Stop relying on VPNs - Just use your computer with i2p
After the Mullvad fiasco I decided to stop using VPNs all together, since port forwarding is always going to be a problem on all of them, if you read the reasons why Mullvad had to shut down that service.
There is a better way using i2p which conceals your IP and makes it impossible for anyone to know what or if you're downloading at all! No DMCA notices, no problem.
I wrote this small guide to another comment and figured I'd share it in its own post since I'm seeing so many people ask for VPN recommendations.
So there are 2 main implementations of i2p. First is the main Dev’s Java client here https://geti2p.net/en/download
The other is i2pd, which is C++.
I use the Java one personally but both would work. Someone posted back on reddit a guide on /r/i2p for qbittorrent, which is what I use now for this too. The guide was shared as a public torrent you can download with this info hash: 3f1d51095f9b116739172c1bced149acf2b10692
Use that hash with any of the various public trackers and you should be able to download that guide.
But if you just want a basic setup, that Java client comes with i2psnark, which is a Bittorrent client already setup.
The only other thing you want to do is go and search the biggest tracker for stuff, which is called PaTracker, Postman’s tracker. http://tracker2.postman.i2p, only accessible from i2p itself, which you’ll need to have setup and running first to view.
This tracker needs more seeders and uploaders in general, and by improving those things service for everyone is better. So the more the merrier.
Thanks! Feel free to ask any questions, there also might be other people who use i2p now for torrenting. I'm sure they'll help too.
You don't need to route all traffic, just the traffic from your bittorrent client.
Download speeds have improved significantly as there are more people on there seeding than ever.
i2p is significantly better than a proxy, you jump through multiple hosts/tunnels before reaching the service.
Also it isn't all network traffic at all, just services connecting through i2p like a web browser you have setup to use it.
Doesn't this still have the same vulnerability of the potential for a hostile takeover similar to tor? Also, is there any way to use i2p to bypass geoblocking? If not that's a major reason why I and many people use vpns.
So no, i2p won't interact with the clearnet at all. So it doesn't help with access to clearnet sites that are geoblocked. I never used VPNs for geoblocking specifically, just for torrenting, so this wasn't in my list of use cases.
It makes sense sticking with a VPN if you really need to access a site that is blocked in your country. Or you could use Tor for that, but Tor has its own issues.
Also I'm still not familiar enough with I2P to know if it's vulnerable to hostile takeover. It IS a completely different protocol from Tor though, so my guess would be it doesn't have that same issue.
I don't even use VPNs for torrenting lol. I use them only for either geoblocking or scrambling my IP address for practical clearnet purposes such as signing up multiple accounts. Torrenting is not prosecuted or even mentioned in my country. The only issue I could have is my ISP not liking my download volume and throttling for a short period of time to counteract my "abuse" of the network.
yes but the NSA/FBI are not going after you for seeding family guy, they're there to get the CSAM and drugs
This is hilarious. Thank you hahahahah.
But the multiple jumps make it very slow.
There's a reason we want port forwarding for near direct connections for torrenting.
That's not why port forwarding is important. Port forwarding is needed so that fresh peers can communicate with you and join the swarm. That act has the side-effect of speeding up transfers by allowing more people into the swarm spreading the transfer across more potential seeds/peers
Can you only seed to people on i2p?
See this comment for seeding to both clearnet and i2p. I2PSnark (the builtin torrent client) only interacts with I2P, but biglybt can do bridge.
You can cross-seed with people over clearnet using qBittorrent or BiglyBT, but that also exposes your IP to clearnet people. So you could get DMCA notices if it is copywrited content.
Otherwise typically no you will only be downloading and seeding with people on I2P if you haven't chosen to cross-seed.
So, for pretty much everyone this is the same as torrenting without a VPN at all.
Then this is no replacement for VPN..
Thanks.
It's worked well enough for me. Keep in mind this is just for public trackers. Private trackers shouldn't be used with a VPN anyway and you don't need to use i2p for them.
Why would you not use a VPN with private trackers? VPN all the things!
And what do I gain with this over having my torrent client bound to a wireguard interface running through a commercial VPN provider?