I2P support forum

Hi,

I've started a survey to find out how people have figured out how to set up their browser to use the right proxy setting - https://www.reddit.com/r/i2p/comments/9 ... r_browser/

If you do not want to open Reddit the options are:

a) I already knew how to do it, it was/is very easy
b) I tinkered with my browser settings until it worked, and did NOT read any tutorials (please say which browser that was with)
c) I had to read a tutorial (please provide a link to the tutorial if you remember it)
d) I couldn't figure it out and I gave up on I2P

Feel free to respond here or on Reddit. Also, comments on the onboarding process are welcome!

c

the i2p-projekt website has an easy-to-follow guide on how to configure your browser for router access. it's actually a little too easy if you ask me, but that one's a really good guide.

I used

https://geti2p.net/en/about/browser-config#firefox

but I didn't use the present picture of the setting,

https://geti2p.net/_static/images/firef ... ttings.png

and it caused me a great deal of grief. I used this picture, link below, which was the only one there at the time. The present one I linked above did not exist. It's new.

https://geti2p.net/_static/images/firefox.options.jpg

Fortunately it's changed. The part that caused me grief was this setting which was not shown formerly. A check markable or select-able option below.

"proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5"

Now maybe everyone else understands this but I and a lot of others, I looked it up, don't.

My understanding is that SOCKS is a proxy. According to Wikipedia,"...SOCKS server proxies TCP connections to an arbitrary IP address, and provides a means for UDP packets to be forwarded..."

Now if we set the browser as shown on the diagram

https://geti2p.net/_static/images/firef ... ttings.png

it says we are using socks v5

now the conundrum...what are you using for DNS???

My understanding is that DNS takes the human readable name of a website and gives you the numerical address. You are sending the address you want outside of your system to a server and telling it what address you want and it is sending back the "numerical" not human readable address. So does it do this in I2P or Tor in the clear so that any address you want goes over normal internet and is in no way changed??? I would think we want no part at all of DNS not being proxied through I2P. Why would we want to send every address we want through some server in the clearnet???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System

It's not clear to me what the answer is,

if I2P is a proxy and the browser is set (checked "socks v5" then what exactly is the DNS doing.

With the option "proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5" checked are we actually proxying DNS through I2P which I would think would be proper(I'll say this another way as it's confusing. When checked "proxying" is in effect and since we are using I2P as a proxy then DNS does go through I2P. Which is what we want)



or since the actual set up picture shows NOT checking the option "proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5" it means that all traffic is, even DNS, is being proxied through I2P. This even though logically according to what we have checked use "SCOKSv5" means that we ARE using the "SOCKSv5" proxy and NOT I2P.

The whole thing is confusing. I read while looking this up that Tor is a "SOCKS" proxy...great...is it THE SOCKS proxy or just some sort of SOCKS proxy. Is it SOCKS v5 and if you are using SOCKS it plugs in and takes over SOCKS 5 functions???? or is Tor and I2P SOCKS proxy "like". Do they substitute for the proxy SOCKSv5 or not??? I have no idea and could never find a straight forward answer.

This would seem to be a VERY important thing to understand completely with no doubts at all about the situation. Let's just say that we don't understand it correctly and every single time you put in the address

http://i2pforum.i2p

you send that address to a DNS in the clearnet and it would send you back ???. I'm not sure what it would send back as it's supposed to be an I2P address, maybe an error but this means that somewhere someone could know what address you are looking for every time. That's not good. Not good at all.

A lot of the "actual" functioning of the internet is very simple but they have tied the whole thing up in needless jargon that stupifies the whole thing where you can't tell what is going on. I think the technical people involved have no ability to explain what they are doing in a clear simple manner.

Even something as simple as a yes/no check mark on the browser. If you take the actual instruction "proxy DNS when using SOCKS v5" and it is checked or selected this means that DNS is proxied through I2P and if not "check/selected" it means that we are sending a DNS request for every address we want on I2P.

Of course the contrary, which may be the actual action, is that the ".i2p" on the end of the address means it is NOT sent to the DNS because it, due to having ".i2p" on the end of the address is routed to the I2P proxy, but it doesn't say that anywhere nor is it clear this is so.

Here's a a FAQ discussing the same sort of problem in Tor.

https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.htm ... ationLeaks

a
proxy settings in browser configurations and using the tunnel page to check ip and port

I think the procedure is too complicated, too cumbersome, if you also want to address average Internet surfers. After the installation a i2p-domain should be accessible system-wide in every web browser, without further tinkering and without profiles. The normal traffic to the Internet should not be touched, or should be dependent on the explicit consent. The solution could be a small proxy that acts as a switch, like Privoxy is already used by some. This option should be offered during installation.

lgillis wrote: ↑07 Jan 2019 12:38The solution could be a small proxy that acts as a switch, like Privoxy is already used by some. This option should be offered during installation.

The problem with dynamic switching is that an eepsite that loads clearnet resources can de-anonymize the visitor. To prevent that its necessary to route all clearnet traffic through I2P but that is slow.

A dedicated browser profile is a reasonable compromise. An extra benefit is that it cleanly separates the user's I2P activity from clearnet activity. We are working on an easy few-clicks installer for Windows which will provide that, and Eyedeekay has put together a similar solution for Debian-based Linuxes here https://github.com/eyedeekay/firefox.profile.i2p