wiki:Content

Note: Please don't directly edit this content, but rather add your ammendments underneath the text in question, or in (brackets) next to the word or sentence you think to improve so we don't end up treading on each others toes. Feel free to attribute edits to yourself, to further clarify who's doing what.

HOMEPAGE

This page should serve to educate the first time visitor about I2P without overwhelming them with information. Anything that requires technical definition/clarification should be an link to documents providing the info. This is also potentially the place for a brief table of contents with a line or two about each section (users/developers/volunteers).

[g: can you put "What is" and "What can" into tabs, they looks a bit long for a modern front page...]
[g: maybe you could make them even shorter into essential points or several sentences. and insert a nice simple interesting(non-tech savvy) picture for each topic to better illustrate them. nowadays, ppl are really not patient enough to read manuals.]

What IS I2P?

I2P, otherwise known as the Invisible Internet Project, is a full darknet implementation that runs on Java and is therefore available anywhere Java will run, including desktops, embedded systems and cellphones. [RN Edit (This does not mean the browser accessing i2p needs to be running JavaScript?.) /RN Edit]

What is a darknet, you ask?[g: sounds like a good faq entry.] It's a network within a network, unmonitorable by your ISP or government, providing, in the case of I2P, anonymous access to a broad raft[range (RN)] of services including websites, chat networks, and peer-to-peer filesharing facilities.[g: hmmm, web,chat,p2p... looks like good content for a nice illustration picture]

What can I2P do for you?

The I2P network provides strong privacy protections for communication over the Internet. Many activities that would risk your privacy on the public Internet can be conducted anonymously on I2P. Though suitable for general privacy-conscious usage, I2P is also designed to protect users under high risk, such as:

Edit: This is the homepage, let's keep it simple here. No jargon, intermediate information.. "strong privacy protections" = "encrypted, anonymous network" linked to more detailed info page(s).

  • Activists
  • Marginalized groups
  • Victims of ethnic, political, or religious persecution
  • Journalists
  • Whistleblowers
  • Users concerned with the privacy of their communications (data rentention laws and govt surveillance)
  • File sharers
  • More use cases…

Try I2P now

(download link)

I2P

How does I2P work?

Tubes It’s a series of tubes… Edit: Let's try and avoid the whole tubes metaphor. It's really not helpful.

Edit2: see i2prouter.png and onionrouting.gif.

In I2P, everyone running the application helps everyone else, by default, anonymously. In order to hide your identity within the network, you bounce your traffic through other I2P-enabled machines, so your requests to view an I2P website, for example, go indirectly via other I2P machines (known as routers in I2P terminology, or nodes in Tor terms). This works in similar fashion to Tor, but unlike Tor, everyone in the network helps everyone else, and you don't expose yourself to external monitoring by passing traffic to the external net. What happens in I2P stays in I2P! Furthermore, unlike Freenet (another P2P darknet implementation), you're not hosting encrypted content for other users, simply relaying their traffic, which from start to finish stays encrypted.

Additionally, no special magic is required to be an I2P router.. we implement technology similar to that used by Skype and other peer-to-peer applications to allow you to be part of the network even if you're behind restrictive firewalls or other systems that prevent inbound traffic from directly reaching your computer. No need to port forward on the router or open special ports, although if you can do so, you may see improved performance.

Supported Applications

  • Email - Integrated web mail interface, decentralized email plugin
  • Web browsing - Anonymous websites, gateways to and from the public Internet
  • Blogging and forums - Blogging plugins, Syndie support
  • Website hosting - Integrated web server
  • Real-time chat - Instant messaging and IRC
  • File sharing - ED2K and Gnutella clients, integrated BitTorrent client
  • Decentralized file storage - Tahoe-LAFS
  • More supported applications…

Edit:

  • An "in-house" DNS system which permits easy, free registration of .i2p domains, and also facilitates (non-anonymous) access to those without I2P installed, via our "inproxy" system.
  • I2P provisions[provides] its own plugin system, which allows those with some coding experience to augment I2P's native features with their own. Existing plugins include an IRC client, a blogging platform, an open bittorrent tracker, a peer-to-peer mail system and an I2P implementation of Gnutella's peer-to-peer filesharing system.
Last modified 10 years ago Last modified on Aug 3, 2010 7:25:48 PM

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