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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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[-] jokkayom@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 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

[-] archy@lemmy.world 6 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 3 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

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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

[-] LostCause@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

Interesting stuff, I had heard of i2p before, but mostly in connection with darknet and not yet with torrenting, but it‘s something I might play around with now that I know.

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

I had never heard of it! Thx for the tip

[-] Reporter4567@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I just changed to AirVPN.
Some alternatives I considered: using i2p (but was unaware of the tracker you mentioned) and exploring a fancy VPN called Orchid because it seemed fancy, but gave up on the last two.
I'll try again i2p to share my Ubuntu ISO.

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[-] m3enzo@kbin.social 5 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 6 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

[-] karce@wizanons.dev 5 points 1 year ago

I think the only use-case maybe not covered is finding torrents that aren't uploaded to the I2P tracker yet. They need to be cross-seeded from people who originally uploaded them or from people downloading them from the clearnet to be available.

An example of this is anime. There is significantly less anime available on i2p currently than there are on sites like nyaa.si. People can cross-seed these torrents to make them available on i2p. I do that, for instance. But other than that I can't think of any other use case that isn't covered.

[-] mirisbowring@lemmy.primboard.de 5 points 1 year ago

Could you add a block about I2P in general?

[-] CAVOK@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

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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

[-] ErenYakov@stars.leemoon.network 3 points 1 year ago
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[-] rlhe@infosec.pub 3 points 1 year ago

Has anyone tried to use this with Docker and Raspberry Pi? It doesn't appear to work for me: i2p_1 | standard_init_linux.go:219: exec user process caused: no such file or directory which I think is probably an architecture error. I saw somewhere on Reddit someone was working on an Arm64 docker, but can't find the post now.

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

As I remember there should be arm64 images for i2pd, like this one https://hub.docker.com/r/purplei2p/i2pd

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[-] death916@lemmy.death916.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

That usually means that the image you used isn't built for arm I think. If you used an arm image idk tho

[-] death916@lemmy.death916.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

There are arm images check my posts or the docker hub for lemmy

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[-] elghoto@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Can you port forward with i2p?

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

Yes. When you setup I2P, if you are on a home router with NAT, you setup port forwarding for I2P to get through. I believe it supports UPnP as well, which would circumvent this need.

You don't need to configure anything else for being connectable from the wider network. The torrent clients remain connectable allowing you to easily seed.

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this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
184 points (92.2% liked)

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