DC++ is an open-source file-sharing protocol mainly differentiated from other protocols by the fact that users share complete files and download the entire file from a single user by means of a direct connection. Some clients actually defy this and allow you to download the same file from multiple users, but they are in the minority. For a more complete overview of the protocol itself, see the wikipedia article on the subject.
There are multiple DC++ hubs around the world. The Cal hub is special because all the users are on the Berkeley network, and as a result, the data transferred does not count against a user's weekly bandwidth allowance.
Contents
Getting a client
First, download a DC++ client.
- Official Windows client
- Shakespeer – probably the only Mac OS X client that's still actively developed
Note that if you're using a Mac OS earlier than 10.4, you will need to download version 0.8.5 and not the latest version.
Setting up
Once you've downloaded your client, you need to set it up to connect to the Cal network. The basic settings are:
Hub address: caldchub.no-ip.com Username: anything you want Password: leave blank
More detailed instructions are below.
Windows
(b) Set the upload slots to 3 or 4 (this controls how many users can download from you at the same time)
Now click OK to save the settings. Immediately after you add shared folders, DC++ will hash the files in it so that they can be shared. In order to connect to the Cal hub, you must have at least 1 GB of hashed files.
The last thing you need to do is add the hub to your "Favorite hubs" list. To do this, click on the Add new Favorite hub toolbar button and fill in the following info:
Name: Berkeley Hub Address: caldchub.no-ip.com
Then, click OK, then click the CHECKBOX next to the Berkeley Hub
Mac OS
After downloading Shakespeer, open the program.
- Go to Shakespeer→Preferences...
- Fill out the fields to your pleasing
- Click on Share
- Choose the download folders. They can be identical.
- Add folders to share. One of them should also be the downloads folder.
- Set Upload slots to be 3 or 4
- Close the Preferences window
- Click on Bookmarks in the Navigation pane
- Click New at the bottom of the window. Enter
caldchub.no-ip.comas the address. Check the box next to the address you just filled in. - It will take some time for Shakespeer to hash your files. You can check the progress at any time by going to Window→Show Server Messages; when hashing is done, finished hashing all files will be displayed there. Note that in order to connect to the Cal hub, you must have at least 1 GB of hashed files.
Linux
Type this into a terminal:
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.linuxdcpp.berlios.de:/cvsroot/linuxdcpp login (leave the password blank, press Enter) cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.linuxdcpp.berlios.de:/cvsroot/linuxdcpp co linuxdcpp
Now you will have the current CVS checkout of the Linux DC++ client. It uses scons as its build system, not make, so you will probably need to install that (for example, using apt-get install scons or whatever other package manager you use). To build it, just issue this command:
scons
It will require a lot of development libraries. Big ones are the GTK+, glade, and bzip2 header files. Normally for your distro this will be the package name with a -dev or -devel appended. For example, in Fedora Core, you would install the package gtk2-devel to get the GTK+ header files. As listed in the readme file, the dependencies are:
scons >= 0.96 pkg-config g++ >= 3.4 gtk+-2.0 >= 2.6 gthread-2.0 >= 2.4 libglade-2.0 >= 2.4 pthread zlib libbz2
Of course, the names of the packages will be different for your distro. If you need help finding out the names, try asking politely on IRC.
After building the package, there will be an executable named linuxdcpp in your current working directory. Run it (e.g. with ./linuxdcpp) and enjoy.
Unofficial Advice from Rescomp
Hi. I am an RCC in one of the units and want to give some unofficial advice to residents using the Cal hub. First of all, the disclaimer you see after connecting about section 431.322.12 of the Internet Privacy Act is bogus. If you are sharing copyrighted files you can be sued, no matter what anyone else says. This particular gem has been floating around the net for a while, Google it if you want to find out more.
Second of all, please, please do not connect to public hubs, using DC++ or any other file transfer program, especially BitTorrent. The way our security system works is that certain IP addresses are blacklisted by SNS, and if your computer makes any sort of connection to a blacklisted IP address you will be automatically kicked off the Berkeley network, and you will have to talk to an RCC about it. For example, if you are downloading a torrent and one of the peers is some computer that we have identified as being part of a botnet, then you could get a SCUNC (security) tag and be temporarily kicked off the network.
As others have mentioned, bandwidth does not count against you when it is on the same subet. Actually, this is not limited only to the Berkeley network. UCB only pays for commercial bandwidth, so any bandwidth directed to other academic/research institutions that doesn't have to travel over commercial backbones will (probably) not count against you. (Note to the hub admins: traffic to and from other Berkeley networks, e.g. Airbears does not count against bandwidth, and there is no reason to block those IPs, hint hint.)
Again, this is not official Rescomp advice, but sharing files on DC++ is pretty safe. Unlike BitTorrent, Kazaa, or whatever you kids are using these days, traffic on the Cal hub does not get routed outside our network. That means that you cannot be passively monitored for file sharing. In theory, at a later date Rescomp could be subpoenaed and we would have to let the RIAA/MPAA or whoever onto the Berkeley network, but this is a fairly unlikely possibility. If you are going to download files, please do not use these public file transfer programs. The copyright list here gets about a dozen or so emails a day for people with copyright violations. If that happens to you your internet connection will be temporarily revoked, and
Please do not ask RCCs for help sharing files. We cannot and will not help you.