=head1 AnoNet, Take 2! (Note: There's now a page (L) explaining a bit about anonymity in general and its place in AnoNet in particular.) (Note: There's now a darknet comparison page (L), where you can compare and contrast the various darknet options.) (Note: There's now a separate page (L), to answer all your AnoNet-related questions.) 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 take action and fix AnoNet. Some of us are relatively new, while others joined AnoNet1 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. (This page is easy to update from within AnoNet2 by anybody who has an update/correction to make, and changes normally propagate within no more than a few days.) =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 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. Since the whole purpose behind AnoNet was to create a censorship-resistant alternative to the government-censored "public" Internet, arbitrary censorship on the "official" AnoNet1 IRC network by anonymous government members is particularly troubling. AnoNet2 has no "official" IRC network, and the servers most commonly used have interesting channels bridged with a relay bot, so even if you manage to annoy an IRC server operator to the point where he decides to g-line you from his whole "network," that doesn't automatically prevent you from connecting to another server and accessing one of the bridged channels. (Obviously, if you manage to annoy the operators of all the linked servers to the point where all of them g-line you from their respective "networks" and nobody wants to let you relay your own server in, then you're probably out of luck. Of course, that doesn't prevent you from running your own IRC server, and those who want to hear you can still join it.) =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. Managing your resources is as simple as taking a VI to the appropriate files, doing a "git commit," and then just waiting for everybody else to pull your changes (either directly from you, or indirectly from others who pull from you). =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. AnoNet2 not only has no arbitrary rules - it has no rules whatsoever. =back =head2 How to Join There are many ways to join AnoNet. If you just want to hang out with us and chat, it's very esay: =over =item webchat L =item telnet chat L =item IRC chat L =back If you're adventurous enough to connect, UFO has a client port at L. Once you're online, you can reconnect to IRC from inside AnoNet: =over =item IRC L =item IRC L (L, if you don't have DNS for some reason) =item IRC L (L, for the same reason as before and if you want you can use SSL on port 6697) =item telnet L =item Jabber irc.somerandomnick.ano (RendezVous MUC) =back (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). If you're looking to browse the rest of the public Internet anonymously, though, we now have outbound proxies, which you're more than welcome to use.) =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. (For more discussion on this topic in particular, you may want to check out a separate page (L) here.) 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 AnoNet1's "official" wiki (and by extension, its resource "database"), and anybody who can regulate Kaos can regulate AnoNet1's "official" client port (and by extension, all new AnoNet1 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 quite 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. (If you've been around darknets before, you're probably quite familiar with "design by committee." On AnoNet, you're more than welcome to invite a committee to discuss anything you want, but you don't have to. If you already know what you're doing, just "build it and they will come.") =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 * Live WorldCup Stream (offline until next year) =item * DNS (Recursive: 1.0.27.38; TLD: 1.0.27.37; Root: 1.0.27.39) =item * IRC (L or L) =item * Jabber (irc.somerandomnick.ano) =item * Web (for example, L) =item * PSYC (psyced: IRC, Jabber, social networking, "twittering," newsgroups, etc.) (irc.somerandomnick.ano) =item * git (including a decentralized "wiki" replacement) (L, L, L, L, L, L, and possibly other repos) =item * outbound HTTP proxies to the public Internet (L and L) =item * Web-based resource database viewer: L =item * Decentralized Web mirroring service (at least L) (technical difficulties) =back Here's a list of things that somebody claims to be working on: =over =item * email =item * news (NNTP) (guy appears to have died) =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.) =head2 What You Can Contribute Well, each of us has his own wishlist, but most of us are working on moving stuff from our TODO lists to our DONE lists, so you're looking at a bit of a moving target. You're more than welcome to contribute anthing you want, and if it's interesting and/or useful, it'll probably attract a following. That said, here are a number of things that would benefit the AnoNet as a whole: =over =item Client Ports When a new user wants to connect, he'll normally come in through a client port. The more client ports are available, the harder it is for any individual client port to abuse its position (for example, if the local government decides to try regulating it). =item Public Email Services Currently, every AnoNet user who wants an email address on AnoNet has to set up his own mailserver. AnoNet1 used to have a public email service so people could get email addresses without running their own mail servers, but it hasn't been online in nearly a year (although the AnoNet1 Web continues to advertise it). SRN is working on setting up such an animal on AnoNet2, but competition here is a good thing. =item IRC Servers IRC on AnoNet2 isn't one big network under centralized control. Rather, anybody who wants runs his own IRC (or other chat) server, and links whatever channels he wants to channels on other servers, using a collection of relay bots. (Right now, UFO and pragmo field relays, and the scalability problems are becoming visible. How relay bots may want to deal with this is still a topic for open discussion.) =item Outbound HTTP Proxies SRN runs two right now and ryuk runs one, but that means between the two of them they can snoop on all HTTP traffic from AnoNet2 to IcannNet. Having more proxies gives you an alternative to blindly trusting SRN and ryuk not to sell your click-through data to Google, invert the order of search results to your queries, and inject malicious JavaScript into your Hotmail homepage. =back =head2 See Also If AnoNet sounds good but not perfect, don't despair: there are a number of other projects that may interest you either instead of - or possibly in addition to - AnoNet. =over =item dn42 - L dn42 is another highly decentralized darknet, and it's also quite friendly. The main differences are that it doesn't claim anonymity as a goal, and that it's significantly larger than AnoNet. A number of AnoNet members are also active in dn42. =item VAnet - L VAnet is a strange animal. It's a highly I darknet, making the curious claim that centralization actually aids in privacy protection. It's still quite small, but it should scale extremely well from a technical perspective, due to its centralization. VAnet's official IRC is part of the AnoNet IRC monster for now, so the easiest way to find out more about VAnet is actually just to join AnoNet IRC and ask about VAnet. =item UCIS IX - L The UCIS Internet eXchange is an attempt to link a bunch of darknets together. If you connect using UFO's CP, you're already on the UCIS IX. =back