How to make a CDN using IPFS

Glitch Tutorials
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(I was actually about to post this under The Gallery until I saw that this category existed)

How to make a CDN using IPFS

Note: You might not want to do this on Glitch, because, well projects sleep after 5m (without boosted) and also this could be considered abusing the platform.

Things you’ll need:

  • Go-IPFS
    Edit: js-ipfs can also work! npm install -g ipfs. It does compile stuff using node-gyp tho.
  • 1+ computers with Go-IPFS installed.

Directions:

Setup the First Server:

  1. Run ipfs daemon to start the IPFS daemon. If you skip this step, the following directions will fail to work.
  2. Change Directions (cd) to the folder where your file/folder is located at.
  3. Type the command ipfs add [File/Folder Name]. The response you get should look something like this.
QmYwAPJzv5CZsnA625s3Xf2nemtYgPpHdWEz79ojWnPbdG
// This is called a hash.
  1. Take that response (hash) and then run ipfs pin [HASH].
  2. Now that you got the file on the network, go to the other servers and run ipfs pin [HASH].
  3. Now, try the to access the file using the gateway. Open a web browser go to: https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/[HASH].

Tips:

I’ll be making more IPFS tutorials soon! Such as replacing a hash with a domain, etc

Learn more about IPFS and how it works here!

8 Likes
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It looks like you spelled gateway wrong at the beginning. It says gataway.

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Thanks

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You should put this on DEV.to.

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Already started the draft. I just have to finish it

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This is good, just want to give a few pointers.

  1. You should disclose that if you want to do this, your IP is going to be made public.
  2. You should make the pinata work.
7

What do you mean by that?
Edit: nvm, I added https://, thanks!

2 Likes
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I also recommend saying that there is a snap package for this. Do sudo snap install ifps. It worked better than Node.js.

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Yes, there is a snap package, but I added the NPM way because armv6l isn’t supported.

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I also noticed that once it is loaded once, it is loaded forever. I had to basic use curl to get all the files to work. But, there are still some loads. This is a video that I upload. And it is like using 3G on YT today.

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But even then, the most I could milk out was 28 seconds.

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What is the hash of the video?

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QmUw2nER4NVv2bSzPNFd2kAL756QyQyzmZmYpw1L1HPs8W

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Where did you download this from?

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What do you mean?

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Never mind. Maybe it got corrupted?

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So, I was able to load it. Ima restart my machine to see if that helps. My console is bricked. So as of rn, best I can do is hope that my machine is not corrupted. Everything else on it works. The commands just have no response.

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Yeah, it just stopped at 28 seconds.

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Booting up.

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I was able to get the whole video. You?