HarinandanJV - Stardance

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@HarinandanJV on ZeroNet: Local communication system · about 1 month ago

What did I make?

I built ZeroNet, a completely decentralized, zero configuration Local Area Network messenger with a nostalgic Windows 95 Graphical Interface and a dark themed terminal interface. It automatically finds users on your WiFi and establishes direct, end to end encrypted connections.

What was challenging?

The hardest part was solving network race conditions without a central server. I had to design a deterministic tie breaking system using unique device IDs to prevent duplicate connections when two peers discover each other simultaneously.

What am I proud of?

I am most proud of the custom PyQt6 GUI. I spent hours customizing the stylesheets to perfectly recreate the classic Windows 95 and ICQ aesthetic with gray panels, sharp bevels, and pixel fonts.

What should people know so they can test my project?

ZeroNet requires zero configuration to use. Just run the app on two computers connected to the same WiFi network, and they will automatically discover each other and exchange cryptographic keys.

2 devlogs
1h

Try project → See source code →

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@HarinandanJV on ZeroNet: Local communication system · about 1 month ago

50m 5s logged

ZeroNet: The Final Update (Retro GUI + Production Ready!)

In my last devlog, I introduced ZeroNet: a serverless, peer to peer, end to end encrypted LAN messenger that runs entirely in the terminal. Since then, I’ve taken the project to the next level and built out the promised GUI, but with a massive twist!

Here is what’s new in the final release of ZeroNet:

A stunning Retro Windows 95 / ICQ themed Graphical Interface! I bypassed modern, boring UI trends and built a fully customized PyQt6 interface that looks straight out of the 90s, complete with classic bevels, gray panels, and pixel fonts.
Bulletproof Networking: Solved complex race conditions! If two peers discover each other and try to connect at the exact same millisecond, ZeroNet now uses deterministic device ID tie breaking to drop the duplicate connection and keep the network stable.
Upgraded Cryptography: Every single peer connection now generates a fresh, unique ephemeral secp256r1 keypair.
Interactive Web Demo: I built a static GitHub Pages website with a CRT scanline effect and a simulated interactive terminal that mimics the real software’s key exchange and encrypted chat.
Cross platform Polish: Hunted down and fixed a nasty PyQt6 platform plugin bug on macOS (caused by experimental Python 3.14 environments) to ensure the app boots flawlessly everywhere.

ZeroNet is now a complete, production ready tool. You can chat securely on your local network using either the beautiful dark themed TUI or the nostalgic Windows 95 GUI. No servers. No cloud brokers. Just raw, encrypted, peer to peer communication.

Check out the interactive demo on the GitHub page!

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@HarinandanJV on ZeroNet: Local communication system · about 1 month ago

33m 28s logged

ZeroNet is a tool which enables direct, secure communication between devices on a local area network (LAN) without relying on external servers, third-party databases, or cloud brokers.

Some of the features that I have implemented here are:

-Automatically finds nearby ZeroNet devices using mDNS, no IP addresses to configure!

-ECDH key exchange + Fernet symmetric encryption, no one can read your messages (End to end encrypted)

-Direct P2P messaging over persistent TCP connections

-Full-mesh group conversations where each message is individually encrypted per member

-Stream files of any size with live progress bars, which are encrypted in transit

-Beautiful GitHub Dark-themed TUI built with Textual

(GUI also exits, will put up in the next dev-log)