Dtella:Installation Guide for Macs

From Dtella Wiki

Enjoy! If you have a router, you will need to consult the Router Setup Guide.

Contents 1 Installing Dtella on a Mac 1.1 Running Dtella at Startup 2 Notes 2.1 Download Problems 2.2 Firewall/Router Configuration 2.3 Clients

Installing Dtella on a Mac

1. You will need a DC client for Mac. The best client for Mac is Shakespeer.
2. Acquire Dtella. Go to www.dtella.org and download the latest DMG image. Copy the Dtella app to your applications folder.
3. Double click on Dtella to start it. You will not see any application appear, but it is running in the background.
4. Start Shakespeer and click on Bookmarks.
5. Click the plus at the bottom of the screen.
6. Add the following information:

  Name: Dtella
  Address: 127.0.0.1:7314
  Nickname: whatever you want (don't use spaces in your name)
  Check connect at launch

1. Click OK.
2. Under Preferences, select share and then choose the folders/files you want to share.

1. Add some files to your share.
2. Finally, click on network and choose a port. Anything greater than 1024. I usually use 2000. Choose this and then close the preferences box. Remember, if you are behind a firewall or router, this port needs to be forwarded along with the Dtella UDP port.
3. Click on Dtella@Purdue on the right and you should be ready to download! You can search for files using the search box in the top right corner.

Running Dtella at Startup

This works on Tiger and Leopard.

1. Open System Preferences
2. Go to Accounts
3. Click the Login Items tab
4. Click the [+] Button
5. Add Dtella from your Applications folder and check the box that makes it hidden.

Notes

Download Problems

If you don't have a router or firewall, then make sure in Shakespeer's preferences that the Download folder and Incomplete folder options under the Share tab exist. In the latest versions of Shakespeer, they don't create the Incomplete folder for you; if this happens, you will not be able to download anything. The easiest way to tell if this is happening is if the icon for the Incomplete folder looks like a blank white page. The easiest way to fix it is to set the Incomplete folder to the same location as the Download folder.

Firewall/Router Configuration

If you have a firewall you must forward a UDP port and a TCP port to traverse a NAT firewall/router. The UDP port is how Dtella communicates with other nodes and is set using the

 !UDP <port> 

command in chat. The TCP port is used during file transfers and needs to be set in the Shakespeer settings. Make sure that the Shakespeer UDP port is not the same as the Dtella UDP port. You only need to forward the Dtella UDP and the Shakespeer TCP ports. If you need help on configuring a firewall follow the Firewall Setup Guide.

Clients

As of now there are really only two viable options for clients, Shakespeer and valknut:

Shakespeer looks like a Mac application should (great!). It works well. Just follow the tutorial above and you will be fine.

Valknut is another story. Valknut is a port of a linux app that quite frankly is kind of ugly but works like a charm (figures). It works great although there are a few downsides besides the ugliness. I have noticed that if you leave it on for a LONG time it will eat up A LOT of ram, like, almost all of free RAM. Maybe this just happens to me, who knows, but if it happens just quit valknut and your free RAM will return haha. Speaking of qutting valknut, if you dont disconnect chances are that it will crash (nothing bad will come of this though, don't worry). And one more final thing that is very frustrating (but only once!), the first time you have to set up valknut you have to save your settings and it will sometimes crash quite a few times before it will properly save your settings. UPDATE: I have found that if you go to file > quit for Valknut it will quit properly but it does not like to be quit from the dock.

If you do it this way you can go back into terminal later and press new command again it will be saved in text box as the last thing you ran. Now, once you have Dtella running, open Shakespeer or Valknut. For both applications, make sure they are in Active mode, this is really important. The address for the server is 127.0.0.1:7314 . Just set your nickname and in valknut your nick_search is just the nickname you chose followed by _search I believe.

If you use Shakespeer, after adding the Dtella server, go to Preferences, click Network, and enter a port. This can be any number >1024. I usually use 2000. If you have a router, this will be the port you have to forward. If you don't have a router, you still need to enter a port.

And that should be it, have fun with Dtella. The speed in the dorms is incredible you will download large files at speeds you never though possible, its pretty insane. If you have any problems use the online irc client to ask for help.