IPFS Support GA Now

friedkiwi

We have just completed the introduction of IPFS support to WinWorldPC for most of the file sets available.

What is IPFS?

IPFS, or InterPlanetary FileSystem is a peer-to-peer distributed file system. It's distributed, so the data is spread across multiple nodes, and it's peer-to-peer, reducing the complexity to set up a node.

Why use IPFS?

Using IPFS means that we are relieving the load on our servers, and allows faster downloading of our content due to the use of the Cloudflare IPFS Gateway by default. It also allows us to easily host the content transparently from multiple servers, allowing you to download your files faster and more reliably.

Why would I download a file from WinWorldPC through IPFS?

It's faster! Most WinWorldPC mirrors will max out on about 100mbps, and using IPFS would allow you to download files at much faster speeds. In addition to this, IPFS downloads do not count towards your daily download limit.

Currently, the IPFS functionality on WinWorldPC is still in beta. Hiccups may happen - if they do, please report them so we can improve our service.

Booboo64

Last sentence states " Currently, the IPFS functionality on WinWorldPC is still in beta" , however title states "GA Now". Could you please update?

Duff

I've had a lot of people asking how to become a mirror/node for IPFS. I didn't have a concrete answer until now. Thanks to Discord user Tara, here are some simple instructions on how to create a IPFS node hosting the entire WinWorld library. You could also use these same instructions to host a small subset, it's entirely up to you!

This was written assuming the use of Linux, but it's easily adapted to Windows use cases.

Instructions

Here is how to upload the files in a way that you get the exact same hash, and therefore functional links on the website.

1. Obtain a copy of the mirror files, or the subset of files you wish to host. Contact me to arrange this, you'll need the ability to pull files via rsync over SSH or SFTP.
   
2. Generate a filelist of the directory find $(pwd) -type f > /tmp/files.list
3. Loop over the directory and add them to IPFS.

   while read F
   do
     ipfs add --pin -w /path/to/mirrored/files/"$F"
   done < /tmp/files.list

4. That's it!

@friedkiwi uploaded each file in its own folder, which is what the -w option does, wraps the file into its own folder. I have no idea if this is precisely how he uploaded them originally, but it worked and i have no need to sort the files really.

mariogar1979

Hi @Duff, please read my DM, a need to access the repo for init the Brazilian mirror on IPFS.

Yuds2003

How do I get IPFS working?

mariogar1979

@Yuds2003 For client use, only install IPFS Desktop and IPFS Companion!

Yuds2003

@mariogar1979, I have both and the other option is still not there.

Duff

@mariogar1979 I'll be following up with you shortly, just have to take care of some account settings first.

@Yuds2003 I may be wrong, but I believe there's currently a bug in Adventure where it's not recognizing the extension or something to that effect. It's being worked on.

mariogar1979

Ok, waiting for contact...

Yuds2003

@Duff, it's still not working. I reinstalled the IPFS Companion and it didn't work.

lukegb

@Duff I'd be interested in mirroring onto IPFS (assuming the size is still ~450GB).

lukegb

Never mind. Forums seem dead, so I waited a week for a reply by email then curled the entire thing. I've got the files pinned on IPFS on a few different servers now so that should be enough.

[lukegb@totoro:/store/winworldpc]$ du -hs .
448G .

SomeGuy

Yea, Duff and Calvin don't seem to frequent the forum much and can be hard to reach. I've been told they hang out on "discord" , but I don't use that.

whisperingmodem

Please DM details on mirroring (rsync perhaps) to IPFS. Have steady 2 Gbps without data caps and plenty of space.

Advika

I decided not to wait any longer for replies on the forums since they appeared inactive. After a week of no response via email, I went ahead and archived the entire project. Now, I've securely pinned the files on IPFS, distributing them across multiple servers, which should provide sufficient availability and redundancy.