For a folder that you want to share with only specific people, you should turn off the weird blue mask, and turn on the green folder. Then you need to choose which groups.
d) Groups You'll notice that this is a list of checkboxes with group names next to it. Your client may have created a default set of groups such as Friends, Family, Co-Workers, and Other Contacts. Or it might have no groups at all. If you have no groups when you go to add a new shared folder, you'll need to create one first before you can limit a folder's access to a specific group. You can create and edit groups from the Friends tab.
To mark which groups are allowed to access the folder you're adding, just check the box next to the group or groups you want.
Note: You don't need to do anything with this section unless the you're turning on the green folder in the flags section.
4. When you have finished with the Share Folder dialog, just click OK at the bottom and your folder will be added to the shares. RetroShare may be slow for a little bit as it “hashes” the files. This means it runs a special calculation the first time you share the files, so that later it can share them with other people very quickly. Below is a sample Share Manager:
You'll notice that they chose to keep the same Virtual Folder name. The Music folder can be browsed and searched by anyone. The Pictures folder has been set up to be limited to specific groups, but because the sample account used did not have any groups set up, they don't have any listed in the green section to the right. (That folder will not work correctly until groups are set up and assigned to it.)
This is an example of what a limited folder with groups specified might look like:
And finally, the Videos folder can be browsed by all their friends, but no one can search it. Chatting with Friends
If you have ever used instant messaging (such as Yahoo, MSN, AOL, or any form of Jabber chat such as Gmail Chat), then you won't find RetroShare's “chatting” to be much different. You type in the box below the conversation and hit Enter or click Send when done, and your message is transmitted to the other person, who can then read it and respond. It's very handy for real-time communication where you need an immediate response.
You can customize the format of messages (such as how time and date are displayed) in the Options. And while you can customize all sorts of aspects of your communication (such as font, font size, and color) from the conversation itself, you can adjust the defaults in the Options. (If you have particular needs, such as large size font or a specific color, you'll want to set the default to something you can tolerate so you don't have to change it every time you start a new conversation.) Fortunately, RetroShare remembers the style you used the previous time with that person.
You'll see your avatar and your friend's avatar on the left side. (Yours is the lower one.) If you haven't selected one, it will be a large blue head figure like the upper avatar above. You can change your avatar just by clicking on it, if you like. The best pictures to use are square. The avatar in chat goes up to 100x100 pixels; anything larger will be shrunk down to that size, and anything smaller will be stretched to fill the space. Below the part of the chat window where your conversation will appear, you can see the box where you type. Underneath that is a row of buttons. They're mostly pretty standard: a way to insert various emoticons, to bold/italicize/underline text (note that currently it seems to apply it to all the text in the message), choose the font, and even text color.
The last three icons are a little different. You'll see an icon of a picture with a green plus sign in front of it. This is supposed to allow one to insert pictures. The author has not had this work, personally, but perhaps someone else has, or it's still being worked on.
The next to last icon shows a folder with a green plus sign in front of it. This is one way to add files to chat. You can also drag and drop the file onto the box you type in. This works very well, and is possibly the simplest way to share files anywhere. The larger the file, the longer the time it'll take before RetroShare turns it into a link. (The pause is because RetroShare is “hashing” the file, running some code to create a string of text from the file that will be used to help your friend download it correctly.)
To download a file from a chat window, simply click on the link to the file. It'll bring up a dialog box asking if you want to “process the link”, which is code for “do you want to download this file?”. Once you click Yes, it will be added to your downloads in the File sharing tab.
The last icon shows a wrench with a dropdown arrow. This lets you manage chat history. Unlike most instant messaging, RetroShare does not save very many messages at a time, so much of your chat history will not be saved unless you want it to be. Indeed, the idea is that you might not want it saved, as the first two options are to clear and even delete the chat history, which would render it impossible for anyone to figure out what you had been discussing. The third option on the dropdown does let you save the chat history as a txt file, which is the format many instant messaging clients store chat history in anyways. The fourth option lets you browse message history, but again, it only stores the last 20 messages by default (you can change that to a larger figure in Options), so you can't view beyond those. The last option is to clear offline messages, which is only active if you have offline messages. Using the News feed Tab
Your News Feed is a one-stop glance at everything new that happens.
Every time a friend connects, it will show up there. The news item gives you shortcut options such as starting a message (e-mail) and starting a chat (instant messaging), so you don't even have to go to the Friends tab to deal with it.
New channel posts (for channels you are subscribed to), new forum posts, new messages, attempts by others (not in your friends list) to connect, all will appear there as well.
You can clear all news using the Remove button at the top, while the Options button is a quick shortcut to the Notify tab in the Options controls, letting you manage exactly which things you want to be notified for. For instance, since the Messages tab icon will change color and show the number of new messages next to it anyway, you may not want new messages listed in your news feed, and could turn that off. Using the Friends Tab
The Friends tab is where you can see which friends are online or not, and you can manage groups of friends. You can manage your keyring (which is where all your friends' certificates are stored), and you can see who is friends of your friends.
The Friends tab is split into two panes. The left pane is where you will spend most of your time, as it lists all your friends. Offline friends are gray, while online friends are shown in blue.
To control layout and viewing options, click the little blue dropdown button in the upper right of the left pane. It lets you hide or show groups, offline friends, and columns such as avatar (the picture you choose to represent you), last contact (when they last connected with you), and IP address. To manage friends, right click on a friend and you will see a context menu appear.
On the left below is the context menu that appears when you click on the friend.
On the right below is the context menu that appears when you click on the friend's location; you can get to this by clicking on the plus sign next to the friend's name.
They are very similar, but you will notice several differences.
The options below are found on both menus:
Friend / Location: This is the menu title; you'll notice you can't seem to select anything when you click on it.
Chat: This starts an instant messaging session with that person. You can type messages back and forth as if you were having a live conversation.
Message Friend: This opens up something similar to a blank e-mail. (To learn more about messages, read the section of this guide about the Messages tab.)
Friend Details: This pulls up the Friend Details dialog. You can look at your friend's name, their RetroShare ID, or their PGP fingerprint (these are details the program uses to keep people from being confused with someone else). You can edit your “trust” in them (there is little documentation on what this is for, so don't worry about it for now). You can look at their certificate. And finally, you can edit the service permissions you gave them when you added them. Recommend this Friend to...: This opens up a message (aka e-mail) all set up so all you have to do is decide who you want to recommend the friend to, and perhaps edit the text of the message. The person who receives the message can simply click on a link to the certificate within the message, and they can add a new friend that way. It is far easier to add friends like this than by exchanging certificates manually.
Attempt to connect: This option lets you force RetroShare to try connecting again; useful if your earlier attempts at connecting to your friend were unsuccessful.
Paste certificate link: This is only clickable if you have previously copied a certificate link. Again, you might use this to help friends connect inside the program.
Expand all: This expands every group and friend so you can see all of them.
Collapse all: This collapses all the groups so you see just the group names and any friends not in a group.
These options are only available when right-clicking on the friend name:
Deny Friend: This is only visible when you have the main friend name selected. To deny a friend is to remove them from your friends list.
Groups: This is where you manage your friend groups. You can: • Create new group (you will want to do this when you first start if there aren't any automatic groups) • Add to group (this adds them to a specific—already created— group, but does not take them out of their old group) • move the friend to a specific group (which takes them out of the group they were in when you selected their name) • remove from group (this takes them out of the group they were in) • remove from all groups (this takes them out of every group they were in and leaves them outside of the groups; you can find them at the bottom of the list) These options are only available when right-clicking on the friend's location:
Copy certificate link: This can be useful in helping friends connect with each other.
Remove Friend Location: This is only visible when you have selected the friend's location. You will likely not need to do this unless a friend tells you to; it would be necessary only if they changed locations but kept the same key, a process that is uncommon and difficult for new users.
The panel on the right side of the Friends tab has several useful things. First, you can easily choose or change your avatar (picture) by clicking on the square to the left of your name. The picture should be a square, and can be as large as 100x100 pixels. Although it looks smaller at the top of the right panel here, it is displayed at 100x100 pixels when you chat with (instant message) someone.
Below your name is a symbol of a pencil. You can click on this to choose a status message—a short, simple description of what you're up to. It can be funny or serious, quirky or even useful. Broadcast: This lets you type a message that all your connected friends will see at the same time.
Local network: This tab displays a visual concept of your local network. You are the yellow node at the center, and lines show connections between you and other people. You can also see which of your friends have friended each other. You can click and drag to move nodes around to see better.
At the bottom of the Local network tab, you'll see an option called “Friendship level”. If you increase this to 2, you can see people who are friends of your friends, but who you have not friended yourself. Remember that other people can do the same thing.
The other option at the bottom of the Local network tab is “Edge length”, which controls how large the network looks. You can increase or decrease the number to change that.
Keyring: This allows you to manage your friends' certificates. You can remove them permanently here. You will only need to do this if someone has lost their account permanently; then you can remove them here so they won't clutter up your account with friends who will never be able to log on and connect with you. At that point, they'll just need to create a new account. and start over. Using the File sharing Tab
The File sharing tab, which also is called File Transfers, is where you can monitor, start, and stop downloads and uploads of files.
There are four main sections of the File sharing tab:
Downloads: This is where you can see the files you are downloading or uploading. At times you may see a file transfer in the Uploads tab that you did not start with a name of random letters and numbers (starting with fc-own-). This is perfectly normal; it's how RetroShare updates people with their friends' shared folders lists. One reason you were recommended to increase the time in between auto-checking shared folders is because frequent checks mean more frequent transfers of folder updates, which can be a problem with people who have low bandwidth limits or caps. Search: Here is where you can search for files and get results from as far away as seven layers of friends from yourself. You can choose which of the following are included: files you can browse, files that are found only in friend-of-a-friend folders, and files you are sharing yourself. You can also control the maximum number of results and the type of file searched for. When you see files you want, it's easy to download; a setting at the bottom even allows you to select multiple files and click one button to download them all at once.
Friends files: Here is where you can browse the files your friends have shared. If your friend has a shared folder, there will be a plus sign next to their name. Click on it to expand, and you can see which folders they have shared and what files are in them.
At the top right of this tab, you'll see options to switch between tree view and flat view (it defaults to tree view, which is far easier to work with than flat view), to filter visible files by date (useful if you need to look for only recent files), and a one-click button to download whichever files are selected.
My files: Here is where you can browse your own shared files. Each folder you have available is shown here in alphabetical order by the Virtual Folder name you chose.
The top right of this tab has the same options about tree view vs. flat view and for filtering by date, but the Download button is replaced by a “check files” button. This is how you can force RetroShare (whenever you click on it) to check your files and update the list of files your friends see available. When you do this, you will likely see an upload with the changes (starting with fc-own-) going out to whichever friends are connected at that time. Friends who were not connected when your files were checked will download the update as soon as they connect to you again. Using the Chat Lobbies Tab
The Chat Lobbies tab is RetroShare's equivalent of chatrooms. Each “chat lobby” is given a name and a topic (what you're supposed to be talking about). When you join a chat lobby, you can choose a different nickname from your account name.
Chat lobbies can be public or private. Public chat lobbies are visible to your friends; they can see when you create one and join it on their own. Private chat lobbies are invisible except to the friends you have invited.
To chat in a chat lobby, simply find the one you want from the list of public and private ones, and join it. When you create a chat lobby or subscribe to one, a third option will appear (Private Subscribed Lobbies or Public Subscribed Lobbies, whichever the case may be). The author has not been able to test chat lobbies enough to know what the advantages of subscribing are.
Note: A chat lobby will exist only as long as there are people in them. When everyone has left a chat lobby, it will quickly disappear from the list. Using the Messages Tab
You might recognize that the Messages tab looks a lot like your e-mail. That is because this is RetroShare's equivalent of e-mail. It even has folders like Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Sent, and Trash. Currently there is no way to create or delete folders, but that ability may appear in a later version of the program.
The buttons along the top may be somewhat intuitive. If not, you can hover over them to see what they are. The blue display icon on the right of the buttons lets you turn on text next to the buttons, which is helpful if you have a hard time remembering what is what.
Here is an explanation of the first few:
New Message: This is where you start a new RetroShare e-mail. (RetroShare calls e-mails Messages, which can be slightly confusing at first.)
Reply to selected message: This starts a reply to the sender of the message you have selected.
Reply to all: This starts a reply to everyone who the selected message was sent to.
Forward selected message: This forwards the selected message to people you choose.
Other buttons let you tag, delete, or print messages. A set of default tags are present, and use color coding to help you quickly recognize what tag is assigned to each message. You can create your own tags (and assign colors) as well.
One of the most useful aspects of the messages system is that you can recommend friends to other friends using RetroShare Certificate links in messages. You can do this in a new message by selecting the friend you want to recommend from the Contacts list on the left, and clicking the Recommend button instead of the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons below it.
The other very useful aspect of the messages system is the ability to “attach” files to messages. Unlike standard e-mails, however, the files will not be downloaded by the recipient unless they choose to download them. This eliminates the problem of waiting for an e-mail with a large attachment to download before receiving the rest of one's e-mail.
Attached files show up in messages at the bottom under the section titled Recommended Files. You can download by right-clicking and choosing to download the selected file or all files. If you know you want all of the files, there is a button on the right side of the Recommended Files panel that will let you download all the files in the message.
Because the files did not actually come with the message, you will only be able to download them when the sender of the message is online. Using the Channels Tab
The Channels tab is RetroShare's equivalent of RSS feeds. If you have never used an RSS feed and have no idea what it is, the simplest explanation is that it's a way of delivering content (such as news updates) to you instead of you going to the website.
Channels work like this:
One person creates a channel about a certain topic. It could be a daily blog of whatever they happen to think of. It could be a weekly update for a cross-country or international trip they're taking. It could be on-the-ground news from a political hot spot. Whatever it is, they are communicating it to anyone who is interested, who can then subscribe to it, much like one would subscribe to a newspaper. Restricted channels allow everyone to read them, but limit publishing to people who have the Private Publish Key. Private channels allow only specific people to read.
When a new post is made to a channel, every subscriber who is connected will receive it immediately from their friends, and pass it on to any other subscriber who gets on later, providing they're friends.
To create a new channel, click on the button on the right of the left panel that shows a TV with a green plus sign in front of it:
This will bring up the Create a new Channel dialog. You will need to create a name for the channel and a description (for others to read to know what you are “blogging” about).
You will need to decide if you want to make the channel public or private. A public channel will get more viewers, but could be visible by people who are not your friends. A private channel will be limited to only people that you invite personally. You can also choose a channel logo, which should be a square no larger than 100x100 pixels.
Note: Channels and their updates will not last forever. After a month, the posts to each channel will disappear from memory. If there is information you want saved, you'll need to copy it somewhere else. Channels themselves will disappear after a while if not updated.
You can attach files to a post in a channel, which allows anyone seeing that channel to download the file. Using the Forums Tab
RetroShare's use of forums is very similar to forums or message boards online. The biggest difference is that posts to a forum will eventually disappear after a year; should you want to keep information from a forum, you'll need to copy it somewhere else.
The button to create a new forum is in the same place as the one to create a new channel—in the upper right of the left panel. It's simply the symbol for forums with a green plus sign in front of it.
Forums need a name and a description. You also need to decide if it will be public or private; private forums require invitation to read them.
Key Sharing means you can share the ability to post new messages with someone else.
Allowed messages gives you two options. Authenticated messages means you sign it with your key, showing anyone who reads it that you are who you say you are. Anonymous messages means you can post a message and no one has any idea who posted it. Tips & Tricks (and Troubleshooting)
Here are a few things that people have learned from using RetroShare, presented in FAQ format:
I can't connect with my friend!
Double-check that you each have each other's certificates imported into your RetroShare clients, that you're both logged into RetroShare, and that the Internet is working correctly for both of you. If one of you doesn't have the other person's certificate, you will be unable to connect.
My friend can't seem to send me this file.
Right-click on your friend's name in the friends list. Look at the services tab and make sure “direct source” is checked. Make sure your friend does the same thing on their end.
I'm running a Mac. Is there anything unusual about RetroShare on Macs?
The font size is fairly small overall, compared to the size of the font on Windows or Linux. Also, it is very difficult to find chat windows if they get hidden. Mac users have reported that it does not act like a Mac program, so expect some oddness.
My chat doesn't seem to remember the font style I use with this particular friend!
Try typing a character and then backspacing. Now when you type, your usual style should kick in. For some reason it doesn't always remember the style first thing.