Interface
News-Feed
The News Feed diplays the last events on your network, sorted by the time you received them. This gives you a summary of the activity of your friends. You can configure which events to show by pressing on Options.
The various events shown are:
- Connection attempts (useful to make friends with new people and cotnrol who's trying to reach you)
- Channel and Forum posts
- New Channel and Forums you can subscribe to
- Private messages from your friends
This shows an entry in the newsfeed because a friend came online,
and this friend sent a message.
Network
The Network tab shows your friend RetroShare nodes: the neighbor RetroShare nodes that are connected to you.
You can group noed together to allow a finer level of information access, for instance to only allow some nodes to see some of your files.
On the right, you will find 3 useful tabs:
- Broadcast
sends messages to all connected nodes at once - Local network graph
shows the network around you, based on discovery information - Keyring
contains node keys you collected, mostly forwarded to you by your friend nodes
The Red Queen is having a friend in here Network/Friendlist.
It's the User Bunny and RedQueen is connected to both of his Locations.
Bunny runs two different locations. One for each of his device.
The location shelter is running on his laptop, and the location hole
is on his personal Computer.
Change Avatar
By clicking on the default Avatar Icon you can set your avatar picture
to any picture you prefer.
Only your friends will be able to see it. You can also change it later on.
Status Message
Your status message will be shown in the Network/Friendlist of your friends
beside your Avatar.
Friendlist
Friends are sorted by name or by state.
The columns with the last contact and ip can be enabled with right click.
Broadcast
The Broadcast Chat sends a message to all online friends at once.
Network Graph
The network graph shows all friends and their interconnections.
Bunny has friended with Alice and RedQueen.
Keyring
RetroShare collects keys from other nodes in the network,
mostly forwarded by friends.
Columns of the Keyring
- Do you accept connections signed by this key
- Name of the Key
- This column indicates the trust level and wheter you signed their key
- Did that peer sign your key
- Certificate ID
- Last time this certificate has been used
Colours
- Yellow is your own Key
- Green are Friends
- Grey are Persons
People
Identities are used to securely identify your data: sign messages in chat lobbies, forum and channel posts, receive feedback using RetroShare built-in email system, post comments after channel posts, chat using secured tunnels, etc.
Identities
Two kinds of Identities can be utilized.
Click the
Icon to create a new Identity
Pseudonymous Identities
Identities can optionally be signed by your RetroShare node's certificate. Signed identities are easier to trust but are easily linked to your node's IP address.
- Identiy Name
Name of the Identity. It is not necessary to use the same name as
your Node User. But it's common. - Identity ID
Each Identity has it's own crypto hash ID number. - Type
Owned by you and linked to your RetroShare Node. Instead of Anonymous - Owner Node ID
GPG-ID Number used by your Node - Owner Node Name
User Name of your Node User - Last Used
Last time the Identity has been in use. This can be a forum post or anything else. - Your opinion
Your opininon on your owned ID is Neutral. This is used to rate other ID's for a reputation system. - Auto-Ban all identities from this node
Ban all ID's from a specific node. - Neighbor nodes
Average opinion of neighbor nodes about this identity. Negative is bad, positive is good. Zero is neutral. - Overall
Overall reputation score, accounting for yours and your friends'. Negative is bad, positive is good. Zero is neutral. If the score is too low, the identity is flagged as bad, and will be filtered out in forums, chat lobbies, channels, etc.
Anonymous Identities
Anonymous identities allow you to anonymously interact with other users. They cannot be spoofed, but noone can prove who really owns a given identity.
- Identity Name
Name of the Identity. Can be named anything. - Identity ID
Each Identity has it's own crypto hash ID number. - Type
Anonymous identity - Last Used
Last time the Identity has been in use. This can be a forum post or anything else. - Your opinion
Your opininon on your owned ID is Neutral. This is used to rate other ID's for a reputation system. - Neighbor nodes
Average opinion of neighbor nodes about this identity. Negative is bad, positive is good. Zero is neutral. - Overall
Overall reputation score, accounting for yours and your friends'. Negative is bad, positive is good. Zero is neutral. If the score is too low, the identity is flagged as bad, and will be filtered out in forums, chat lobbies, channels, etc.
Circles
Circles are groups of identities (anonymous or signed), that are shared at a distance over the network. They can be used to restrict the visibility to forums, channels, etc.
A circle can be restricted to another circle, thereby limiting it's visibility to members of that circle or even self-restricted, meaning that it is only visible to invited members.
Create Circles
Click the
Icon to create a new Identity
Public
Publicly distributed circles, are visible to your friends, which will get to know the circle data (Creator, members, etc)Private
Private (a.k.a. self-restricted) circles are only visible to the invited members of these circles. In practice the circle uses its own list of invited members to limit its own distribution.Only visible to members of another Circle
Circles can be restricted to the members of another circle. Only the members of that second circle will be allowed to see the new circle and its contents (list of members, etc).- Invited Members
Members of this list will be automatically proposed to join the circle (by accepting membership). They will not receive data that is restricted to this circle until they do so.
The circle name, contact author and invited member list will be visible to all invited members. If the cricle is not private, it will also be visible to neighbor nodes of the nodes who host the invited members.
Join Circles
Accept your circle invitation by right clicking
File Sharing
RetroShare birngs two ways fo transferring files:
- direct file transfers from your friends
- distant anonymous tunneled transfers
In addition, file transfer is multi-source and allows swarming (you can be source while downloading).
In this Screenshot, the files are not yet finished and still start to upload to other friends.
Download
Columns from the Download Tab
- Name
Name of the file - Size
Size of the downloaded - Completed
already downloaded size - Speed
actual speed of the download -
Progress / Availability
each Chunk (1 Chunk = 1MB part) is shows it status by colour- Blue - already finished
- Red - active download
- Yellow - calculating checksums
- empty - not downloaded yet
-
Sources
active sources in brackets the total number of available files in the network - Status
- Waiting
- Downloading
- Paused
manually paused state, can be resumed also - Checking
calculating checksums of all Chunks of the Download - Completed
The Download has finished, and should be available in the Download Directorie
- Speed / Queue position
- Faster
- Average
- Slower
- Remaining
remaining file size to download till it's finished - Download Time
estimated time to finish the download - Hash
Hash number of the file SHA1 - Last Time Seen
last time when the source of this file has been available - Path
destination folder
Multiple Sources
Multi Sources are shown in the Sources Column and can be displayed in detail by clicking the dropdown button
active source transferring data
no data currently transferring
Context Menu
By right-clicking on the download, the Context menu provides actions to the user.
- Priority
- Chunk Strategy
- Rename file...
- Set destination directory
Set the directory where the file should be put when it's completed - Pause
Pause the download and resume it later - Force Check
Trigger a check of the checksums manually - Cancel
Stop the download - Open Folder
Open the Folder where the file has been downloaded - Details...
show Details from the download. - Clear Completed
removes finished downloads, and removes them from the Download Tab - Copy RetroShare Link
copy the RetroShare Link to the Clipboardretroshare://file?name=RetroShare-0.6.1-Windows-Portable-20161005-d020d8d8-Qt-5.7.0-dev.7z&size=20476577&hash=d5d91d4ec9438c6df2dcbd9236d4faebd2eef75d
- Expand all
Open all downloads with multi source dropdown buttons - Collapse all
Collapes all downloads with open multisources - Collection
- download from .rscollection files
You can share files using the "Directory Plus" icon from the left side bar. These files will be listed in the My Files tab. You can decide for each friend group wheter they can or not see these files in their Friends Files tab.
The search tab reports files from your friends' file lists, and distant files that can be reached anonymously using the multi-hop tunneling system.
Upload
Columns from the Upload Tab
- Name
Name of the uploaded File - Size
Size of the uploaded File - Transferred
Already transferred File - Speed
Speed of the upload - Progress
Progress Map of the transferred Chunks - Status
Status of the Upload - Peer
virtual peer - Hash
Hash of the uploaded File - UserID
UserID of the Peer
File Search
RetroShare can search in the Network for shared files.
- Advanced
Add detailed search criterias - Browsable Files
Search in Browsable shared directories from direct friends - Distant
Search in Anonymous Shared directories in the network - Own Files
Search in your own Shared directories - Clear Clear the search results
Search Results
- Filename Shows a Mime Type and the File name of the result
- Size
Shows the size of the result - Sources
available sources - Type Mime Type
- Age
last time seen online - Hash
SHA1 Hash of the file
Friends Files
When Friends share directories browsable,
it's possible to browse them.
By right-clicking you can
- Download
download entire folder structures - Create .rscollection's
The entire Folder structure and the files get downloaded.
My Files
By clicking on the
icon, the Share Manager opens. In the Share Manager it's possible to create
virtual Shares for different directories and grant different permission rolls.
For details on permission levels, share flags and share manager please go to Settings/Directories.
Chat Lobbies
Chat lobbies are distributed chat rooms, and work pretty much like
IRC or
XMPP/Jabber.
They allow you to talk anonymously with tons of people without the need to make friends.
Chatrooms are decentralized and serverless. This means they do not require
a central server and are shared between direct friends.
All participants receive all messages.
Once the lobby is created you can invite other friends from the friends tab.
Types of Chat Rooms
- Public Chatrooms
You can join all chatrooms which are subscribed by your friends.
Your friends will be able to join all chatrooms which you have subscribed. - Private Chatrooms
This chatrooms is only visible and shared to invited members. Your friends can't see it, unless you invite them. Once you have been invited to a private lobby, you will be able o see it when your friends are using it.
Chat Room Creation
Click the
Icon to create a new Chat room.
- Lobby name
The name of the Chatroom. It can't be changed afterwards. - Lobby topic
A welcome message in the Lobby room. It can't be changed afterwards. - Identiy to use
This needs to be one of your identies created in People - Visibility
For a list of Chatroom see Types - Security
If you check this, only PGP-signed ids can be used to join and talk in this lobby. This limitation prevents anonymous spamming as it becomes possible for at least some people in the lobby to locate the spammer's node. - Contacts
Initially send invitations to online friends of your Node. Only direct friends can join with their Identities.
The choosen contacts will be invited to the join the chatroom with an identity.
- Choose an identity for this lobby:
The Friend Bunny has joined the newly created Chatroom and starts chatting. Now all Friends of
The Public Chatroom propagates to all Friends of Bunny and they can join as well.
Join Existing Chatrooms
Join existing chatrooms by double clicking or right-clicking.
Right click offers following possibilities
- Enter this lobby
Joins the Chatroom - Add Auto Subscribe
Joins the Chatroom and adds auto subscribe. So this Chatroom will be joined also after each restart again. - Columns
- Count
Shows a count of members in this Chatroom - Topic
Displays the Topic - Subscribed
If you are already subscribed or not
- Count
Chat Room Usage
Note: For the chat lobbies to work properly, your computer needs be on time. So check your systems clock!
Chat Window
invite
invite friends to this chatroomleave
leave the chatroomsmileys
choose one of these smileys
attach picture
attach a picture into your chat messageattach file
attach files from your computer into your chat messagesettings
- Clear Chat History
emptys the chat window - Delete Chat History
deletes stored - Save Chat History
Save Chat History to a file - Browse Message History Browse the already saved Message History
- Set text font color Change your color and font
- Switch Identity
Change your Identity
- Clear Chat History
search
Search the Chatroom Messages for a keywordsend
Send your typed message to the Chatroom
Participant List
All Members of the Chatroom are shown in the list at the left.
Chat Status Button
The coloured circle shows the status of the participant
Yellow
This is your own identityGreen
Active, this Identity has been in use in the last 300 secondsGrey
This Identity is not active in this chatroom.
Chat ID Tooltip
Hover with your mouse over the ID and some information will pop up in the tooltip.
Chat ID Actions
When you right-click on the Chat ID, an additional context menu will popup and show some actions.
- Start private chat
Opens a distant chat to that person - Send Message
Opens the message composer to send a mail to this Identity - Sort by Activity
- Sort by Name
- Mute participant
Mute the participant in this room - Ban this person (sets negative opinion)
Bans the whole Identity. Does not display Content (Forum posts, Channel messages, posted links, ... ) neither does the content of this person get's forwarded to friends anymore.
Messages
RetroShare has its own internal email system. You can send/receive emails to/from connected friend nodes.
It is also possible to send messages to other people's Identities using the global routing system. These messages are always encrypted and signed, and are relayed by intermediate nodes until they reach their final destination.
Distant messages stay into your Outbox untial an acknowledgment of receipt has been received.
Generally, you mey use messages to recommended files to your friends by pasting file links, or recommend friend nodes to other friend nodes, in order to strenghten your networ, or send feedback to a channel's owner.
Channels
Channels allow you to post data (e.g. movies, music) that will spread the network.
You can see the channels your friends are subscribed to, and you automatically forward subscribed channels to your friends. This promotes good channels in the network.
Only the channel's creator can post on that channel. Other peers in the network can only read from it, unless the channel is private. You can however share the posting rights or the reading rights with friend RetroShare nodes.
Channels can be made anonymous, or attached to a RetroShare identity so that readers can contact you if needed. Enable "Allow Comments" if you want to let users comment on your posts.
Channel posts get deleted after 4 months.
Create a Channel
When RetroShare starts, there are no Channels available initially.
To Create a new Channel click on the
Create Button.
Following Settings can be done for Channels
- Name
Name of the Channel - Icon
An Icon which will be shown - Owner
Choose a GXS-ID Identity to have the Channel signed. - Message Distribution
Public
Message will spread way beyond your friend nodes, as long as people subscribe to the channel/forum/posted you're creating.Restricted to Circle
Message will spread among RetroShare nodes that host one of the identities listed as member of the circle and who also subscribe the media. Only these nodes will be able to see that this forum/channel/posted media exists.Only For Your Friends
Messages will only be distributed to the selected subset of your friend nodes. They will not forward messages with each other, but only use your own node as a central hub to distribute them.
- Description
- Comments
- Allow Comments
- No Comments
The newly created Channel will be shared to your friends. They can subscribe it and re-share it to their friends.
Subscribe a Channel
When your friends share a channel to you, it will be available in Popular Channels
or Other Channels.
Rightclick the Channel and choose the
Subscribe Button in the context menu.
Post to Channel
Click the
Post to Channel Button to create a new Post.
Set the title, a description, maybe an icon and attach the files you want to share in your channel.
When you save your Channel Posts they should line up and get transfered to
yoru friends.
Forums
RetroShare Forums look like internet forums, but they work in a decentralized way.
You see forums your friends are subscribed to, and you forward subscribed forums to your friends. This automatically promotes interresting forums in the network. Forum messages get deleted after 12 months.
Forum Settings
- Name
Name of the Forum - Owner
Owner of the Forum - Add Forum Admins
Key recipients can publish to restricted-type group and can view and publish for private-type channels.
Forum Message Distribution
Public
Message will spread way beyond your friend nodes, as long as people subscribe to the channel/forum/posted you're creating.Restricted to Circle
Message will spread among RetroShare nodes that host one of the identities listed as member of the circle and who also subscribe the media. Only these nodes will be able to see that this forum/channel/posted media exists.Only For Your Friends
Messages will only be distributed to the selected subset of your friend nodes. They will not forward messages with each other, but only use your own node as a central hub to distribute them.
Description
Spam Protection
- Posts permissions
This combo box allows you to choose how posts are handled depending on the node the poster belongs to. - All allowed
all posts are treated equally - Defavor posts from unsigned IDs
anonymous IDs will require a reputation of 0.4 to be received/forwarded. - Defavor posts from unsigned IDs and IDs from unknown nodes
anonymous IDs and IDs signed by unknown RetroShare nodes will require a reputation of 0.4 to be received/forwarded.
Create Forums
click the
button, and fill in the name and select a Message Distribution Type.
Your newly created Forum will be available at My Forums
Empty new Forum without any Threads
Post new Thread
click on the
icon to create a new post.
Reply a Post
click on the
icon to create a new post.
Forum Details
My Forums
Subscribed Forums
Popular Forums
-
Other Forums
-
Post Thread
- Thread Title
- Forum View
- Last Post
- Threaded View
- Flat View
Post Reply
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Download All
Next unread
-
Forum Sort
- Sort by Name
- Sort by Popularity
- Sort by Last Post
- Sort by Posts
Posted
Plugin Posted
FeedReader
The posted service allows to share internet links, that spread among RetroShare nodes like forums and channels.
Links can be commented by subscribed users. A promotion system also gives the opportunity to enlight important links.
There is no restriction on which links are shared. Be carefull when clicking on them.
Posted links get deleted after 4 months.
Add
Options
The Options/Settings are explained more detailed here.
About
About
The about section shows the RetroShare version and Revision and Qt Version
About RetroShare
Contains a small description and links to:
- RetroShare WebSite
- legacy WebSite on SourceForge has been renewed
- legacy Wiki on SourceForge
- RetroShare Organization on GitHub
- RetroShare Forum
- DevBlog
- Twitter
Authors
Over the years lot of different People have helped to improve RetroShare.
To be named in front:
Lead Developer csoler
Founder drBob
and many many more
Thanks to
nanos gigantum humeris insidentes - dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants
RetroShare couldn't exist without the building upon the work of other great projects.
Translation
License Agreement
Quit
To close RetroShare click on the quit button and choose yes at the popup.