Maintaining privacy and anonymity on the network is something that is essential for many users. We already know that our data on the web has great value and there are many ways in which it could collect personal information. However, we can also have services and tools with which to protect ourselves and thus prevent information from being leaked. In this article we are going to talk about I2P and Tor . We are going to show what the main differences are.
Browse anonymously, something highly sought after
Many users are looking for a way to improve privacy and browse anonymously. This prevents your personal data from being collected by third parties to be included in Spam campaigns or receive targeted advertising, for example.
There are certain tools and services that can help preserve anonymity on the web. It does not matter if we browse from mobile devices or desktop computers, we can always suffer problems that compromise our privacy.
Among the options we have to improve privacy we can name the use of Tor and I2P . They are services that allow you to offer greater anonymity, although each one has its advantages and differences compared to the other. We will explain which are the main ones.
Tor vs I2P, two services to gain anonymity
In both cases we will gain anonymity on the network. They will allow us to browse in a more private way, without exposing our data. They are very useful options when we want to prevent our data from being recorded. They also allow users to access the Dark Web.
Advantages of Tor over I2P
First we have the option of Tor . This is a project that aims to create a communications network so as not to reveal the identity of the information that is exchanged. Therefore, users remain anonymous at all times. This also includes hiding the IP address.
They are based on free software. The operation consists of sending those messages through multiple links, which is considered as if they were layers of onion through which it is routed. In this way they manage to hide the original data.
We can say that it has different advantages if we compare it with I2P. These are some of the main ones:
- More users : it is a much more popular service and therefore has more users. This means that there are much more information and tutorials to use it.
- Better blocks DoS attacks : due to being larger and heavier, it has also developed a better optimization to block and prevent DoS attacks.
- Client nodes use little bandwidth : If bandwidth is a problem for users, it should be noted that client nodes do not require much.
- More efficient : Another advantage of Tor over I2P is that it is more efficient in terms of memory use.
- More exit nodes : Tor is designed to optimize exit traffic by having more nodes available.
Advantages of I2P over Tor
On the other hand we have the option of I2P . Its acronym comes from Invisible Internet Project (Invisible Internet Project). We can say that it is a variant, an alternative to the Tor network, but in which we find some interesting advantages:
- Short-lived tunnels : One of the advantages is that I2P tunnels have a short life. This reduces the number of samples that an attacker can use to achieve an attack.
- Greater compatibility : another important advantage of using I2P is that it has greater compatibility with the different activities carried out on the Internet and the tools that we use.
- Several packets or messages are sent : unlike Tor where only one message is sent, multiple packets or messages are sent through I2P and they go through the different nodes.
- One-way tunnels : the request and the response go different ways.
- Greater Personalization : I2P also offers users greater personalization.
In short, as we have seen both I2P and Tor serve to gain anonymity on the network. Each of these options has its own particular advantages. The goal is always to maintain privacy correctly when we go to surf the Internet.
