I2P: Principles of basic network services

Today we will talk about what is NetDB , SusiDNS and the initial initialization of the I2P network.

Very soon, the Internet in Russia will not be free , now various providers are blocking certain sites.
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And a blocked resource has two ways:
1) Hope that the user will enter the site through proxy / VPN
2) Move the site to a decentralized, anonymous network

PS Perhaps, I can only call a real decentralized and anonymous network I2P, TOR does not fall under this definition, because the network principle is different for tor'a - multi-level proxy access to the normal Internet, and .onion resources are a nice bonus .

In I2P networks, the opposite is true; the main thing is internal resources and the external proxy is a bonus.

How does the initial initialization of the I2P network occur?

After downloading the distribution and installing it, the I2P network tries to initialize by searching for local nodes using NetDB (DHT) if the nodes are not found — the initial list of nodes is requested by

An interesting feature, the nodes that are obtained during initial initialization cannot be finite when accessing internal sites. (This is done to exclude the likelihood of creating nodes by the government and analyzing traffic) if a node is created by a malicious group of people, it will still only send impersonal traffic to another node, no more.

After receiving the first addresses of the I2P network participants via a standard https connection, the client tries to connect to them and NetDB is launched.

What is NetDB?

The simplest definition of NetDB technology is like DHT in the Torrent protocol.



NetDB is a distributed base of network participants, it is through it that site access tunnels are configured, but what is interesting is that your personal identifier is not sent to the network, thus making an analogy between IP and I2P ID is impossible.

Of course, keys are stored in NetDB that report the authenticity of the information published there.



What else is stored there?
- Tunnel installation statistics for nodes
- The number of successfully established connections through the node
- Number of dropped connections
- Timeout time when accessing a node
- Version of the router (I2P client)

The NetDB network supports all the same banking functions as the DHT network in the torrent protocol (for example, if the router has a ratio of successfully completed connections to connections with errors, it is too large)

Thus, once you establish a connection with NetDB, you will always have access to the I2P network in the future.

And on a special site - stats.i2p, you can see the current state of the network, which is determined via NetDB:



Floodfill router are those routers that have a completely current NetDB base or close to current

What is SusiDNS?

Resources on the I2P network have their top-level domain - .I2P
But since I2P has no IP addresses, the DNS service is special there.

In fact, DNS in I2P is a huge hosts file.
Initially, the distribution kit is able to get the I2P host: internal ID ratio only from the native registrar, but there are many registrars in the network that allow you to register your website, whatever it is and what you would not write on it.

The most popular is http: //inr.I2P

But you can not subscribe to domain registrars, you can save a match for each name yourself.

Using jump services or entering the long hash address of the host.

Thus - at this stage, the network is fighting cyberspace.

But in any case, when the network gains popularity, the registrar will most likely be 1 (or no more than 3, the most popular) and it will be for registration that they will (pay money?) Fight.

Also, it is possible to use the Namecoin service in place of the existing DNS network in I2P, at the present time, there are active developments in this direction.

Official site of the project: http://i2p2.de

What else to read about I2P:
We are preparing for the offensive of the Great Russian Firewall
I2P - Creating your site
I2P - Project Invisible Internet