Earlier we posted about Project Maelstrom created by BitTorrent that allows you to access websites hosted over peer-to-peer networks. Such websites do not require a standard web server, but their files are accessed using torrents. While this is an interesting project, it has some bottlenecks like the impossibility of server side scripting or database connections. You cannot really dream of building such BitTorrent sites using WordPress or some other CMS, but it is not bad for static web sites. So here we are giving you basic instructions on how to publish your website over the peer-to-peer network using the Project Maelstrom.
- Download and install Python 2.7 on your PC from https://www.python.org/. This is needed for running the scripts in Project Maelstrom.
- Download and install uTorrent from http://www.utorrent.com/. This is needed for seeding the website via BitTorrent protocol.
- Download Project Maelstrom developer tools from https://github.com/bittorrent/torrent-web-tools. Extract them to a folder, e.g., D:\torrent-web-tools-master\.
- Create your static web site and save it in a folder, e. g., D:\website. The site must have an index file named index.html. You can use only plain HTML and some client side scripting (Javascript) for creating the site.
- Open a command prompt and give the following command:
generator.py D:\website -o D:\utorrent\site.torrent
- This command will cause the torrent file to be generated at the specified path. Double-click on the torrent file to open it in uTorrent, add the torrent and it will start seeding the torrent.
- Wait overnight for others to leech and then start seeding your web site. When this happens, you can open the site in the Maelstrom browser by typing the site’s BitTorrent address. Obviously, you need Maelstrom browser to access BitTorrent sites.
Conclusion: Even thou dynamic and feature rich web sites cannot possibly published via the Project Maelstrom. But simpler static sites can easily be put online using the BitTorrent machine.