Stop relying on VPNs - Just use your computer with i2p (wizanons.dev)

submitted 1 year ago by karce@wizanons.dev to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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After the Mullvad fiasco I decided to stop using VPNs all together, since port forwarding is always going to be a problem on all of them, if you read the reasons why Mullvad had to shut down that service.

There is a better way using i2p which conceals your IP and makes it impossible for anyone to know what or if you're downloading at all! No DMCA notices, no problem.

I wrote this small guide to another comment and figured I'd share it in its own post since I'm seeing so many people ask for VPN recommendations.

So there are 2 main implementations of i2p. First is the main Dev’s Java client here https://geti2p.net/en/download

The other is i2pd, which is C++.

I use the Java one personally but both would work. Someone posted back on reddit a guide on /r/i2p for qbittorrent, which is what I use now for this too. The guide was shared as a public torrent you can download with this info hash: 3f1d51095f9b116739172c1bced149acf2b10692

Use that hash with any of the various public trackers and you should be able to download that guide.

But if you just want a basic setup, that Java client comes with i2psnark, which is a Bittorrent client already setup.

The only other thing you want to do is go and search the biggest tracker for stuff, which is called PaTracker, Postman’s tracker. http://tracker2.postman.i2p, only accessible from i2p itself, which you’ll need to have setup and running first to view.

This tracker needs more seeders and uploaders in general, and by improving those things service for everyone is better. So the more the merrier.

Thanks! Feel free to ask any questions, there also might be other people who use i2p now for torrenting. I'm sure they'll help too.

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[-] BrotherCod@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I2p is not a substitution for a proxy. I2p is an end-to-end encryption Network and unless it's changed over the past couple of years it's incredibly slow for any multimedia transfer. Coupled on top of that you have to have the knowledge to be able to set up your full system to route all traffic through it. So using it as a a security step for most people is already out of the question. It's not like a VPN where you can just plug and play. Having your entire network communicate through l2p is going to make everything substantially slower.

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You don't need to route all traffic, just the traffic from your bittorrent client.

Download speeds have improved significantly as there are more people on there seeding than ever.

i2p is significantly better than a proxy, you jump through multiple hosts/tunnels before reaching the service.

Also it isn't all network traffic at all, just services connecting through i2p like a web browser you have setup to use it.

[-] TooL@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Doesn't this still have the same vulnerability of the potential for a hostile takeover similar to tor? Also, is there any way to use i2p to bypass geoblocking? If not that's a major reason why I and many people use vpns.

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 2 points 1 year ago

So no, i2p won't interact with the clearnet at all. So it doesn't help with access to clearnet sites that are geoblocked. I never used VPNs for geoblocking specifically, just for torrenting, so this wasn't in my list of use cases.

It makes sense sticking with a VPN if you really need to access a site that is blocked in your country. Or you could use Tor for that, but Tor has its own issues.

Also I'm still not familiar enough with I2P to know if it's vulnerable to hostile takeover. It IS a completely different protocol from Tor though, so my guess would be it doesn't have that same issue.

[-] truckkun@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I don't even use VPNs for torrenting lol. I use them only for either geoblocking or scrambling my IP address for practical clearnet purposes such as signing up multiple accounts. Torrenting is not prosecuted or even mentioned in my country. The only issue I could have is my ISP not liking my download volume and throttling for a short period of time to counteract my "abuse" of the network.

[-] kitonthenet@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

hostile takeover similar to tor

yes but the NSA/FBI are not going after you for seeding family guy, they're there to get the CSAM and drugs

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 1 points 1 year ago

This is hilarious. Thank you hahahahah.

[-] elghoto@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Can you only seed to people on i2p?

[-] nivenkos@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

But the multiple jumps make it very slow.

There's a reason we want port forwarding for near direct connections for torrenting.

[-] ZeroNationality@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

That's not why port forwarding is important. Port forwarding is needed so that fresh peers can communicate with you and join the swarm. That act has the side-effect of speeding up transfers by allowing more people into the swarm spreading the transfer across more potential seeds/peers

[-] archy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I have never used i2p but isn't it pretty slow? I only have experience with Tor and it's not recommended to torrent through Tor. I did listen to the interviews of both Tor and i2p on a Privacy podcast but it was a while back

[-] lp0101@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Fuck, this is how I find out Mullvad is dropping support for port forwarding.

I already have a protonmail account, guess I'll get the VPN too now. My entire setup relies on using wireguard on the firewall level, so another solution like i2p won't work

[-] Truestorydreams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

I'll read up on this. It's new for me and thr first time hearing of it, but we should always consider working alternatives

[-] lodion@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago

Doesn't this make every user the equivalent of a Tor exit node? Meaning you'll have possibly dodgy traffic appearing to come from your internet service?

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No. I2P works differently than Tor. There are no exit nodes, because there are no exits. I2P is separate from all clearnet traffic. For example, you cannot browse reddit.com from within i2p, like you can with tor.

[-] LoafyLemon@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

It's a entirely different protocol then? That's smart actually. I need to look into it.

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 1 points 1 year ago

Completely different protocol, yep. Has nothing to do with Tor really. The only similarity is that both are 'darknets'

[-] truckkun@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago

What mullvad fiasco??

[-] helpimnotdrowning@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

I wouldn't call it a "fiasco", but they're disabling port-forwarding for everyone on July 1st. They say it's because people are hosting "unfavorable" content and it's getting their IPs banned. Their article

[-] m3enzo@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

I'm looking up I2P vs VPN and people are saying that I2P cannot replace VPN but I fail to understand why. Can I get some more insight to that?

[-] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I2p is a closed network where everyone participates and using cryptography packets are encrypted so so only the destination can reason them. All packets are sent through short lived tunnels which are connections of various nodes in the network that change at every so often.

You traffic never hits the main internet. Its a full darknet with a torrent network system , email, websites, private encrypted messaging and more built on top of it.

So they are all encrypted. Nobody knows the IP of anyone else

[-] Ignacio@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

What Mullvad fiasco? I'm still using them :|

[-] Taubin@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

It's not really a fiasco at all. OP seems to be blowing it way out of proportion. For the vast majority of users it's not a big deal at all. They are disallowing port forwarding due to how many letters/threats they've gotten from their datacenters and law enforcement.

[-] daan@lemmy.vanoverloop.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

This is very annoying, because it makes it hard for other peers to connect with my server and it will make it harder to seed. This is bad, I will likely switch next year.

[-] makos@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

Mullvad stopped port forwarding due to being harassed by law enforcement agencies.

[-] mirisbowring@lemmy.primboard.de 0 points 1 year ago

Could you add a block about I2P in general?

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's an i2p lemmy community, feel free to join us there. i2p

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I2P is a darknet similar to Tor in some ways, but it is perfectly legal and safe to use depending on what you're doing on it, of course.

It is used for regular browsing and running services on. People setup hidden services like websites or mail servers or anything on it really. Lemmy could theoretically be hosted over I2P as well, it just wouldn't federate properly with these ones on the clearnet.

Any other info you would want included? I2P can get pretty in depth but that's my basic understanding of what I use it for.