I2P

I2P takes a web-based approach to facilitate communication security, allowing users to chat in an environment that is protected by several dedicated layers. The whole architecture is provided by a distributed network whose main purpose is to ensure anonymity and privacy while communicating over the Internet.

The project started off a long time ago, back in 2003, and is continuously maintained and updated so as to be able to counterattack the latest tracking and hacking strategies that emerge in the software world.

Next to Tor or Freenet, I2P joins the battle against such attempts through a complex algorithm that involves a series of nodes or routers, with the traffic being routed to a number of peers and the messages sent through secure tunnels.

Compared to its competitors, I2P has the advantage of having been optimized to work with hidden services, completed by the presence of short-lived tunnels which sport a lower risk of attack than inside a circuit-based network such as Tor. However, the list of pros and cons (if a thorough comparison would take place) is balanced and the choice is totally up to the user, therefore there’s no point in discussing it extensively.

The general idea with I2P is that it can be configured to work both in the browser and chat applications, which is an obvious upside. Nevertheless, it assumes that you have a dose of previous networking knowledge in order to make advanced configurations. The so-called eepsites are webpages hosted completely anonymously that can be accessed by configuring the HTTP proxy of your browser to make use of the web proxy. IRC clients can be set to redirect traffic to a port on the localhost that is managed by I2P, thus ensuring a high level of privacy during chat sessions.

Overall, I2P is an excellent choice if you want to boost the security of your communications. If there’s a disadvantage to it, it’s the low level of usability which restricts its audience to advanced users only.