# Small Guide to I2P

## So, what's this all about?

I2P builds up a new net inside the usual internet, connecting nodes together via encrypted connections. It is a JAVA prgram with its most used part (the encryption of the data) written in handoptimized assembler code. It will use your bandwith, your RAM and your CPU. It will use them all up if you do not limit it. I2P will route unknown traffic through your node, even stuff you dislike. As that data is encrypted, nobody knows whats data went to or drom your node.

First, ALWAYS use the latest stable release. Development releases are called "mtn version" and are marked with a -, e.g. 0.6.5-1. Those are usually useable by all but could do harm to your I2P experience. You can get the latest MTN builds from my eepsite echelon.i2p, but always remember: I built them, you need to trust me not to changed the code! After you get the right "i2pupdate.zip" file, put that file into the I2P directory and hit restart on the router console http://127.0.0.1:7657. Do NOT deflate the zip file!

I2P is very dynamic - after startup it tries to get known to other I2P routers and measures their speed - you need to wait some 10-120 minutes until your I2P router knows enough other ones to obtain full power of I2P.

## Filesharing

I2P is able to do anonymous filesharing. But as there are NO gateways between real net and I2P, you can only share/ download torrents from within I2P. Look e.g. postman.i2p or planet.i2p. You CANNOT use azureus, utorrent or any other usual client. You cannot download anonymous torrents from mininova, piratebay or else. You need to use I2P internal torrents and I2P aware programs like I2Psnark (builtin, suitable for 1-20 torrents) I2PRufus (external, python, high CPU load, suitable >20 torrents) http://echelon.i2p/i2prufus I2P-BT (external, python) I2PsnarkXL (mod of I2Psnark made by fwd)

There are also gnutella and edonkey clients: i2phex for gnutella (http://echelon.i2p/i2phex) imule for edonkey (http://echelon.i2p/imule)

Remember, as I2P uses other routers to route your traffic via 1-6 other PCs, your transferrates in P2P are slower than in usual internet. But you are anonymous, no one can easily (within 2 months-2 years) get your IP! torrents inside of I2P reaches up to 50 kb/sec, usual are 10-20 kb/sec per torrent i2phex reaches up to 20 kb/sec, usually 5-10 kb/sec imule in times reaches 10 kb/sec, usually 5-10 kb/sec

In I2PHex and imule you can just tell "share file or directory", in torrent you need to create a .torrent file and upload that (and ONLY that small .torrent) file to the trackers like tracker.postman.i2p/

I2P is a smaller net (1000 users) which grows slowly. As of which amount of shared data will slowly rise.

I2P is anonymous and it does not censor - there is no administrator. There IS unwanted stuff like kiddyporn, nazism, or else. If you dislike all this, do not use I2P. There is NO way to prohibite this stuff to appear in a anonymous net like I2P. (as that stuff is available shows the anonymity and transfer function of I2P is working well enough) You can delete the destinations in question from your local hosts.txt file (or deface them) which will partly prevent you to reach those bad sies by accident.

## Internet (the websites)

Only one outproxy (gateway I2P - webpages in usual Internet) is working. It is NOT official from I2P, I2P does work without. If that outproxy is slow, offline, gone,.. I2P still works on and cannot do anything to change that failure. That outproxy translates usual internet webpages into the I2P net and you can reach them via your Router. The best way for usual webpages is TOR, not that outproxy. Remember: the owner of the outproxy got ALL traffic from all I2P users visiting Internet pages and will risk that into the police!

This proxy is false.i2p. In newer I2P routers it is enabled, but not in older ones. Go to http://127.0.0.1:7657/i2ptunnel/index.jsp tunnels page and click on the eepProxy tunnel. Change the entry for the "Outproxies" to false.i2p and save. On the tunnels page, stop the epproxy tunnel and start it again, now your router will use the false.i2p outproxy.

No other (known) gateways are setup and running. No one we know will run the gateway for torrent or any other P2P data (and risk his life).

## Bandwidth

http://127.0.0.1:7657/config.jsp

Setup your bandwith wisely. Know your linespeed!

E.g. most common terms are: 1Mbit = roughly 100 kbyte/sec 10 MBit = roughly 1100 kbyte/sec 512 kbit = roughly 50 kbyte/sec or in germany: 16000er = roughly 1500 kbyte/sec 6000er = roughly 600 kbyte/sec 1000er = roughly 100 kb/sec

Set your bandwith limits to 10% under your line speed and burst rate to your line speed. Set the bandwith share percentage to: >80% if lowest bandwith setting is >50k >50% if lowest bandwith setting is >30k >20% if lowest bandwith setting is >16k

There is no shared bandwith under 16k.

Limit your participating tunnels (shared bandwith) on: http://127.0.0.1:7657/configadvanced.jsp with the line: router.maxParticipatingTunnels=500

2000 is for roughly 600 kb/sec - very high value with high CPU load 1000 is for roughly 300 kb/sec 600 is a good value for 150-200kb/sec 300 is roughly 90 kb/sec 150 roughly 50 kb/sec Remember: even failed tunnel requests will result in a part tunnel on the hops in between! Those said, there are far more part tunnels unused than used in the live net under load, which results in slower bandwith per tunnel in the end. It is wise to first limit the bandwith and afterwards the part tunnels, e.g. set some more part tunnels and let I2P reach the bandwith limit instead of the part tunnels limit!

## What is shared bandwidth?

I2P transports your date from the client to the server through 1-6 hops (other I2P routers). Each of this hops sees the data from you as "participating tunnel" - which is the shared bandwith of them. With this in mind, I2P needs some amount of this shared bandwith at some amount of routers. Share as much as you are able of - others will thank you!

With the "share percentage" set like above, you will obtain enough speed for your own traffic and obtain some participating tunnels (if >16kb/sec) with some noise traffic to hide your traffic in the stream.

With release 0.6.5 there is some method to prefer your own traffic ahead of shared traffic which will result in better experience to you!

## Addressbook

I2P uses a local addressbook to link short DNS names with the internal used 512bit hashes (which are destination IDs). Those links are saved insside the hosts.txt and userhosts.txt files in the i2p directory. Hosts which are not in those files cannot be reached via the short DNS names and a error message with "jumper links" will appear. Those links will ask some hosts services and forward to the correct site (if the site is known to them). Those hosts services just made a form to add new "hosts" and those results public available. You can subscribe to those hosts service and let your hosts.txt file be updated automatic. Go to http://127.0.0.1:7657/susidns/subscriptions.jsp SusiDNS and enter the hosts services into the textbox (and save afterwards): http://www.i2p2.i2p/hosts.txt http://stats.i2p/cgi-bin/newhosts.txt http://tino.i2p/hosts.txt http://i2host.i2p/cgi-bin/i2hostag You can add one of them, two or all. SusiDNS will now ask those hosts for new entries to the hosts.txt and those will be added to your hosts.txt. The userhosts.txt will ONLY be updated by yourself (the user) and not be published into the net! Remember, names once set could not be changed! If you loose your key (destination ID) to your eepsite, service,..., there is no way to change the linking between the DNS name and the (lost) destination ID automatic! Only manual by each user itself - great topic to discuss of need to renew DNS hostnames. As this subscription will not update old entries, you can "deface" unwanted eepsites with a false key and if you hit the bad name in browser by accident, you will not see the bad stuff!

## Out of Memory errors

If your router hits the Out of Memory error - check your logs! Usual point for OOM are to much torrents in i2psnark - i2psnark is a real memory hogg and >10 torrents it requiers hell a lot of memory!

Maybe it is possible for you to increase the wrapper memory config. This ONLY works if you start the I2P service restartable with console (on Windows). In I2P directory edit the wrapper.config file and change the values: wrapper.java.maxmemory=256 (or even to 512, IF possible) Afterwards shutdown I2P complete (the service) and restart it.

## Blocklists

Sometimes attackers trying to flood the I2P net and try to do some harm. And some folks setting localnet IPs as their internet reachable address. To prevent those bad router to harm the local router, I2P implemented a local blocklist system. It is NOT integrated automatic as it could really harm your I2P experience if setup the wrong way. The way to enable blocklists is: Get the file http://zzz.i2p/files/blocklist.txt and copy this file into the I2P directory. On http://127.0.0.1:7657/configadvanced.jsp set the option router.blocklist.enable=true - click on Apply and restart the router with the restart link left on router console. The blockfile.txt file follows a special order, youŽll get it if you read it. The first entry is the reason to be shown on http://127.0.0.1:7657/profiles.jsp at the bottom in the shitlist section. The second entry is the IP or the dest ID of a router. Right now there are only private subnets in the blocklist AND one chinese router which floods the floodfill DB while restarting every few minutes with a different router ID and far to less bandwith for being a floodfill router.

(By echelon -- echelon.i2p )