=head1 AnoNet, Take 2! So, you came across anoNet and thought it sounded great, so you decided to join in order to check it out. ...and found the (only) client port doesn't work half the time, ...and most of the advertised services no longer exist, ...and most of the people have left, ...and those who are left can hardly be classified as friendly, ...and so you left, and perhaps found another darknet instead. Well, you're not the only one who's been turned off, and a few of us have decided to fix AnoNet. Some of us are relatively new, while others joined AnoNet years ago, and left out of disgust. A number of features set version 2 apart from the original: =over =item No false advertising If you see something advertised here, it exists. You won't see stuff that hasn't been up in years here. =item No centralized network control You don't have to worry about Kaos waking up one morning and blocking your access to the whole network by deciding to filter private ASNs. You also don't have to worry about a couple of powerful guys getting together and "blacklisting" you from the network for some unspecified reason with an inquisition against your peers. =item No centralized IRC control No centralized IRC control: You don't have to worry about risc g-lining you from the "official" IRC network for no apparent reason, and refusing to even admit to having g-lined you. =item No resource mess We have one mechanism for resource management, a decentralized (not just distributed, but truly decentralized) resource database. You don't have to deal with half a zillion incompatible (and in the case of the wiki, down) services, run by guys who may not even be on the AnoNet tomorrow. =item No arbitrary rules If you read the advertising for AnoNet, you probably think it's whatever you make of it. Sadly, there's a tiny handful of people who have control over most of the network, and make new (unwritten) rules whenever the mood strikes them. The sum of those rules is that AnoNet is whatever I make of it. In version 2, we've undertaken to fix that, by both technical and administrative means. =back =head2 How to Join Joining is pretty simple: If you know how to connect to a client port, UFO's CP (L or L) will already land you in the right place. (Once you're online, you can join "the club" at 1.3.3.7:6667 #anonet, or irc.somerandomnick.ano:6667 #RendezVous. If you don't have an IRC client handy (or if you're too lazy to set it up to avoid leaking your real info), you can just telnet over to irc.somerandomnick.ano port 2323. Alternatively, you can point your Jabber client over to irc.somerandomnick.ano, or you can even use Jabber s2s to talk with everybody else by just joining the MUC room RendezVouz at irc.somerandomnick.ano.) If OpenVPN is all Greek to you, UFO's IRC server is also reachable from the public Internet (irc.kwaaknet.org port 6667 channel #anonet). If IRC is all Greek to you, you may want to talk to your favorite search engine about that, or just use KwaakNet's Webchat (L). (Note that if your only aim in joining AnoNet is to search Google anonymously, you can save yourself the hassle by just heading over to Scroogle (L).) =head2 Why to Join (Note: There's now a separate page (L) with links to many more reasons to join AnoNet.) You'd want to join AnoNet2 for the same reasons as you'd want to join AnoNet1: to exercise your freedom of speech and action, without having to worry too much about people who don't like you making too many connections between your online and offline identities. Unlike AnoNet1, we're not nazis about our rules, so if you don't feel the need to conceal your real-life identity, we won't get all mad at you. Just please be considerate of those who would like to stay anonymous ("pseudonomous," technically), and everybody is happy. A secondary reason for joining is to gain an opportunity to experiment with internet technologies without breaking "the real thing." While that's not the purpose behind AnoNet, it seems to be a common reason for joining, and as long as you don't break too much with your fun, you're more than welcome to have your fun here. You may want to join for the social scene (we even have our own social network, although nobody uses it for what should be obvious reasons), or you may want to create your own social scene. Again, you're not looking at an "official" reason for joining, but nobody owns AnoNet, so "official" is an artificial term 'round here. Finally, you may be getting a bit nervous at the amount of regulation piling up around the world against the public Internet. Since the "public" Internet is owned and managed by a number of multinational corporations, it's fairly easy for governments to regulate it. Part of the main purpose behind AnoNet has always been to get away from those private control points, in order to create a truly public internet. In AnoNet1, anybody who can regulate crzydmnd can regulate AnoNet's "official" wiki (and by extension, its resource "database"), and anybody who can regulate Kaos can regulate AnoNet's "official" client port (and by extension, all new AnoNet users), so the private control point problem hasn't quite been solved there. AnoNet2 is still largely controlled by UFO and somerandomnick, but we have both technical and administrative measures in place to ensure that as the network grows, the two of us will no longer have enough control to destroy the network, even if our own governments ever decide to try regulating us. =head2 Why Not to Join If you're looking for a ready-made community, where you just show up and "browse," AnoNet (either 1 or 2) is probably not what you're after. The whole concept behind AnoNet is that it's whatever you make it. That's not to say you'll have to build everything from scratch (and in fact, it's a bit too late for that, unless you want to Ibuild stuff that others have already built, and if you can do better than the original, people will probably switch to your version), but if you want to be happy here, you're best off bringing your creativity along rather than leaving it behind when you join. =head2 What You Can Do Since AnoNet uses the same protocols as the public Internet, anything that's possible on the public Internet is theoretically possible on AnoNet. In practice, we don't have anything that nobody bothered to provide on AnoNet. Here's a list of things you can currently do on AnoNet2 (i.e., without having to set anything up yourself): =over =item * DNS (1.0.27.38) =item * IRC (L or L) =item * Jabber (irc.somerandomnick.ano) =item * Web =item * PSYC (psyced: IRC, Jabber, social networking, "twittering," newsgroups, etc.) (irc.somerandomnick.ano) =item * git (including a decentralized "wiki" replacement) (L and possibly other feeds) =back Here's a list of things that somebody claims to be working on: =over =item * email =item * news (NNTP) =item * outbound HTTP proxy to the public Internet =back If you want something that's not on either list, you'll either have to set it up yourself, or con somebody else into setting it up himself. (If it's something that others are likely to find useful and/or interesting, you'll probably have an easy time recruiting guys to help you out.)