On Android/GrapheneOS, Firefox/Mull/variants is the only browser with the needed proxy settings to use with i2p.
After a bit of searching, it works very well!
As i2p servers you can use “i2p”, “i2pd” (more minimal but more efficient) or “InviziblePro” which bundles some implementation of i2p.
I am using i2pd currently, and it works well.
Installed the apps with Obtainium
- Mull from the DivestOS F-Droid repo
- i2pd from the purplei2p F-Droid repo
- MullvadVPN from Github, Orbot from the guardianproject repo (as fallback if clearnet sites are used)
The browser can open .i2p and clearnet sites, using a little hack:
network.proxy.no_proxies_on
to !.i2p
Dumb question: can anyone host a i2p site on a personal device? For instance, if I leave a PC or old phone connected to the network, how easy/hard is it to configure so I have a working site accessible to everyone on the network?
it shouldn’t be hard if you run your own I2P router. I think you so this in the tunnel manager menu
Anyone can host a site. Just keep it up for like a month without a pause so that it can be discovered.
Then go to a domain registrar and get a domain name. I2p sites have BASE32 names, kinda like onion addresses. But they can also use shorter names like postman.i2p
If you register such a name, the site will become more discoverable as those registrars likely share the sites, you might appear in some lists, people connect to you, add you to their address book and forward stuff to you.
Neat, I might set up one of my older, currently unused phones to be my host. As soon as I figure something I want to share around
If you want to host stuff, you probably want Termux. It is its own distribution but you may want to run a Debian proot inside Termux, which will have way more software and maybe also more reliably and fast security updates (heard that was a problem in Termux)
that about:config hack is neat, but it would be much betterif firefox supported container tabs like on desktop.
Unfortunately since they moved back to their mercury based internal code forge, it’s become quite difficult to track the state of unimplemented features, so who knows if they even have it in mind
yes absolutely
They ditched git? Really?
it seems so. makes so much sense I can’t even comprehend it
What is I2p?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2P
I2P and Tor both aim to provide anonymous internet browsing but differ in their architectures and methods. Tor (short for The Onion Router) uses a system of layered encryption to route internet traffic through a network of volunteer-operated servers. This creates a series of encrypted layers (hence the onion analogy) that mask the user’s IP address and data content from any would-be observers.
In contrast, I2P uses a garlic routing technique, where multiple messages are bundled together into a single encrypted packet. This method enhances privacy by making it more difficult for anyone to analyze the traffic and link the data back to specific users.
Also, Tor supports access to the open internet (clearnet), while I2P only allows access to websites and services (known as eepsites) within its own networks. Outproxies, which are similar to Tor exit nodes, can be used to access the clearnet with I2P. However, this reduces privacy as your data leaves the network and is a less common use case.
Magic
is there anything interesting on i2p? (not sarcastic, genuinely questioning)
all i could find were things easier to get on the clearnet.
What would you expect?
The tor network has more common stuff, drugs etc.
I2p meanwhile is just really good for anonymity. I think using it for messengers is the best use. I was able to find a bunch of stuff, and yes unlike the dark web this would mostly be also there on the clearnet, mainly because there is no such business on i2p I guess
Just random people offering services for free, a few pads, pastebins, fileservers
You can find quite some cool stuff actually, but I think the main advantage is using it for messaging
And unlike i2p, i2pd also doesnt really use much battery? I could totally keep that on all day
Use Invizible pro. much better to run it separately, global to the system
I didnt understand your message