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How it works

When you first start Gazzera, you obtain a GID, which is your unique identifier in Gazzera. It's in the form: Nickname@hash@address:port (with address and port optional), for example MSX@b5c4dcd2ee759b8edd0a841aaca1711d@80.25.75.115:25027. The hash is obtained from your SSL certificate and therefore cannot be used by anyone else.

To connect to a friend, you have add his GID to your Gazzera node with the Add Friend button, and he must do the same with yours.

When someone connects to your node, his hash is checked in your friends list. If it's found then the connection is accepted. This happens at SSL handshake level so no protocol is exposed, making it impossible to even tell if there is a Gazzera node running or anything else.

When you are connected to someone, you can make searches or browse his shares, and of course download files, exchange messages, etc.

Trusting a friend

You can give a friend your trust by changing his "trust status".

When a friend is trusted, he will appear with a small heart icon on your friend list. When he is online, any other person who is also trusting him will be able to connect and share files with you. This is a mechanism to enable you to discover new friends and enlarge your network horizon. If you think a "friend of friend" is a good user, you can add it as friend and ask him to add you, so you'll be regular friends and will connect even when the trusted intermediary is not avaiable.

Icon legend

Online	Offline	Description
		This is a regular friend. You will connect with him automatically.
		This is a trusted friend. You will connect to him and to any of his friends who is also trusting him.
		This is a someone who is not your friend but is eligible of connecting, becouse you have a trusted friend in common.
		This is a stranger. He is someone your node knows about for any reason, maybe someone who added you as friend recently or such. He will usually not be able to connect to you unless a trusted intermediary is online.
		This is a person you banned. He will never be allowed to connect to you, no matter what.

Connectivity

Gazzera does its best to find and connect to all your online friends. When you first add a friend, you can optionally provide an IP address and a port. To cope with changing ip addresses or unknown addresses, Gazzera also implements an "address finding" protocol that ensures that you can find any node as long as you have a common friend already connected. It also protects your privacy as the requests are encrypted and do not disclose your private friend network.

File avaiability

Gazzera is not a public network. You will only share file with people you know, and has no routing among nodes. This means that you'll not be able to find as much content as in public networks like emule. On the other side, you'll be able to browse your friend shares much like a network filesystem and you'll have closer control on the traffic.

Current status

The program is still in development, but a fairly usable version is avaiable, with all major features working. It has many rough edges.

How to run

• Windows: run the installer, go to Start Menu and run gazzera. A first time setup should appear. Configure it and start adding friends.
• Debian & Ubuntu: install the deb package, go to your application menu and start gazzera. A first time setup should appear. Configure it and start adding friends.
• Other Linux: unzip the tar.gz to any folder, and run ./gazzera. A first time setup should appear. Configure it and start adding friends.