Anonymous Secure Downloads are Getting Better Soon

Hornet · December 25th, 2004, 09:27 AM

FASTER DOWNLOADS COMING SOON

Ants - Routing Without IP Addresses - ANONYMOUS
Ants routes downloads, uploads and messages without using IP addresses.

Each computer connected to the Internet has an IP address. Messages are routed between users and servers using these addresses. As your IP address is given to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) it links your Internet identity (IP address) to your real world identity (name and postal address). This is bad for privacy and security.

Ants users are identified by an Ants session ID unrelated to any IP address.

Ants routing involves using special routing messages that are routed randomly from user to user. They leave an electronic trail when a successful path is found. The shortest message path between any user is used the most and so has the strongest electronic trail. Found shortest paths are used for downloads and uploads – without having to know the uploading / downloading users’ IP addresses.

Normal Ants Routing - SLOW
For Example on Ants, if user J wants to download a file from user A and there are eight middlemen (B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I) between them then:

If only Ants routing is used an upload from A to J travel through eight other users:
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J
This is slow and uses ten times the bandwidth of a direct A to J transfer.

However there are many ways to speed up transfer.

“Random Walker” - FASTER AND FULLY ANONYMOUS
(1)Ants can randomly try to connect to a user nearer to user J (say user E) so that the upload takes fewer hops to reach its destination:
A------------>E-F-G-H-I-J
B-C-D
This is faster and takes less bandwidth.

“One Hop Proxy” - STILL FASTER AND ANONYMOUS
(2)User J can use Ant routing to send a message to user A to tell it the IP address of one of the nodes connected to it or near by. User A can then connect to the neighbour of user J which in this example is user I so reducing the number of hops to two.

A-------------------------->I-J
B-C-D-E-F-G-H
This is faster still and users even less bandwidth.

“More Direct Transfer” - FASTEST AND DENIABLE (as fast as eMule)
(3)User J can use Ant routing to send a message to user A to tell it its own IP address. User A can then connect directly to user J so that no middle man (proxy) is used.

A--------------------------->J
B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I
This is the fastest with the least bandwidth used.

“One Hop Proxy” and “More Direct Transfer” not in Current Version
Ants currently uses method (1) (“random walker”) to speed up transfers. Options for other methods including (2) and (3) maybe will be implemented in the future.

Anonymity - USER SELECTS
Transfers using method (1) are fully anonymous, (2) are partially anonymous as there is only one middle man and (3) though not anonymous are still deniable as user A cannot tell if user J has sent its own, its neighbours’ or a random IP address.

IP address sent would be determined by users depending on users’ need for anonymity.

All messages, uploads and downloads on Ants are secure and cannot be read by middlemen or third parties.

Trusted Groups - FAST AND PRIVATE
Also, for method (3) user A and J could show that they belong to a private group of trusted users by exchanging security certificates over Ants prior to sending IP addresses or transferring files.

Hornet ([email protected])
See http://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=2898059

**Siskabush** · December 25th, 2004, 10:46 AM

Ok, I want that ants forum closed now.

I am sick of this bloody spam.

We already know your stupid program is supposedly anonymous, and please post a message with screenshot when the damn downloads are faster.

Until then, just shut the fuck up and resist the urge to spam your stupid program.

**MushroomheadXIII** · December 25th, 2004, 11:29 AM

@Siskabush - stfu you're so harsh! I don't like spam either but now hornet's just showing us it's gonna get better = maybe slightly spammy but not really. Still, it would be good for mr.hornets to show us a screenshot. :) - keep things nice/simple & kind.