Using your storage¶

Junk Net speaks the S3 API, so it works with tools you may already use. This page takes you from access keys to encrypted backups.

Pilot phase

The public endpoint s3.junknet.au is not live yet. During the Brisbane pilot, contributors receive their endpoint address together with their access keys — substitute it wherever this page says <endpoint>.

What you receive¶

When your contribution is set up, you get three things:

Item	Looks like	Treat it as
Endpoint	`https://<endpoint>`	Public knowledge
Key ID	`GK31c2f218a2e44f485b94239e`	Semi-secret
Secret key	`b892c0665f0ada8a4755dae98baa3b133590e11dae3bcc1f9d769d67f16c3835`	A password. Store it in a password manager.

The S3 region for all Junk Net clusters is garage.

Quickstart¶

rclone (recommended)AWS CLICyberduck (GUI)Code (Python)

rclone is the Swiss Army knife of cloud storage, and its crypt layer makes client-side encryption easy — which is why it's the recommended client.

Add to ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf:

[junknet]
type = s3
provider = Other
endpoint = https://<endpoint>
region = garage
access_key_id = <your-key-id>
secret_access_key = <your-secret-key>

Then:

rclone mkdir junknet:my-bucket        # create a bucket
rclone copy ~/Photos junknet:my-bucket/photos   # upload
rclone ls junknet:my-bucket           # list
rclone copy junknet:my-bucket/photos ~/Restored # download

aws configure --profile junknet
# AWS Access Key ID:     <your-key-id>
# AWS Secret Access Key: <your-secret-key>
# Default region name:   garage

Garage needs the endpoint passed explicitly:

aws --profile junknet --endpoint-url https://<endpoint> \
    s3 mb s3://my-bucket
aws --profile junknet --endpoint-url https://<endpoint> \
    s3 cp ~/Photos s3://my-bucket/photos --recursive
aws --profile junknet --endpoint-url https://<endpoint> \
    s3 ls s3://my-bucket

For a point-and-click experience on macOS/Windows:

Open Connection → choose Amazon S3.
Server: <endpoint> (port 443).
Access Key ID / Secret: your keys.
Connect — buckets appear as folders; drag and drop away.

Any S3 SDK works. With boto3:

import boto3

s3 = boto3.client(
    "s3",
    endpoint_url="https://<endpoint>",
    region_name="garage",
    aws_access_key_id="<your-key-id>",
    aws_secret_access_key="<your-secret-key>",
)

s3.upload_file("holiday.zip", "my-bucket", "holiday.zip")
print(s3.list_objects_v2(Bucket="my-bucket")["KeyCount"])

Encrypt before you upload (please)¶

Your data will physically live on laptops in other people's homes. It's chunked and scattered — no host holds your complete files — but it is not encrypted at rest unless you encrypt it. The trust model explains why the house rule is:

If you wouldn't pin it to a community noticeboard, encrypt it client-side.

With rclone, add a crypt remote on top of your bucket:

rclone config
# n) New remote → name: junknet-crypt → type: crypt
# remote: junknet:my-bucket
# filename_encryption: standard
# password: generate one, and BACK IT UP outside Junk Net

Then use junknet-crypt: exactly like before — contents and filenames are encrypted on your machine before upload:

rclone copy ~/Documents/tax junknet-crypt:tax

Your password is unrecoverable — by design

Nobody in Junk Net can reset or recover your encryption password. Lose it and the data is ciphertext forever. Store it in a password manager, and keep a copy somewhere that isn't Junk Net.

Backups: the killer app¶

Junk Net's sweet spot is durable, boring, free backup — and restic does encrypted, deduplicated, versioned backups over S3 natively:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<your-key-id>
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<your-secret-key>

restic -r s3:https://<endpoint>/my-backups init
restic -r s3:https://<endpoint>/my-backups backup ~/Documents
restic -r s3:https://<endpoint>/my-backups snapshots

Restic encrypts everything client-side by default, so the house rule is satisfied automatically.

Fair use & expectations¶

Store within your allocation. Every byte you store occupies three disks across the community — allocations exist so the maths keeps working.
It's honest-speed. Nodes live on residential connections. Bulk uploads and restores work fine; latency-sensitive workloads and public high-traffic hosting are the wrong tool for this network.
No SLA during the pilot. Keep another copy of anything you truly can't lose — Junk Net makes a great second copy and a bad only copy.
The rules: nothing illegal to possess, no serving piracy, no attacking the infrastructure. Keys are issued to known community members and can be revoked. Boring rules, firmly held.