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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[-] MavTheHack@lemmy.fmhy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

PSA: qbittorrent has early access (still in development) for native i2p torrenting. I recommend waiting for that to be officially released

[-] BrotherCod@kbin.social 6 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 3 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 4 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.

[-] 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

[-] dustojnikhummer@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

And what do I gain with this over having my torrent client bound to a wireguard interface running through a commercial VPN provider?

[-] SaltySalamander@lemmy.fmhy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

And what do I gain

Literally nothing.

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[-] archy@lemmy.world 4 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

[-] ZeroNationality@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

It's one of those things that gets faster the longer I2P software is running. As I understand it, it takes time to building link betoween yourself and other members of the network in a safe and secure way, but once they're built up that extends your reach and speed

[-] FloppyFlounder8@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

I'm skeptical of changing what works. Haven't had any issues with the VPN I use. I'll keep this in mind for sure nonetheless.

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

Honestly that is fine. Just consider this to be one of the times you hear about I2P. I also don't typically start paying much attention to something unless I've heard it like 3 or more times.

[-] Potato@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

How well does i2p mesh with private trackers? Would they be able to track up/down ratios?

[-] lodion@aussie.zone 2 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 2 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.

[-] lodion@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Gotcha. So its basically a large, decentralized overlay network...ie you can't use it to "privately" access clearnet content as you can with a VPN. Sounds like the headline is misleading.

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's exactly correct, yes. A VPN is still useful for accessing clearnet websites that you want to conceal from your ISP. I'm arguing that you don't need to go to clearnet websites for most of the stuff you download from public trackers. private trackers are always going to have great quality releases, but I could see them moving over to i2p at some point as well. Though DMCA shouldn't be much of a concern for private trackers anyway.

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[-] lp0101@kbin.social 2 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

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

Can you go a bit more into detail what it actually is, what are its advantages and disadvantages and how it works? I find it weird that people are still paying for VPNs if the superior solution that consists of just running this program existed this whole time, there's gotta be a catch that you're not mentioning. What or who exactly guarantees anonymity and safety if using this tool?

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

I did explain in another comment some general information about I2P. The one where I mention how it is a darknet but is much different than Tor.

The reason many more people don't use it yet is because it is hard to setup. That's pretty much it. Similar to lemmy or other things that exist it is just difficult to get people using it unless it is significantly easier to use.

However, recently things have gotten easier. The dev for i2p has included an easy windows installer for i2p that should make this much better for most users. So some development has happened there.

Also just recently qBittorrent included support for I2P in their latest release. Before that, only 2 Bittorrent clients existed. Now we're up to 3.

The biggest advantage is that you don't need to spend money anymore for a VPN. Or any money for a seedbox either if you have a home computer you can just leave up to seed for you.

The biggest disadvantage is the hard setup and (so far) lack of torrent availability. More stuff is getting added all the time but we need more scene groups adding their releases to i2p (cross-seeding).

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

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

[-] Taubin@lemmy.ml 5 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 3 points 1 year ago

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

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

I'm hoping DHT and PEX support comes to libtorrent eventually so that qbittorrent can use DHT/PEX with I2P and not just http trackers. I think only i2psnark and a few other clients support it right now. I encourage everyone to cross seed their public torrents to the I2P network and upload to patracker to support the network. Unfortunately, for niche content and private trackers VPNs/seedboxes are a necessity

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