this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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using IPFS on Z-Library? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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ok maybe i'm just being a dumbass. I'm getting textbooks off of z-library per the megathread, as they are the only site that lists the specific books I need currently. I am browsing via TOR.

I can't seem to see a download button or link for the books I am looking for, nor for any other book I open. Maybe this is because I don't have an account. But let's say I don't feel like making one, because that means spinning up another burner email, and and and.... idk. I'm lazy.

I thought I'd be nice and access the content via the IPFS CID using the IPFS desktop node/app thing from here. Zlibrary lists IPFS CID's for all books they host. That will save server load on them and likely be faster for a couple of the 200+MB PDF's.
But it absolutely can NOT find any of the CID's that z-library gives for any of it's content, whether I click browse or inspect in the search box or use the import function, even after I let it sit and run on my extra seed PC for two days to populate the peer list.

I know IPFS must be working as some of the test CID's I used from the tutorial imported ok.

am i being dumb? am I missing the fundamental purpose of the IPFS CID's here or something?

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[–] Vub@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Creating a burner email would take a tenth of the time it took you writing this post.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

I know, and I remembered I already had a protonmail set up for junk like this. So I got the direct downloads to work after logging in this morning. Very helpful of zlibrary to NOT tell you anywhere that an account is actually required for downloads and not just "additional features"..

However, I like to mess with new tech when I come across it. IPFS seems very useful and a nice bridge between p2p resiliency of torrents with the convenience of direct download and since it seemed like I could use it for zlib, I just wanted to try it...

[–] mahavir@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I don't know what IPFS is, but you do need an account to download books from z library via tor. If you don't want to make an account you can try libgen or anna's archive they mostly have all the books.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah libgen and Anna's both didn't have this specific book. I got it figured out once I remembered I had an ancient protonmail account to use for sign-ups

[–] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

... and likely be faster for a couple of the 200+MB PDF's.

Natrator: "It wasn't!"

Jokes aside, where do you live where 200MB x some would be considered some heavy storage? I mean me uploading that file to someone would take 2 seconds on my cheap home 1024Mb/s connection. A pro one would probably be way better...

I love the name of IPFS (Inter Planetary File System!), it's cool and all but IMO the technology behind it is not at all living up to it, it's basically just a benevolent storage with static links.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I'm not talking about the storage requirements. I have terabytes of unused SSD; that is irrelevant. The direct links for most zlib or libgen books download at 10-30kb/s for me and can take a few hours for one book, often failing multiple times in between. I was trying to find an alternative, something distributed was likely to be faster.

Very helpful comment.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 1 points 10 months ago

I didn't want to be cheeky or something, sorry for that.

The problem might be that the "Inter Planetary File System" is cool just by name.

That's the problem. If I understands correctly anyways what you are doing.