Welcome to those new to Frost!

Frost is a Hyphanet 0.7 client that provides newsgroup-like messaging, private encrypted messages, file upload and download functionality and a file sharing system.

If this is your first time trying Frost, you'll see its quite different from other filesharing programs. Its anonymous, and yet has a very personal atmosphere.

If you know how to use newsgroups, you'll find Frost very easy to use and will feel right at home. If you're used to other filesharing apps, you should know that the best way to find what you're looking for is to ask for it. If you can't find it in the search results, post a message to the relevant board and someone will respond to you. Common questions are answered in the Support area.

ATTENTION: Frost can NOT be used with the 'normal' internet. You will have to install Hyphanet 0.7 to be able to use Frost. Please take a look at the Links section, you'll find all you need there.

If you like this program you might consider to Donate some money.

Latest news

2024.08.07

Frost v2024.08.07 has been released!

Download: Frost-v2024.08.07.zip
Changes: Frost-v2024.08.07-README.md

2023.12.22

On 2022-10-31 K. Graul added me, Spider-Admin, to the project such that I can update the Perst library to the latest version, which I also use in my project Spider.

Soon I discovered, that I got admin rights and can update literally everything (files, repository, this website, ...). I looked around a little bit and decided to continue maintaining Frost. One of my first tasks was to migrate the existing SVN repository to Git. While this took much longer than expected, the migration is finished and the repository can now be found in my account on GitHub and on SourceForge. As you can see in the history I am still working on Frost. I will release a new version of Frost soon. If you can't wait, clone the Git repository and create a release by running gradlew distZip.

Regarding Frost-Next: Frost-Next is a fork of Frost which is based on Frost from 2011-03-03. The user Kitty created this fork, while the development of Frost continued (latest version of Frost in SVN is from 2015-09-05).

Kitty released Frost-Next in 2015 (see about dialog). Naejadu continued working on Frost-Next and released another version on 2021-12-12. He is still working on Frost-Next and releases several release candidates from time to time. I will eventually add the features of Frost-Next to Frost.

2011.03.05

Frost version 2011-05-03 released!

The Frost development team is pleased to announce the new stable release of version 2011-05-03.
This release is compatible with the old database files and configurations, but we recommend creating a backup before updating. Please see included readme files for future information.

We consider this release the best available version of Frost end encounter all users to update.

Various people have helped during the development and release process in contributing code, updating translation files and identifying bugs. We would like to thank all the contributors!

Please see donwload page for more infomration how to obtain it

CHANGELOG:

The new release of Frost includes a lot of changes. Please see release_nodes.txt file included in the package for a comprehensive list of all changes.

• Switch default of use DDA to false, since default on Hyphanet is off as well.
• Updated German translation. (Thanks to Frank Nagel)
• Removed & and # from illegal filename char list, since they seem not to be illegal on any system.
• Bugfix: Also dequote key names starting with a html entity.
• Updated for Danish translation
• Possible bug fix, where duplicate keys have occurred in TrackDownloadKeysStorage
• TestDDA fix, clear list of checked directories when the persistent FCP thread is diconnected.
• Open selected file on double click, or when pressing enter in system default program.
• Fixed bug, where priorities were not persisted, and the priority of not started downloads were not changable.
• Added duplicate check and board tracking for downloads initialized from addKeysOfCurrentMessage and loadSelectedKeys.
• Added key listener for hotkeys to AddNewDownloadsDialog:

  r	rename selected files
  p	prefix selecte files
  d	change directory for selected files
  1-6	change priority of selected files to corresponding priority
  DEL	remove selected files from list
  SHIFT+DEL	remove _not_ selected files from list
  ENTER	Confirm dialog
  ESCAPE	Cancel dialog

• Added key listener for hotkeys to AddNewUploadsDialog

  r	rename selected files
  p	prefix selecte files
  e	enable compression
  d	disable compression
  1-6	change priority of selected files to corresponding priority
  a	add new files to dialog
  DEL	remove selected files from list
  SHIFT+DEL	remove not selected files from list
  ENTER	Confirm dialog
  ESCAPE	Cancel dialog

• Corrections for readme.en.txt, provided by: Convict ? 19682?@ODNPfyzW6zsBykdOYM_SItF+oDo
• On a replay to a message, all attached files and boards are now quoted as text in the quoted message.
  So they wont be lost to users reading later follow-ups.
  (Based on the idea of an anonymous user)
• Added function to prefix the filename of inserts in the AddNewUploadsDialog.
• Bugfix for error when systray is not supported.
• Fix for file sharing system:
  When the option is turned on (default) we drop file lists from newly received identities or identities marked CHECK or BAD.
  Then only file lists from GOOD and OBSERVE people make it into our file list store, and this prevents huge store files full of senseless faked files due to the spam attack.
• Made increaseDownloadItemRuntime resistance against time drifts due heavy load.
• Fixed bug, where the configured priority of a new download was not honored, but always set to the default.
• Show text field with a readable yellow background instead of a red background.
• Added ability to enable / disable downloads before adding them to the queue. Via clickable checkboxes and context menu items
• Added context menu items to AddNewUploadsDialog, to remove selected / not selected entries.
• Added the ability to disable uploads before adding them to the queue
• Redesigned columns for enabling and disabling compression and the downloads to use click able check boxes.
• Added the ability to upload a file under a different name
• Added the ability to set the start priority before adding it to the download queue
• Extended FrostUploadItem to be configurable with a FreenetCompatibilityMode
• Added context menu to AddNewUploadsDialog
  • Added context menu items to enable and disable compression
  • Added context menu items to set FreenetInsertMode for uploads Note: This is front-end only. The mode is not honor by the back-end mode yet.
• Added ability to add and remove files from the AddNewUploadsDialog
• Created AddNewUploadsDialog
• Added fix requested by a Frost user: allow user to suppress initial warning window when filesharing is enabled.
• Fix for NPE when sending a message. Happens only when persistence is switched off.
• Implemented support for the TestDDA node request.
  This re-enables the DDA support in Frost that did not work since the node made TestDDA mandatory.
  This commit intentionally breaks the GUI feature to change the download target directory AFTER a download was started!
  We will need to address this issue somehow later.
• Re-enabled the "always minimize to systray" functionality.
• Fix for NPE within systray support.

2011.01.07

New stable version Frost-07-Jan-2011 release!

The Frost development team is pleased to announce the release of a new stable version of the Frost.

This release is compatible with the old database files and configurations, but we recommend creating a backup before updating. Please see included readme files for future information.

We consider this release the best available version of Frost end encounter all users to update.

Various people have helped during the development and release process in contributing code, updating translation files and identifying bugs. We would like to thank all the contributors!

Please see donwload page for more infomration how to obtain it

List of most important changes:
(Please see release_nodes.txt file included in the package, for a comprehensive list of all changes.)

• Messages get inserted twice to speed up distribution and better availability
• Download are associated with the currently selected message.
  When you add keys through the quickload interface, the downloads are associated with the currently selected news message.
  
  Simply right-click on a download and select "View associated message" to view the associated message.
  (This option is only shown if the download is associated with a message.)
• Per-download download directory
  For each download, you can now configure its own target directory.
• New Add Downloads Dialog
  You can now configure all downloads before adding them to your queue.
  The new dialog allows you to configure:
  • Download filename
  • Download filename prefix
  • Target directory
  • Download priority
• Prefix download names
  The name of downloads can now be prefixed. The file will be stored using this prefix.
  Internally the prefix is stored separately, so you can easily change it later on.
• Quick paste download button
  Adds keys from the clipboard. Saves having to paste them into the text box and pressing enter.
• Ability to execute a program on download/upload completion
• Collapsed thread mode changes
  See release_nodes for future details
• Restarting running downloads actually restarts the downloads
• Invalid "keys" that are entered into the quickload text field are silently ignored
• New message window context menu items to download keys:
  
  • Select the part of the message, which includes the keys you want to download, right click anywhere (not a key) and select the menu item: Download selected keys.
  • Right click a key and select: Download all keys of current message
    This will add all keys of the current message, excluding keys from the quote of other messages.
• Directories can be created from the download
• Two additional buttons to show starred or flagged message threads only.
• Download tracking
  Activate under: Options -> Preferences -> Downloads -> Warn if a file has already been downloaded previously
  If this option is enabled, you will get warned if you try to download a file you have downloaded previously.
  Including when and from which board you have downloaded the file.
• Warn if target directory already contains a file with the same name.
• Keep list of recently used download and upload directories.
  When you change the download target directory, you can choose a dir manuanly or from a list of recently used dirs.
• Directly open key in browser.
  Configure under: Options -> Preferences -> Miscellaneous -> URI Prefix
  If configured, you can right click on a key in the message window and choose open file (all files) in Browser.
  This will directly open the file in your frost interface in your system default browser
• Frost requires now Java 1.6
• Updated bundled libraries to new versions
• Use of new jcalendar library
  This also fixes a long term bug, with the search dialog
• Updated German translation
• New cross platform system tray support

2011.01.05

After a longish break, artur8ur took over the development lead of Frost! So Frost is still alive and under development. New beta versions were already posted on Frost, and a new release is expected soon!

2009.03.14

New Frost release! This release contains a fix for the file sharing. Update!

Find the download and the changes here.

Note: This is the last release with support for Hyphanet 0.5!

2009.03.13

A bug in Frosts file sharing was discovered. The Hyphanet node created new CHK keys but Frost tries to use the old CHK keys. For the user it looks as if the file sharing doesn't work at all for some files. This will be fixed in next release.

When using the Nimbus look&feel contained in Java 1.6, several problems can occur in the Frost user interface. The next release will address this issue. Circumvention is to not to use the Nimbus look&feel right now.

2008.03.04

This release contains a critical security fix for version 29-Feb-2008! Update!

2008.02.29

This release brings new features and many fixes. You really should update. Check the changelog for latest and greatest news!

2007.12.11

New release! The highlight is a new storage system which makes the Frost experience much faster.

2007.07.19

This release introduces new features and many fixes. Check the changelog for latest and greatest news!

2007.07.02

This important release fixes an ugly bug in message downloading and brings a few new features. Check the changelog for latest and greatest news! Or you may miss them!

2007.06.28

A new Frost release! Various McKoi database tables are migrated into perst database storages. This hopefully avoids database corruptions in McKoi that happened due to heavy concurrent use. Perst is a very fast object database and its also open source. Also two critical bugs in message downloading were fixed, this update is a must-have!

2007.04.21

Another updated Frost version released! This update contains a bug fix for Frost on the 0.7 network. 0.5 users don't need to update.

2007.04.19

Updated Frost version released! This update contains two bug fixes for Frost on the 0.7 network. 0.5 users don't need to update.

2007.04.13

New Frost version released! I wanted to release much earlier, but due to the feedback to the beta versions and alot of own ideas the release became bigger and bigger.

2007.02.26

I redesigned the webpages, javascript is not longer used. And now you can donate via paypal, and also contribute monthly donations!

A new release is around the corner, with many bugfixes, new features and global queue support on Hyphanet 0.7.

2007.01.07

New release! Important bugfixes in various areas. A must-have release.

(The news archive can be found here.)