path: root/doc/www.anonet2.org/public_pod/index.pod

=head1 AnoNet, Take 2!

Welcome to AnoNet! AnoNet is a highly decentralized darknet, aiming to create a censorship resistant network free from government influence and restrictions. AnoNet uses an IP network to accomplish this, as an alternative to the existing internet.

=for comment
You can read more information about AnoNet below, or on L<http://wiki.ucis.nl/Anonet>.

=head2 Theory

=over

=item *

L<anonymity in general and its place in AnoNet in particular|http://www.anonet2.org/anonymity>

=item *

L<darknet comparison page|http://www.anonet2.org/darknet_comparison>

=item *

L<AnoNet FAQ|http://www.anonet2.org/faq>

=item *

L<quick introduction to darknets and anonymity in general and AnoNet2 in particular|http://www.anonet2.org/intro>

=item *

L<the problem with allowing ICANN to control your internet|http://www.anonet2.org/icann>

=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 easy:

=begin xhtml

Z<><table>
 <tr><th>Protocol</th><th>Service</th><th>Anonymity</th></tr>
<!--
 <tr><td>HTTP WebChatZ<></td><td>L<KwaakNet|http://anortr.ucis.nl:8086/?channels=anonet&nick=Anonymous></td><td>L<aaya|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname, custom nickname (note 1))</td></tr>
 <tr><td>HTTP WebChatZ<></td><td>L<KwaakNet|http://webchat.kwaaknet.org/?c=AnoNet></td><td>L<naya|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Visible IP, hidden username and realname, custom nickname (warning!) (note 1))</td></tr>
-->
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<CA|irc://client.thruhere.net/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
<!--
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN|irc://anortr.ucis.nl:8804/RendezVous></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2), and also blocks most CTCP messages)</td></tr>
-->
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN (tor)|irc://2dmrunyyp6bp53th.onion/RendezVous></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2), and also blocks most CTCP messages)</td></tr>
<!--
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN2|irc://anortr.ucis.nl:8806/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
-->
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN2 (tor)|irc://w53qxqs27amlrwnm.onion/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN3 (tor)|irc://elef7kcrczguvamt.onion/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN4 (tor)|irc://wllef6hh2mt6uoi4.onion/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN6 (tor)|irc://5ziqujry3yknhco2.onion/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
<!--
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<UFO|irc://anortr.ucis.nl:8805/anonet></td><td>L<aooo|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, visible username and realname)</td></tr>
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<UFO|irc://irc.kwaaknet.org:6667/anonet></td><td>L<nooo|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Visible IP, username and realname (warning!))</td></tr>
-->
<!--
 <tr><td>IRC<></td><td>L<d3v11|hlzfripz3yzsqsoz.onion</td><td>L<aaoa|http://irc.d3v11.ano> (Hidden IP, username and realname)$kname)</td></tr>
 <tr><td>TelnetZ<></td><td>L<SRN|telnet://anortr.ucis.nl:8803/></td><td>L<aaya|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP and username, custom nickname)</td></tr>
-->
</table>

=end xhtml

=over

=item *

Note 1: your browser may send information that can be used to identify you. Although this information is not directly visible to other chat users, it may be sent in clear text over the internet and over anonet.

=item *

Note 2: your IRC client always sends your configured username, realname and possibly also hostname. Although this information is not directly visible to other chat users, it may be sent in clear text over the internet and over anonet. You should therefore always properly configure your IRC client!

=item *

KwaakNet connects to the cloud through A1, and censors much of the cloud.  UFO knows about the problem and will not fix it.  SRN censored the KwaakNet IRC entries from this page to prevent confusion.

=back

If you want to browse around first, there's a tor gateway available at L<http://mkdopl6dniqykj2y.onion/>.  (You will need tor for that link to work.)

If you're feeling adventurous enough to connect at the IP level, there
are a few options available:

=over

=item *

L<PIKAJ00 has a client port.|http://client.thruhere.net/> (You will
need openvpn for this option, but there is no need for routing software.)

=item *

L<UFO has a client port.|http://ix.ucis.nl/clientport.php>  (You will
need openvpn for this option, but there is no need for routing software.)

=item *

It is possible to negotiate your first peering on IRC, completely
bypassing the client port.  (For this option you can use quicktun,
openvpn, or tinc.  You will also need routing software, for example bird
or zebra.  If you are on Windows, DnRouter can do everything.)

=back

Once you're online, you can reconnect to IRC from inside AnoNet:

=begin xhtml

Z<><table>
 <tr><th>ProtocolZ<></th><th>Service using DNSZ<></th><th>Service using IP (no DNS)</th><th>Anonymity</th></tr>
 <tr><td>UDPMSG4Z<></td><td>L<SRN (UDPMSG4 cloud)|udpmsg4://irc3.srn.ano:15783/chat/anonet></td><td>L<SRN (UDPMSG4 cloud)|udpmsg4://1.0.27.111:15783/chat/anonet></td><td>UDPMSG4 is anonymous by design.  L<You can run your own IRC server.|http://www.powerfulproxy.com/do_it.php/http/www.srw.ano/udpmsg4ircd></td></tr>
 <tr><td>UDPMSG3Z<></td><td>L<SRN (UDPMSG3 cloud)|udpmsg3://irc2.srn.ano:15387/chat/anonet></td><td>L<SRN (UDPMSG3 cloud)|udpmsg3://1.0.27.110:15387/chat/anonet></td><td>UDPMSG3 is anonymous by design.</td></tr>
 <tr><td>HTTP WebChatZ<></td><td>L<sevilIRC (Relaying on #anoNet)|http://www.sevilnatas.ano/chat.html></td><td></td><td>L<aaya|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname, custom nickname (note 1))</td></tr>
<!--
 <tr><td>HTTP WebChatZ<></td><td>L<KwaakNet|http://anortr.ucis.ano:8086/?channels=anonet&nick=Anonymous></td><td>L<KwaakNet|http://1.3.3.2:8086/?channels=anonet&nick=Anonymous></td><td>L<aaya|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname, custom nickname (note 1))</td></tr>
-->
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN (NewNickNetCloud)|irc://irc6.srn.ano:6667/anonet></td><td>L<SRN (NewNickNetCloud)|irc://1.0.27.120:6667/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN (NewNickNet)|irc://irc3.srn.ano:6667/anonet></td><td>L<SRN (NewNickNet)|irc://1.0.27.111:6667/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN (NickNet)|irc://irc4.srn.ano:6667/anonet></td><td>L<SRN (NickNet)|irc://1.0.27.114:6667/anonet></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2))</td></tr>
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<SRN|irc://irc.somerandomnick.ano:6667/RendezVous></td><td>L<SRN|irc://1.0.27.103:6667/RendezVous></td><td>L<aaoa|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname (note 2), and also blocks most CTCP messages)</td></tr>
 <!--<tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<sevilNatas|irc://irc0.sevilnatas.ano:6667/anoNet></td><td>L<aaao|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname, custom nickname, SSL enabled)</td></tr>-->
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<sevilNatas|irc://irc0.sevilnatas.ano:6667/anonet></td><td></td><td>L<aaao|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname, custom nickname, SSL enabled)</td></tr>
<!--
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<KwaakNet|irc://irc.kwaaknet.ano:6667/anonet></td><td>Server L<1|irc://1.3.3.7:6667/anonet>, L<2|irc://1.3.9.1:6667/anonet>, L<3|irc://1.3.3.8:6667/anonet></td><td>L<nooo|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Visible IP, username and realname)</td></tr>
-->
 <tr><td>IRCZ<></td><td>L<pragmo|irc://irc.pragmo.ano:6667/atomic></td><td>L<pragmo|irc://1.0.16.111:6667/atomic></td><td>L<????|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Unknown)</td></tr>
 <tr><td>TelnetZ<></td><td>L<SRN|telnet://irc.somerandomnick.ano:2323/></td><td></td><td>L<aaya|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP and username, custom nickname)</td></tr>
 <tr><td>JabberZ<></td><td>irc.somerandomnick.ano (RendezVous MUC)</td><td></td><td>L<aaya|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity> (Hidden IP, username and realname, custom nickname)</td></tr>
</table>

=end xhtml

=over

=item *

Note 1: your browser may send information that can be used to identify you. Although this information is not directly visible to other chat users, it may be sent in clear text over the internet and over anonet.

=item *

Note 2: your IRC client always sends your configured username, realname and possibly also hostname. Although this information is not directly visible to other chat users, it may be sent in clear text over the internet and over anonet. You should therefore always properly configure your IRC client!

=back

For more information about anonimity on IRC, see L<this page|http://www.anonet2.org/irc_anonymity>.

=head2 IRC Channels

The activity level on #anonet got a bit too high (especially with all the bots), so some new channels have been added.  Here are the currently known channels:

=over

=item #anonet (chat/anonet)

This is the main channel for AnoNet-related discussion.  All AnoNet2 IRC servers carry this channel.

=item #talk (chat/talk)

This is a new channel for general talk, and at least for now it is the home of most of our bots.  Only sevil and SRN IRC servers carry this channel.

=item #1984 (chat/1984)

This is a channel that BrainBox requested.  Most SRN IRC servers carry it.

=back

Creating a new channel is done the traditional way (just /join it),
but linking the channel through the udpmsg3 cloud requires a little
bit of configuration for all current udpmsg3 clients.  SRN is happy
to reconfigure his stuff for any new channel.  L<SRN's new UDPMSG4 IRC
server|http://www.powerfulproxy.com/do_it.php/http/www.srw.ano/udpmsg4ircd>
doesn't require any special configuration.  Just join a new channel on
irc3.srn.ano, and it will immediately exist on the udpmsg4 cloud.

=head2 Why to Join

Note that if your only aim in joining AnoNet is to search Google
anonymously, you can save yourself the hassle L<by just heading over
to Scroogle|http://www.scroogle.org/>.  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.  (L<Here's a
service that tries to show you what you're likely to be leaking, right
now.|http://what-is-my-ip-address.anonymous-proxy-servers.net/>)

(Note: There's now L<a separate page with links to many more reasons to
join AnoNet|http://www.anonet2.org/links>.)

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 L<a separate page
here|http://www.anonet2.org/anonymity>.)

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.

If you saw L<this article about people getting arrested on false accusations from one guy|http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/Cyberactivists-warned-arrest-ftimes-3487898538.html?x=0>, then you may want to make yourself a bit more difficult to find.  (L<Do you really want to get raided by the FBI just because some "security researcher" thinks you're a co-founder of Anonymous?|http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=x69Akp5L>)  AnoNet can help.

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.  Even if
you don't care about your anonymity, L<you don't need to worry
about our social network "owner" deleting your identity for "private"
reasons|http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/02/5033412-booted-from-facebook-woman-sues>,
because our social network is decentralised and resists censorship,
like most of the core AnoNet services.  Again, you're not looking at an
"official" reason for joining, but nobody owns AnoNet, so "official"
is an artificial term 'round here.

Related to the previous reason, AnoNet is a community with one active
IRC channel and a lot of mostly inactive channels.  It's possible to
find someone at almost any hour, and most of us are friendly most times.
Some AnoNet users use AnoNet only for chat or almost only for chat.

You may be looking for help with your Mathematics, Physics or Computer
Science homework.  Due to AnoNet's nature, many of the guys who hang
out here have an academic background in one (or more) of the above,
and most are quite happy to help students.

At least one AnoNet user uses AnoNet for remote access to his home
computer that is behind a NAT that is behind a restrictive ISP.

If you're interested in starting your own darknet, you can get plenty of
advice here.  In addition, the AnoNet2 infrastructure is easy to reuse
for any other darknet, by design.  (Technical ease of forking is a core
goal of AnoNet2.  We avoid forks only by being good enough so nobody
feels the need to fork AnoNet2.)

Finally, L<you may be getting a bit nervous at the
amount of regulation piling up around the world against the public
Internet|http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8481330/Alarm-over-EU-Great-Firewall-proposal.html>.
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.

Here's an interesting exchange:

=over

=item Relay> [Ivo @ KN] governments do not intend to harm everybody

=item Relay> [Ivo @ KN] some criminals just intend harm everybody

=item somerandomnick> and some governments do, too

=item Relay> [Ivo @ KN] they usually at least pretend to be good for some people

=item somerandomnick> People are people.

=item Relay> [anonno @ KN] right now they can eavesdrop on telephones, and they like it... if we all move to encrypted voip, they're in trouble

=item somerandomnick> It doesn't really matter that much what hat a guy is wearing.

=item somerandomnick> A government is just a pretty face for a person to hide behind.

=item somerandomnick> It doesn't actually mean anything beyond "I'm stronger than you, so I make decisions for you."

=item somerandomnick> A person's government should be his own brain.  You should never outsource your free choice.

=item Relay> [anonno @ KN] you know what, you could use this as a marketing tool for anonet ;)

=back

=head2 The AnoNet Advantage

You may be wondering what AnoNet buys you, relative to IcannNet.  The answer obviously depends on what you tend to do on IcannNet.  Here are some points to note:

=over

=item Read Headlines

If you only read the headlines from your local news (without clicking
through to interesting stories, etc.), your anonymity on AnoNet is
actually significantly _worse_ than on IcannNet, because you're giving
away geolocation information that your IcannNet ISP already knows but
that AnoNet probably doesn't.

=item Read News

Once you start clicking around for "interesting" stories, you're
giving away information that your ISP probably wouldn't already know.
However, if you read local news it's probably still wise to avoid AnoNet.
(You can still use tor directly.)

=item Just Browse

If you just surf aimlessly for hours, you are giving away a lot of
profiling information to your ISP.  With the AnoNet proxies, you can
avoid giving your ISP any of this information.  (You are still giving the
same information to the AnoNet proxies if you don't use SSL tunneling,
but AnoNet proxies can't connect the profiling information with your
real-life identity, while your ISP (and anybody who can get your ISP
records) certainly can.)  Surfing with AnoNet also means that you don't
need to worry about your government filtering policies getting in your
way while you surf.

=item Browse WikiLeaks

If you're located in a totalitarian regime, your ISP may not allow you
to access WikiLeaks.  Even if you are located in a less totalitarian
regime, your government may monitor your WikiLeaks browsing habits.
AnoNet allows you to browse WikiLeaks without your ISP preventing or
monitoring your visits.

=item Do Research

AnoNet shines here.  Governments can force Google to cough up your
search history, but only if Google can figure out which searches you're
responsible for.  If you use Scroogle (HTTPS) through one of AnoNet's
HTTP proxies, the proxy doesn't know what you're looking for, Scroogle
has no clue who you are, and by the time the search makes its way to
Google, connecting it to you is all but hopeless.

Here is a recent chatlog from #anonet:

=over

=item /A1/R> [TIBS01 @ KN] i got pissed off with wiihacks

=item /A1/TIBS01> there all knobs

=item /A1/TIBS01> and reported them

=item /A1/TIBS01> to nintendo

=item /A1/TIBS01> Dear sir/madam

=item /A1/TIBS01> im just contacting you about some hacks that i have come across that some little hackers have used to exploit your firmware  please find these sites listed below

=item /A1/TIBS01> for future firmware releases i hope u can patch these hacks because they crash peoples wii;s and they also hang the wii and make the rom chip unreadable.

=item /A1/TIBS01> i will list these sites i have come cross that have these hacks so u can have alook and patch the software..

=item /A1/TIBS01> http://please.hackmii.com/

=item /A1/TIBS01> http://www.wiihacks.com

=item /A1/TIBS01> http://www.wiihacks.com/recommended-faqs-guides-tutorials-only/60921-guide-softmod-any-wii.html

=item /A1/TIBS01> if i was you i would take a law suit against these hackers..

=item /A1/TIBS01> yours thankfully

=item /A1/TIBS01> steve gibbs

=item /A1/TIBS01> get rid of the wankers

=item /A1/TIBS01> at wiihacks

=item /A1/TIBS01> i might even launch a DDos attack against them

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> censorship?

=item /A1/TIBS01> ?

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> They do not have a right that they will tell that they want?

=item /A1/TIBS01> oooer

=item /A1/TIBS01> just contacted there domain provider

=item /A1/TIBS01> hahaha

=item /A1/TIBS01> they fucked with the wrong person

=item /A1/TIBS01> next server isp

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> /A1/TIBS01: What they did to you?

=item /A1/TIBS01> basicly no help

=item /A1/TIBS01> ban me from the forums and irc chat

=item /A1/TIBS01> and giving me newbie abuse shit

=item /A1/TIBS01> so now its pay back

=item /MuffinNET/On3m0r3> hf

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> so you threat that if they will ban you from the forums and irc chat then you will ask that the government will censor them?

=item /SVC/srnbot> government really sucks.

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> and they also must help you?

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> IMHO you are not fair.

=item /MuffinNET/On3m0r3> beat them with the own weapons

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> If you want to attack to their webserver and add a note in top that they ban users from forums and irc chat then I do not complain ;-)

=item /A1/R> [TIBS01 @ KN] lol

=item /A1/TIBS01> they are wankers

=item /A1/TIBS01> i just submitted a ticket for there isp...

=item /MuffinNET/On3m0r3> ok, but when their servers are so vulnerable thats so easy and no important informations are hidden inside the LAN behind or so then it is a simple way to tell them to be friendly to all

=item /A1/TIBS01> irc.wiihacks.com

=item /NNN/somerandomnick> /MuffinNET/On3m0r3: agree

=back

=item Discuss the WikiLeaks insurance.aes256 File

If you and your friends were hoping to talk together
about your experience trying to decrypt the file on
abovetopsecret's forums, you probably saw L<this complaint from a
moderator|http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread598787/pg23#pid9331623>.
After quoting from L<the terms and conditions
page|http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread6688/pg1>, he says:
B<Going forward, please remember that we cannot discuss how to "break"
this file open. We're only allowed to discuss the topic at hand, which
is the posting of the encrypted document itself, and what it I<may>
contain.>  AnoNet doesn't have a terms and conditions page, so you're
"allowed" to discuss whatever you want.

=item Share Files

BitTorrent doesn't hide your IP address, so seeding files for
L<TPB|http://www.thepiratebay.org/> is not necessarily safe.  BitTorrent
on AnoNet doesn't hide your IP address either, but the authorities can't
easily connect your AnoNet IP address with your IcannNet IP address
(in order to get your ISP to reveal your identity).

=item Speak Out

If you know something that you'd like other people to know, and you fear retribution from those who would prefer for others not to know what you know, traditional IcannNet forums can be forced to turn over your IP address, which can then identify you.  If your email address is with Gmail, L<you have other problems|http://mirror.wikileaks.info/wiki/Gmail_may_hand_over_IP_addresses_of_journalists/>.  On AnoNet, it's comparatively easy to cover your tracks, in such a way that even your own peers would have a hard time figuring out who said whatever it was.

=item Blog

If your blog is easy to connect to your offline identity (say, it
has your name and address, and/or dwells primarily on local issues),
then moving it to AnoNet obviously won't gain you much anonymity.
On the other hand, if it's "just another random blog," AnoNet has the
potential to keep it that way.  For example, if you like to tell readers
about your experience with various products, you always run the risk of
having to defend yourself against a lawsuit if a corporate lawyer decides
his client would be better served if your critical review went away.
Now, since defending yourself in any court of law is never a trivial
matter (since the judges in nearly all first-world countries assume
that you know all the laws, regulations, relevant case histories,
civil procedures, etc. - you know, the stuff you'd normally spend
years in law school learning how to make sense of), you may decide
that publishing your blog on IcannNet simply isn't worth the risk.
On AnoNet, your blog is pretty well-protected against civil liability
lawsuits, since before a lawyer can sue you, he first has to find you.
(While there are legal mechanisms in place in many countries to allow a
lawsuit to get started even when the defendant is unknown, it should be
pretty obvious that a court will need to find out who you are before it
can meaningfully involve you in a case.  If you've done your homework,
the cost of finding you will far outweigh the benefit, especially if the
plaintiff knows he has no real case against you and was simply hoping to
intimidate you.)  In addition, the company hosting your IcannNet blog
almost certainly allows itself to delete (any part of) your blog in
its own sole discretion without even notifying you.  That potentially
allows a lawyer with an upset client to take a shortcut and bypass you
entirely, simply "asking" your blog hosting provider to remove (that part
of) your blog.  To avoid having to activate its own lawyers, your blog
hosting provider may very well decide to pull (that part of) your blog,
especially if you're paying little or nothing to host your blog.  In fact,
if your blog is on its own domain, there's yet another canidate for the
weakest link, in that anybody who wants your blog gone can simply appeal
to your domain's registrar.  (Recall the WikiLeaks case, for example.)
On AnoNet, you can easily host your own blog, forcing attacks against
your hosting arrangements to go through you (or at least through _all_
of your peers).  Your domain is even harder to attack, since wiping your
domain off of a single resdb repository would only prevent one AnoNet
user from seeing it (and a simple git rollback would fix the situation
even for that individual user).  Moreover, the deletion would quickly
propagate throughout AnoNet, potentially raising alarms everywhere.
(Even if only a single user notices the attack and re-adds your domain,
his own re-addition will quickly propagate throughout AnoNet, restoring
access to your domain for everybody.)

=item Publish

If you thought publishing blogs was tricky, try publishing a book.
("Alms for Jihad" comes to mind as one obvious example, where the
publisher went so far as to delete the book from its own database and
buried the copyright.)  While physical books may not be so simple to
publish on AnoNet (although you can certainly raise awareness of them
by speaking out about them on AnoNet), e-books enjoy considerable
anti-censorship advantages on AnoNet.

=item Teach

You may want to teach disciplines that can get you into friction with "the
authorities" in a tyrannical regime.  (Judges in prominent first-world
countries have ruled, for example, that knowing your way around a computer
is an indication that you may be involved in computer-related crimes.)
AnoNet gives you an opportunity to teach without your students being
able to point you out to the authorities, even under pain of torture.

=item Report

You may find yourself in the middle of a news story, but other parts
of that news story may not appreciate your reports.  When you report
something to WikiLeaks without going through tor, you're leaving a long
trail that may lead to you.  With AnoNet, you can hide that trail to
a certain extent, if you don't want to use tor directly.  (WikiLeaks
over tor will still give you better protection than AnoNet, if you're
worried about your government's intelligence agencies getting involved.
AnoNet's optimization towards pseudonymity with common IcannNet protocols
is the weakness, here.  We're working on that, but in the meantime you
have L<tor|http://www.torproject.org/>, L<i2p|http://www.i2p2.de/>,
L<Freenet|http://freenetproject.org/>, L<GNUnet|http://gnunet.org/>,
and others.)

Even if your reports are perfectly legal in your country,
you still may become the victim of identity theft, L<like
some journalists reporting on the HP board leak a few years
ago|http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2006/09/71749> (and
with governments "reaching out" to corporations more now, it gets worse
before it gets better).  It's harder to find the identity of an anonymous
journalist, so naturally it is harder to steal it.  It's also harder to
find your anonymous sources.

=item Sell Stuff Online

Well, even if you don't care about your anonymity and in fact _want_ everyone to know who you are, doing business on IcannNet isn't so safe, L<because you never know when a misguided government will sieze your domain for no real reason, without even admitting its mistake|http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-shuts-down-84000-websites-by-mistake-110216/>.  AnoNet domains are a safer investment, because it is far more difficult for someone to sieze an AnoNet domain.  In addition, L<PowerfulProxy|http://www.powerfulproxy.com/> now makes it possible to reach many AnoNet domains directly from IcannNet.

=back

=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.
Of course, that's not to say you'll have to build everything from
scratch, 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
organize one before doing anything.  If (you think) you already know
what you're doing, just "build it and they will come.")

=head2 What You Can Do

See the L<Services|http://www.anonet2.org/services> page

=head2 What You Can't Yet Do

=over

=item A-Commerce

Getting Anonymous Commerce right takes a bit of effort, since nearly
all governments regulate the exchange of anything that has value, in an
attempt to preserve their power structure.  A-Commerce is a core goal
of AnoNet, though, and we hope to achieve it someday.

=item Watch TV

While the AnoNet backbone, at this point, is capable of sustaining
real-time video streaming, there are still some technical and
anonymity-preservation problems to solve before anybody here is likely
to feel safe broadcasting TV.

=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 (and highly subjective) target.  You're more than
welcome to contribute anything 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

Nomius runs a public mail service, and lex is working on another one.
While more than 2 public mail services clearly aren't necessary at this
stage, too many is better than too few.

=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, pragmo and SRN 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.  Feel free
to join in the discussion, or just do your own thing and let everyone
else be damned.)

Update: UFO implemented udpmsg3 (inspired by r101's udpmsg protocol),
and UFO, SRN, sevilNatas and lex all have IRC servers connecting to the
udpmsg3 "cloud" now.  The primary advantages of udpmsg3 are that it's
truly decentralized, very difficult to censor, fails over gracefully in
case of hardware/software failures without dropping messages and without
duplicating messages, and avoids the long relay chains that normally
take up half your screen.

Update: SRN implemented udpmsg4 (a modification to udpmsg3 to
support binary data without escaping, and to reduce code size and
CPU cycles to read and write the protocol), and a few users now
have IRC servers connecting to the udpmsg4 cloud (running L<SRN's new
IRCd|http://www.powerfulproxy.com/do_it.php/http/www.srw.ano/udpmsg4ircd>).
SRN and sevilNatas also run udpmsg3 bridges.

=item Outbound HTTP Proxies

SRN runs three 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.

=item IcannNet mailinglist Proxies

AnoNet uses a lot of software in new and interesting ways, so AnoNet
users find "accidental features" quite often.  If there were an easy
way to join the official mailing lists for some of this software, AnoNet
users would probably submit many more bug reports, resulting in better
quality software being available for us.

=back

=head2 Assholes

We finally found L<our first asshole|http://www.anonet2.org/assholes>.

=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 L<dn42|http://www.dn42.net/>

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 (it is mostly intended for learning BGP), and that it's significantly
larger than AnoNet.  A number of AnoNet members are also active in dn42.

=item L<VAnet|http://www.vanet.org/>

VAnet is a strange animal.  It's a highly I<centralized> 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 L<UCIS IX|http://ix.ucis.nl/>

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