Re: [Blocks-development] newbie questions

[Blat F. <pet...@ho...>]

>From: cap...@su...
>To: blo...@li...
>Subject: [Blocks-development] newbie questions
>Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 13:45:01 +0200
>
>Hi, I've got some questions about Blocks. FYI I run Linux.
>
>The binary package contains two files, blockgui and blockd.
>Blockgui works according to my expectations, about blockd I'm not sure.
>Where does it fit in? Is it just a text-based version of the gui-client?
>If so, how do I upload files. Or is it just a caching/routing server?

Its just a caching/routing server daemon. If you wanted to run
your own private Blocknet you would simply run blockd and tell
people the IP/port to connect to. Your block net would be
seperate from any other Blocknets. Or, you could create a
regional connection point to an existing Blocknet by pointing
your blockd at the main connection point. It should be possible
to use this simple mechanism to design a core structure to
the Blocknet, perhaps with the predesigned interconnections
representing high speed long haul pipes.

blockgui does everything blockd does. One day there might even
be clients apps as well :)

>Otherwise, am I supposed to keep the gui client running to export any
>files? This would be a PITA for me as my server has no X display
>capabilities, and I reboot my clients all the time, so redirecting output
>to a non local X-server won't work either.

Yes, the current situation is far from ideal. My recommendation
is to run blockgui in a a VNC virtual X session and just
connect to that when you want to upload/download using
vncviewer.

You can get VNC from http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/
or it may well be included as standard with many Linux
distributions.

>
>Secondly, how big is the network?
>I've been connected throug mspencer.net for a couple of hours and I can't
>see anything but my own files.

Yes, the main test network is really just there for testing,
there may well be other 'private' Blocknets out there for
distributing different types of files and media but those
wont usually get advertised very much ;)

Blocks hasnt really been advertised enough to gain mass
support, and there is still a little confusion about what
Blocks is being targetted at. IMHO this isnt really a
problem since Blocks is still in early development and
we really dont have the resources to deal with 20,000
screaming AOLers at the moment anyway.

ttfn

PG.


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