Security is very important in this digital age. Network protocols like Invisible Internet Protocol or I2P, a network layer that lets you be anonymous on the internet. With I2P, your request goes through multiple nodes of the network computers. This makes it hard to track the original user and helps with anonymity. Due to I2P, sometimes you can also access censored sites by the government anonymously.
I2PD or I2P Daemon is open open-source I2P client based on C++. It is an anonymous network layer where the communications are encrypted and the IP addresses of users are not revealed. It was started in 2014 by the PuprleI2P team with the first release in 2015. It was made to be more secure, reliable and performant than I2P.
Key Features of I2PD
- I2PD can be used to make I2P networks.
- The communication goes through end-to-end encryption. The communication channel is encrypted to prevent from external entities surveillance or monitoring.
- I2PD can be used for file sharing, a crypto network, or a decentralized system of nodes.
- It is reliable as there is no single point of failure like a server in traditional communication.
- The encryption used is strong so even if someone is listening to your communication, the encryption would take a long time to decrypt.
- You can customize the I2PD router as well. The customization options include the tunneling configuration, bandwidth allocation, etc.
- It can be used over a wide range of transfer protocols like TCP, UDP, etc.
- It supports a wide range of platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- The plugin support can help extend the functionality of I2PD.
Prerequisites for Installing I2PD on Linux
You should take care of the following before installing I2PD on Linux:-
- You should have sudo or root access to your system. Installing I2PD requires administrative privileges.
- Your Linux distro should support I2PD and the network protocols it uses. Most of the popular Linux distros support I2PD.
- You should have a fast and stable internet connection.
- Update the package manager’s repository index and system as well.
- Tweak the firewall or network setting to let I2PD work. Make a separate proxy for it, the ports will be displayed in the application itself.
Step-by-Step Guide to Installing I2PD on Linux
You can install I2PD using the package managers on different Linux distros. Below we’ve listed the ways to install I2PD on Linux.
Installing I2PD on Ubuntu using PPA
We can add the ppa repository by PurpleI2P to install I2PD using the following command in the terminal:-
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:purplei2p/i2pd
sudo apt update
sudo apt install i2pd
Installing I2PD on Debian
Before installing I2PD you need apt-transport-https package. If it’s not installed you can use the following command to install it:-
sudo apt install apt-transport-https
Then you can add the repository and install I2PD using the following command:-
wget -q -O - https://repo.i2pd.xyz/.help/add_repo | sudo bash -s -
sudo apt update
sudo apt install i2pd
Installing I2PD on Fedora
You can install I2PD on Fedora using the copr repositories. And then install it using the dnf package manager. The commands to do so are:-
dnf copr enable supervillain/i2pd
sudo dnf install i2pd
sudo systemctl enable i2pd && sudo systemctl start i2pd
Installing I2PD using snap
I2PD can be installed using the snap package manager using the following command:-
sudo snap install i2pd
How to browse anonymous websites using I2PD?
By default, I2PD uses 127.0.0.1:4444 port. So configure your web browser to use HTTP proxy on the same port. You’ll be able to browse the website anonymously.
For Firefox:- Go to General -> Network Settings. You can then choose the Manual proxy configuration option. Enter HTTP proxy 127.0.0.1 on Port 4444.
You can run the following command for Chromium:-
chromium --proxy-server="http://127.0.0.1:4444"
Conclusion
I2PD can be a very useful tool if you want to be anonymous on the internet and increase your security as well while browsing. It has all the features of I2P and improves upon it. It is more secure, cryptographically encrypted and more performant due to being built on C++. If you’ve some censored sites in your country, I2PD can help you access them anonymously as well. Due to this, it is beneficial for people like journalists, news agencies, or in general users who want privacy. It is highly flexible and can be used in a variety of applications. We recommend going through the official site and analysing the pros and cons of using it. It can certainly improve privacy and anonymity but you shouldn’t rely on it. I2PD is still under development and is going through constant updates to improve.
In this article, we’ve listed the prerequisites, ways to install and how to anonymously browse the website as well. You can still be tracked through the website. To be more anonymous, you need to implement more privacy solutions.