I'm liking the look of this. I think I'll go and create a room if you want to join and give it a go.
First start
Create a Certificate and Login
The first time you start RetroShare, you have to create new Profile (technically a PGP key).
Fill in the requested details
Name: Your username
Email: the email isn't important, you can just type e.g. "xxx"
Password: choose a strong password, it protects your profile and config files
Location: Some name to identify your PC, you can later create new locations for the same profile
Click "Generate new Profile"
You will be asked to enter your chosen password once more, to validate the Profile
Retroshare should start up
Making friends
As RetroShare is a Friend to Friend network you need to explicitly add friends to be able to connect to them. Once connected with them you can chat and share files. RetroShare identifies your friends with a public PGP certificate (the one that is created with your profile). In order to connect to your friends you need to exchange your certificates.
Send Your Certificate to Friends
Click on the "Add a Friend Wizard" Button (top button on the left-hand toolbar).
Either use the "Send an Invitation by Email" function or copy the certificate manually and send it to your friends via some Chat or Email.
Remember to ask your friends to send you back their certificate.
Add Your Friends to RetroShare
When you receive your friends' certificates:
Click on the "Add a Friend Wizard" Button (top button on the left-hand toolbar) again.
Select "Enter the certificate manually"
Cut and paste their certificates into the window (only one at a time).
Click "Next" Button. A window with your friend's details will appear.
If it looks okay - Click "Finish" Button.
Remarks: The connection will not be made until BOTH friends have added each other's certificates. As you are connecting directly to your friends and not indirectly over a server, you have to make sure the ports for RetroShare are open in your firewall and forwarded in your router (see FAQ). You can connect without opening your ports, too, but it will take longer and is more unreliable. It is sufficient if either you or your friend has forwarded the ports.
Use RetroShare
Communication
Chatting with friends is very easy in RetroShare. Just double click on a name in the Friends list and the Chat window pops up. To select your chat avatar just click on the default blue avatar picture.
Chat Lobbies
If you want to chat with several of your friends at once, you can create a "Chat lobby". On the right of the Friends list select the "Chat lobbies" tab and click the green plus. If you create a private lobby, only invited friends can join, a public lobby can be joined by all your friends.
Share files
→ Main article: Filesharing
Click on the "Add Share" Button (second button from the top on the left-hand toolbar).
Select the directories you want to share. The downloads directory is shared by default
Sharing "Network wide" means not only your friends, but also their friends can download via anonymous tunnels
Sharing "Browsable" means your friends can see which files you share.
(if this is unchecked, they can find your files using the search function and download them via tunnels)
Click "Close" button.
Remarks: Your shared files will not immediately appear in the directory listing. First RetroShare has to hash the files - so it knows what you are sharing. This can take 2 minutes - 1 hour depending on how many files you are sharing.
