> Let's Decentralize: alternatives to the standard Internet stack

This is a NomadNet page (directory? node?) dedicated to methods of decentralized publishing on the web. The name is a reference to Let's Encrypt: what they did for securing network transmissions by offering free TLS certificates, making HTTPS possible for small indie servers, this page(?) hopes to do for web hosting by offering simple instructions on how to host a website at home as opposed to spending exorbiant amounts of money on hosting on someone else's server. Other than the (optional) purchase of a Raspberry Pi or other small server if one wants to go the client-server route (or have a seedbox for their peer-to-peer sites), `!none of these options require any money to be spent`!, meaning there will never be any `F908`_`[web3 nonsense`https://web.archive.org/web/20240106003325/https://soatok.blog/2021/10/19/against-web3-and-faux-decentralization/`]`_`f on this page and there `F908`_`[never will`https://web.archive.org/web/20240106003709/https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/web3-bullshit.html`]`_`f.

>> Routing networks: these are ways to set up a standard client-server connection for applications.

`!Tor`! is "free and open-source software for enabling anonymous communication by directing Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer overlay network consisting of more than seven thousand relays in order to conceal a user's location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis." `F908`_`[Wikipedia`https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)`]`_`f

Tor is not a silver bullet (many websites block visitors coming from known Tor exit nodes, and Google's captchas are notoriously slow, although this is due to Google being assholes), but it can be a massively helpful tool for breaking through firewalls or concealing one's browsing habits from traffic sniffers. Programs can be configured to use Tor via a SOCKS proxy or by a wrapper like `_torsocks`_.

Although it is not Tor's primary purpose, as a side effect of its routing methods, it can also be used to set up "hidden services", or websites/services that can only be accessed through Tor.

`!I2P`! is "an anonymous network layer (implemented as a Mix Network) that allows for censorship resistant, peer to peer communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by encrypting the user's traffic (by using end-to-end encryption), and sending it through a volunteer-run network of roughly 55,000 computers distributed around the world." `F908`_`[Wikipedia`https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2P`]`_`f

Unlike Tor, I2P's primary purpose is to facilitate hidden services. While "outproxies" exist to route clearnet traffic through I2P, these are slow, rare, and cannot guarantee any amount of privacy. Therefore, programs configured for I2P should ONLY be used for I2P. Because I2P's routing is peer-to-peer instead of through dedicated "guard" and "entry" nodes like Tor, sometimes it can fail to create routes to servers, meaning sites that are up may appear to be down on occasion.

`!Lokinet`! is a decentralized onion router that uses the same service nodes as the Loki/Oxen blockchain (developed by the same team) for routing. Because servers that want to be service nodes are required to meet a minimum standard for bandwidth and processing power, Lokinet is (at least, according to the documentation) near-guaranteed to be fast and low-latency. `F908`_`[Lokinet homepage`https://lokinet.org`]`_`f

It uses a system-wide local DNS server that only handles domains ending in `_.loki`_, so it neither interferes with clearnet traffic nor requires programs to be specially configured for Lokinet. While Tor can only handle TCP traffic, Lokinet can handle any IP-based protocol, including UDP, ICMP, `*and`* TCP. Lokinet seems to only be able to grant each device `*one`* address, meaning that hosting more than one hidden service (or "snapp" as the official documentation calls them) requires configuring subdomains in one's web server configuration.

`!Yggdrasil`! is "an early-stage implementation of a fully end-to-end encrypted IPv6 network. It is lightweight, self-arranging, supported on multiple platforms and allows pretty much any IPv6-capable application to communicate securely with other Yggdrasil nodes. Yggdrasil does not require you to have IPv6 Internet connectivity - it also works over IPv4." `F908`_`[Yggdrasil homepage`https://yggdrasil-network.github.io`]`_`f

Unlike the other routing networks listed here, Yggdrasil uses IPv6 addresses instead of public keys. Thus, while not particularly anonymous, it can coexist with standard DNS resolvers; the IP Yggdrasil gives can be assigned to any standard domain or subdomain's AAAA record (although obviously it will require Yggdrasil to access). From personal experience, Yggdrasil does not seem to play nicely with Linux distributions not using `_systemd`_ as their init system.

`!Reticulum`! is "the cryptography-based networking stack for building local and wide-area networks with readily available hardware. Reticulum can continue to operate even in adverse conditions with very high latency and extremely low bandwidth." `F908`_`[Reticulum homepage`https://reticulum.network`]`_`f

Reticulum can connect peers over anything from traditional TCP/IP networks to darknets like Yggdrasil and I2P to exotic networking interfaces like LoRa and packet radio. All packets are encrypted; unencrypted packets are forcibly dropped from the network.

You can't (currently) directly host webpages over the Reticulum network, but a tool for both chat and hosting pages already exists: NomadNet.

>> Peer-to-peer website sharing: these are ways to publish documents or, well, `*websites`* without the need for a centralized server.

`!I'M STILL PORTING THIS PAGE. COME BACK LATER`!