peering.md

Peering

For the most part, manual peering is nolonger required because cjdns auto peers from a DNS seed by default. However, if you want to ensure your node will always be connected to another node, or if you want to disable DNS seeding, then you need to do manual peering.

Connect your node to your friend's node

To initiate the connection OUTbound

In your conf file, you will see:

// Nodes to connect to.
"connectTo":
{
    // Add connection credentials here to join the network
    // Ask somebody who is already connected.
}

A conf file with multiple friend-nodes, setup OUTbound, should look like:

// Nodes to connect to.
"connectTo":
{
    //friend_1 (IPv4: 0.1.2.3; IPv6 fcaa:5bac:66e4:713:cb00:e446:c317:fc39)
    "0.1.2.3:45678":
    {
        "login": "k.alexander"
        "password": "thisIsNotARealConnection_1",
        "publicKey": "thisIsJustForAnExampleDoNotUseThisInYourConfFile_1.k"
    },

    //friend_2 (IPv4: 5.1.2.3; IPv6 fcbb:5bac:66e4:713:cb00:e446:c317:fc39)
    "5.1.2.3:5678":
    {
        "login": "k.alexander"
        "password": "thisIsNotARealConnection_2",
        "publicKey": "thisIsJustForAnExampleDoNotUseThisInYourConfFile_2.k"
    }
}

You can add as many connections as you want to the connectTo attribute, following JSON syntax.

To allow your friend to initiate the connection INbound

In your conf file, you will see:

"authorizedPasswords":
[
    // A unique string which is known to the client and server.
    {"password": "password001", "login": "default-login"}

    // More passwords should look like this.
    // {"password": "password002", "login": "my-second-peer"}
    // {"password": "password003", "login": "my-third-peer}
    // {"password": "password004", "login": "my-fourth-peer"}
    ...

    // "your.external.ip.goes.here:45678":{"login": "default-login", "password": "password001","publicKey":thisisauniqueKEY_001.k"}

],

A conf file with multiple friend-nodes, setup INbound, should look like:

"authorizedPasswords":
[
    // A unique string which is known to the client and server.
    {"password": "thisisauniquestring_001", "user": "k.alexander"}

    // More passwords should look like this.
    //William Jevons (IPv4: 0.1.2.3; IPv6 fcaa:5bac:66e4:713:cb00:e446:c317:fc39)
    {"password": "thisisauniquestring_002", "user": "William Jevons"}
    //Marilyn Patel (IPv4: 5.1.2.3; IPv6 fcbb:5bac:66e4:713:cb00:e446:c317:fc39)
    {"password": "thisisauniquestring_003", "user": "Marilyn Patel"}
    // {"password": "thisisauniquestring_004"}
    ...

    // "your.external.ip.goes.here:45678":{"password": "thisisauniquestring_001","publicKey":thisisauniqueKEY_001.k"}
],

You need to give William Jevons (who is making the INbound connection) the following 4 items:

1. Your external IPv4

2. The port found in your conf file here:

   // Bind to this port. "bind": "0.0.0.0:yourportnumberishere",

3. Their unique password that you uncommented or created: "password": "thisisauniquestring_002"

4. Your public key: "publicKey": "thisisauniqueKEY_001.k"

5. His username: "William Jevons"

His login credentials will look something like this (with your IPv4 and port):

"1.2.3.4:56789": {
    "login": "William Jevons",
    "password": "thisisauniquestring_002",
    "publicKey": "thisIsJustForAnExampleDoNotUseThisInYourConfFile_1.k"
}

Please note that you and your friend can initiate a connection either outbound (from YOU --> FRIEND) or inbound (from FRIEND --> YOU) but traffic flows both ways once the connection is established.

See doc/configure.md for more details on configuration, including how to peer with other cjdns nodes over ethernet and wifi.