When I first start BadBlue, searching doesn't return any results, but after a minute or so, I can get results... why?

When you start BadBlue, it connects to a series of IRC servers. It it can sometimes take between 15 seconds to two minutes to connect, depending upon your connection speed and other factors. As you search, you will begin to find more and more friendly machines. Reiterate your search after a minute or two and you should be able to connect to other PCs. You can check the Add friendly machines menu to view any connected IRC friends.

What is IRC sharing?

In support of peer-to-peer file sharing, BadBlue supports a concept called friendly machines. When you search BadBlue, the program returns matches found in your shared folders - and will also search the shared areas of friendly machines for matching content. Friendly machines can still be specified manually (i.e., using the Add friendly machines to your search path menu).

With version 1.5, BadBlue introduced IRC sharing. BadBlue uses random, public (or private) IRC servers, which you can specify, to find friendly machines. IRC servers allow general Internet users to chat, transfer files and perform other collaborative tasks.

In much the same way that AOL Instant Messenger detects and notifies peer groups of friendly user activity, BadBlue uses active IRC sessions to track and share connection information among peer machines without user intervention. To do this, BadBlue logs into IRC as a user and joins a public (or private) channel to look for other instances of BadBlue. It does this on a variety of distinct IRC networks/servers (which you can control), making friendly machine detection fast and transparent to the end user.

I use BadBlue as a web server: can I turn IRC sharing off?

Yes. IRC sharing can be completely disabled using the Set your searching options menu. If you decide to turn IRC sharing on or off, remember to exit BadBlue altogether and then restart it. Merely stopping and starting the server will not suffice when changing the IRC configuration. You must exit the program and restart it (i.e., using the Windows Start menu) before your new IRC configuration will take effect.

Why can I see others' files, but they can't see my files?

If you're running on a LAN or behind a proxy server (as is the case with many AOL users), you will be able to search and download shared files from other PCs, but external users will not be able to find or download your files. See the next question and answer for more details regarding this issue.

I'm on a LAN, can I share content?

To share files inside a LAN (for example, inside a company) using either private or public IRC servers, you'll need BadBlue Enterprise Edition.

BadBlue Personal Edition users running inside a firewall, on certain dialup connection (e.g., AOL) or default DSL configurations (e.g., Fuse without direct connection) can search for and retrieve shared content from other users, but can not share their own files.

These users are referred to as NAT'ed users. NAT stands for Network Address Translation. NAT'ing is often used to configure users inside a LAN (local area network) such that real network IP addresses are not consumed. Instead, special IP (NAT'ed) addresses are parcelled out to these internal users.

You can often tell whether you are a NAT'ed user by referencing your IP address. Use the Add friendly machines to your search path menu and look near the top of the page. The caption Your address is should prefix your IP address. RFC 1918 spells out common NAT'ed addresses:

What is IRC loggging?

BadBlue will log IRC traffic to a file named IRC00.LOG in the directory to which BadBlue was installed. You can review the IRC log file to determine which friendly machines were located, the servers to which you connected, etc. By default, only a minimal amount of IRC traffic is logged. The IRC.INI file has a setting called LOGGINGLEVEL which can be set to a value between 0 (no logging) and 9 (maximum logging).