# Donate your connection Some sites refuse requests that come from data centres. DevPlace lets members donate a little of their own internet connection so that community search can read a small allowlist of public pages through it. Donating is optional, off by default, and can be stopped at any time. The wire protocol for client authors is on the [Node network protocol](/docs/nodes-protocol.html) page. ## What donating is You register one or more **devices**. Each device runs a client, either the native client or a browser extension, and keeps one connection open to DevPlace. When the network is switched on and a search needs a page on the allowlist, DevPlace sends that one request to a device, the device fetches the public page and returns it. The fetch leaves from your internet connection, so the site sees your IP address. The network is switched on and off by the administrators. While it is off, nothing is sent to any device. ## What is shared and what is not | Shared | Never shared | |---|---| | A small part of your bandwidth, capped by the daily limit you set | Your cookies, logins and accounts, which are never used | | Your public IP address, as seen by the site that is fetched | Your browsing history, tabs, files and other programs | | Requests for public pages on the allowlist, and the bytes they move | Any site that is not on the allowlist | Today the allowlist holds `reddit.com` and `redd.it`. Clients refuse anything else, a non-public address, a non-https destination, and any redirect that leaves the allowlist, whatever DevPlace asks. A device sees the destination host of every request. In fetch mode, which the browser extension uses, it can also read the URL and the page that comes back, so only donate with a client you trust. Your own searches are never sent through your own device. ## Check the terms of your internet line Before you run a node on a residential or business connection, check your provider's terms of use. Some providers forbid sharing a connection or running services on it. Donating is your decision and your responsibility. ## Start donating 1. Open the **Donate** tab of your profile. 2. Read the explanation and give the bandwidth sharing consent. Everything else stays hidden until you do. 3. Choose your limits: daily bandwidth, simultaneous requests, active hours and timezone, the sites you allow, whether to pause on battery, and whether your name may appear on the donor leaderboard. 4. Add a device. The **device secret** is shown once, with ready-to-paste install lines and a copy button. If you lose it, create a new secret for that device; the old one stops working. 5. Switch donation on and save. A member can register up to five devices. The consent and the switch are separate: withdrawing the consent stops donation, and the switch alone starts nothing without it. ## Install the native client The native client is a single program for Linux, macOS and Windows. The Donate tab lists every published build with its size and SHA-256 checksum, and builds the install lines for the operating system you pick. They download the program, verify the checksum, store the server and secret, and run it: ``` devplace-node login --server https://devplace.net --secret dpn_... devplace-node run devplace-node status ``` `login` stores the server and secret in your user config directory, `run` connects and serves requests in the foreground, and `status` shows the stored configuration and today's usage. ## Install the browser extension The extension works in Chrome and Firefox and always runs in fetch mode. Download the extension zip from the Donate tab, unpack it, load it as an unpacked extension (`chrome://extensions` in Chrome, `about:debugging` in Firefox), then enter the server and the device secret in its popup and switch sharing on. A disclosure page opens on first install. Read it before you accept. ## How to stop - Close the program, or switch the extension off, to stop that device at once. - Switch donation off in the settings to stop every device. - Withdraw the consent to stop and hide the controls. - Remove a device to disconnect it immediately and make its secret useless. ## The counters The **Donated by you** card on the Donate tab shows requests served and data transferred, up and down, for today, this month and your lifetime, plus the dates of your first and last donation. Lifetime totals are kept when old daily figures are cleaned up. The card refreshes every 30 seconds. Each device row shows its status, the last time it was seen and an approximate country and kind of network (residential, mobile, datacenter or unknown). The numbers are measured by DevPlace, not by the client. ## Limits | Limit | Value | |---|---| | Devices per member | 5 | | Daily bandwidth you can offer | up to 20 GB, 500 MB by default | | Simultaneous requests per device | up to 2 | DevPlace applies the lowest of the server limit, your setting and the limit set in the client, and never raises a limit you set. ## Your data What DevPlace stores about donating is listed in the [Privacy Policy](/docs/privacy.html).