Download the Firedrill Client
The Firedrill client software is available free of charge for the Linux/Unix/OSX and Microsoft Windows platforms. Simply click the link below for the software version you require. The current latest version of the client is version 1.2.1 for Microsoft Windows and version 1.2.1 for Linux/Unix/OSX.
Note that in order to work the Firedrill client needs to connect to a corresponding Firedrill server (as described here).
The Linux versions of the Firedrill software include the capability to run your own server for free, but the freely downloadable Windows version is for now restricted to being a client only. If you would be interested in a version of the Windows software that is capable of running a server, then you may purchase one by sending us an enquiry. Similarly, the free Linux version only supports running a non-authenticating server (ie; one that doesn't care what clients connect to and use it), if you are interested in obtaining a version that supports full client authentication then please enquire.
If you do not wish to (or are unable to) run your own server then you may instead connect to one of ours. Before you can connect to our servers however you will need to register an account with us and obtain a client key. You can sign up for a free trial account or subscribe for a full account here. Once you have registered and received your Firedrill account details, the support page describes how to configure the client to connect to and use one of our public Firedrill servers.
Latest Windows Package
To install the Windows Firedrill client, simply download the archive file and save it somewhere convenient. Once it has downloaded, open the archive and run the setup installer. Agree to whatever the installer says needs to be done. The Windows Firedrill client requires the .NET 2.0 framework to run, if this also needs to be installed on your machine then the installation may take a while to complete.
NOTE: When the Firedrill client first runs Windows may warn you that your PC firewall settings will need to be modified to allow Firedrill to work. If so, agree to let Windows make the changes to your firewall otherwise the Firedrill client may not work properly.
Latest Linux Packages
- Pre-built RPM package for RedHat Fedora 8
- Pre-built RPM package for OpenSUSE 10.3
- Source code archive for building yourself on other Linux/Unix/OSX platforms
To install the Linux Firedrill client from the RPM package, simply download the RPM file and save it somewhere convenient. Then (as root) open a command line shell, change to the directory containing the RPM file, and then install it with the command:
rpm -Uvh firedrill.rpm (Where you obviously replace firedrill.rpm with whatever name you saved the RPM file under).
Providing you are running a suitably modern version of Linux you should then be able to run the Firedrill client simplying by issuing the command firedrill config.file (where config.file is the location of a suitable Firedrill client configuration file; for a description of how to create such a configuration file please refer to the support page and the Linux configuration file format description page).
If the RPM version of the Firedrill client does not work on your system, then you can instead build and install your own version from the alternative source code archive (available above). To install the Linux Firedrill client from the source code archive, simply download the archive file and save it somewhere convenient. Then open a command line shell, change to the directory containing the archive file and extract the archive with the command:
tar -xzf firedrill.tgz (Where you obviously replace firedrill.tgz with whatever name you saved the archive file under).
This should result in a new firedrill directory being created with a src directory inside that. Change into the firedrill/src directory and issue the command:
make
Please note that by default this will NOT build a Firedrill client that includes support for HTTPS SSL (secure) tunnels. To include SSL support when building you should instead issue the command:
make SSL=YES
If this fails to build successfully then you will need to follow the instructions contained in the INSTALL file within the archive.
Once your system has finished building you will be left with an executable Firedrill client binary firedrill in the src directory. You may then either copy this binary to somewhere more convenient, or simply run it from there by issuing the command ./firedrill config.file (where config.file is the location of a suitable Firedrill client configuration file; for a description of how to create such a configuration file please refer to the support page and the Linux configuration file format description page).