How to use i2pd: comprehensive instructions for MS Windows

I2p is a network with a specialization in the anonymity of intranet resources, this differs from the tor network, the main task of which is not internal resources, but the construction of secure access to the Internet. Knowing these two features, people can work much more effectively on both networks.

In i2p, you can do many things: visit and create sites, forums and trading platforms, receive mail, chat and download torrents, and much much more. The i2pd program is able to work with a large number of programs and services.

It’s worth remembering that the program helps you achieve anonymity, but anonymity itself depends on you. From your actions taken on the network and beyond, the settings of the equipment used and work programs. These instructions will help you configure i2pd and start working on the network.

Well, let's begin:

Download the

latest

archive from the official website of the i2pd.website/releases/2.3.0/i2pd_2.3.0_win32_mingw.zip program . Unzip the program with one of the archivers that support zip archiving to any folder convenient for you. For example, it could be C: \ i2pd \.

Run the program. You will see a terminal window. This window tells that i2pd is working. The window will remain open until the end of the I2P session. You can collapse it.

Open any browser that you decide to use for i2p. My recommendation is Mozilla Firefox or any other Gecko engine due to the flexibility of its working settings, however you can use the browser that you personally like.

Type in the following address in the browser:

127.0.0.1 : 7070

At this address you will find a web-console with network statistics.

In the console, you will see various things, such as the address of the folder with the working files of the program. In the accessible release 2.3.0, the developers decided that it would be the following path:

C: \ users \ USERNAME \ AppData \ Roaming \ i2pd

For further settings, go to this folder. If you cannot find the AppData folder, then it was hidden (do not be afraid, the folder is not system, it contains program files, one of which is i2pd). Brief instructions from Microsoft on how to show hidden files and folders will help you reach your intended purpose:

windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files#show-hidden-files=windows-7

In this folder we will need two files. If they have not been created yet, please create them manually. The first file is a subscription file. It contains the addresses where i2pd will update your list of sites with network-wide.

File Name: subscriptions.txt

File Content:

http: //inr.i2p/export/alive-hosts.txt
http: //stats.i2p/cgi-bin/newhosts.txt
http: //i2p-projekt.i2p/hosts.txt
http: //i2host.i2p / cgi-bin / i2hostetag
http: //no.i2p/export/alive-hosts.txt
http: //rus.i2p/hosts.txt

The second file that we need is very interesting - this is the tunnel file. I2PD is a virtual router, literally, a box to which you can connect through many ports. So we can configure our programs and services on a computer to work with programs and network services.

Each tunnel adheres to the same structure.

[IRC] is our name, we decide what will be written here.
type = client - by this we inform whether we will connect to the service inside the network or vice versa, we ourselves are a service (and then the value will not be client, but server).
port = 666 ? - the name of the port on the router. Please note that the ports you assign are the same as the name, and may be any other, you can try to change them.
destination = irc.echelon.i2p - the name of the service we are going to interact with.
keys = irc.dat - address with keys that are important for us to trust with the selected service. Sometimes you can use the same key file, for example, to work with the postman.i2p mail service (you will see how it is done below).

File name: tunnels.cfg

Content (as an example, we set up IRC chat on one of the network servers, as well as receiving and sending mail on one of the main mail resources):

[IRC]
type = client
port = 6668
destination = irc.echelon.i2p
keys = irc.dat

[SMTP]
type = client
port = 515
destination = smtp.postman.i2p
keys = mail.dat

[POP3]
type = client
port = 616
destination = pop.postman.i2p
keys = mail.dat

You can also download both files in the archive ready at

rghost.net/8QxX5gTf2

(the link will be operational within 90 days from the last viewing. Reliable sources guaranteed that the creators will make a suitable installer during this time, so there is no need to worry). It is enough to unpack them into the directory we found above. Make sure the files have the same contents as above by opening them with any text editor or processor.

Save and configure both files. Please note: after changing these files you will need to restart i2pd: until this is done, the changes will not reach their strength!

Return to the browser window. Change proxy to

http 127.0.0.1 and port 4444 (up to version 2.3 -4446)

that it’s very simple to do this using the instructions for any browser

here.wikihow.com/change-settings-proxieservers

and boldly visit sites, we indicated two network search resources:

epsilon.i2p and search.i2p

# 1 starting for the first time, i2pd will spend some time getting to know various network nodes (quite possibly a few hours) before collecting enough data for the sites to work (according to subscriptions.txt).

# 2 for security i2p is constantly laying different tunnels from you to the resource you need. It takes some time to build tunnels, which can cause delays when opening sites. Therefore, if the site does not open, refresh the page several times.

# 3 some sites are held by people like you. Be condescending if the resource does not open! It is possible that the site you are opening is not located on a powerful server, but on the exact same computer as yours, and it may not always be on!

You can find more instructions on working with the network here:

i2pd.readthedocs.org/en/latest

It seems that everything is ready. So far, there are not very many people using the network, so there are not very many resources. The network is primarily built by those who want to make life better for free. The i2pd developers also work for free, among them there are many people who speak Russian, you can chat with them on the channel # i2pd-ru through your IRC program (we already forwarded the port with you for this before). They do everything to make it more convenient for you to use i2p and hope that users will also help make the network more interesting and better. With you, i2p will become richer, we are sure of that. Good luck using i2p!

PS If you need a tutorial to install i2pd under Debian / Ubuntu, you can find it here:habrahabr.ru/post/275643