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

=head1 AnoNet, Take 2!

(Note: There's now a darknet comparison page
(L<http://www.anonet2.org/darknet_comparison>), where you can compare
and contrast the various darknet options.)

(Note: There's now a separate page (L<http://www.anonet2.org/faq>),
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<they> 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

Disclaimer: If the following paragraph makes no sense to you, you can
join our webchat at L<http://webchat.kwaaknet.org/?c=AnoNet> to have a
real human help you get up and running in a hurry.  It's a lot easier
(and not half as boring) to learn the technical details interactively,
once you're online.

Joining is pretty simple: If you know how to connect to a
client port, UFO's CP (L<http://ix.ucis.nl/clientport.php>
or L<http://www.qontrol.nl/anonet-cp.tgz>) will already
land you in the right place.  (Once you're online, you
can join "the club" at L<irc://1.3.3.7:6667/anonet>,
or L<irc://irc.somerandomnick.ano:6667/RendezVous>
(L<irc://1.0.27.103:6667/RendezVous>, if you don't have
DNS for some reason), or L<irc://irc.pragmo.ano:6667/atomic>
(L<irc://1.0.16.111:6667/atomic>, for the same reason as before and if you
want you can use SSL on port 6697).  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 L<telnet://irc.somerandomnick.ano:2323/>
(or L<telnet://ufo-net.nl:2323/>, from the outside).  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
(L<irc://irc.kwaaknet.org:6667/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<http://webchat.kwaaknet.org/?c=AnoNet>).
(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<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.)

=head2 Why to Join

(Note: There's now a separate page (L<http://www.anonet2.org/links>)
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 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 I<re>build
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<irc://1.3.3.7/anonet> or L<irc://irc.somerandomnick.ano/RendezVous>)

=item *

Jabber (irc.somerandomnick.ano)

=item *

Web (for example, L<http://www.somerandomnick.ano/>)

=item *

PSYC (psyced: IRC, Jabber, social networking, "twittering," newsgroups, etc.) (irc.somerandomnick.ano)

=item *

git (including a decentralized "wiki" replacement) (L<git://git1.somerandomnick.ano/>, L<http://anogit.ucis.ano/.git/>, L<git://1.22.48.100/>, L<git://pragmo.ano/>, L<git://1.0.18.1/>, L<git://1.0.111.1/>, and possibly other repos)

=item *

outbound HTTP proxies to the public Internet (L<http://a.privoxy.somerandomnick.ano:8118/> and L<http://b.privoxy.somerandomnick.ano:8118/>)

=item *

Web-based resource database viewer: L<http://ix.ucis.ano/anonet/>

=item *

Decentralized Web mirroring service (at least L<http://a.mirror.somerandomnick.ano>) (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<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, and that it's significantly larger than AnoNet.  A number of
AnoNet members are also active in dn42.

=item VAnet - L<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 UCIS IX - L<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