Freenet with Onioncat

Hello! Has anyone here successfully set up Freenet with Onioncat? I’m having trouble.

I did everything here: https://www.whonix.org/wiki/OnionCat#Over_Tor except I built Onioncat b/c in wheezy there is a bug that’s fixed in testing.

I did “sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre” and ran Freenet installer without issues.

I then added TOR_TRANSPROXY=1 to /etc/environment and rebooted. Then I did “sudo ocat myaddress.onion -l 10.152.152.11:8060” again followed by “./Freenet/run.sh start” and Freenet started.

The thing is, nothing happens when I go to 127.0.0.1:8888. Says “Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1:8888.”

Did I miss something? Thx!!!

Are you trying to connect to other peers outside the Tor network?

The thing is, nothing happens when I go to 127.0.0.1:8888. Says "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1:8888."

That’s because TBB can’t connect to localhost by default. Read more about how to make an exception here: Tor Browser Essentials

I thought adding TOR_TRANSPROXY=1 to /etc/environment enabled transparent torification?

Everything behind Whonix Gateway gets transparent Torrification automatically.

so what should I do?

Misunderstanding here…

I believe from Tor Browser Essentials this is being quoted:

You could set to transparent

Yes, that should work.

For simplicity, debugging, could you iron out that the web interface is reachable using iceweasel? It’s ineffective to look for the issue in Tor Browser before ironing that out. Once you’re sure the webinterface works, you can look more into Tor Browser local connections.

Thanks. It is not working in Iceweasel either, hmm. Freenet is definitely running though. Maybe Onioncat not working?

Should ports in “HiddenServicePort 8060 10.152.152.11:8060” in /etc/tor/torrc in gateway be 8888?

For debugging/simplicity again, I advice to get the webinterface working at least once before involving OnionCat. Step by step. Once that works, add OnionCat to the mix.

Ok the ui at 127.0.0.1:8888 is working now (in both browsers) but not connecting even after “sudo ocat myaddress.onion -l 10.152.152.11:8060”

Yes, I want to use it like normal

I don’t think this will be possible. With onioncat you can only connect to other onioncat users.

Aww :frowning: I didn’t get that at all from our docs. I’d recommend you add a note Tunnel UDP over Tor - Whonix .

is normal i2p use possible?

Aww :( I didn't get that at all from our docs. I'd recommend you add a note https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tunnel_UDP_over_Tor#OnionCat .
Done.
is normal i2p use possible?
See https://www.whonix.org/wiki/I2P.

Freenet questions

1. Freenet signing keys have expired!? Dangerous or not?
2. We say you can’t use User → Tor → Freenet → Destination connection without a VPN in the connection schema due to Freenet being a UDP-only network. Are we sure - will this onioncat config and other steps below work somehow in Whonix?

https://bluishcoder.co.nz/2016/08/18/using-freenet-over-tor.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/Freenet/comments/4yalwn/using_freenet_over_tor/

(since VPNs are shit, and this doesn’t require any paid services)

Related - see:

docs-from-freenet/freenet-over-i2p.md at master · eyedeekay/docs-from-freenet · GitHub

Whonix download | SourceForge.net

https://redmine.tails.boum.org/code/issues/6078

FAQ · freenet/wiki Wiki · GitHub

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Should work as described in theory. But probably require a Whonix specific modifications. Namely, the listening IP. We had onioncat previously working.

Outdated, Deprecated, Archived Whonix Documentation.

I don’t remember why onioncat was deprecated. Possibly because it was abandoned upstream. This may or may not have changed. See:

If you mix

it might work.

Tor modifications → on gateway.
onioncat, freenet installation → inside workstation.

The issue I see… Currently Freenet - Whonix supports connecting to opennet. No prior knowledge / social connection to any network participants required. However, quote Using Freenet over Tor

Add a friend

Now is the time to add a Darknet friend who is also using Tor/Onioncat. Go to “Friends/Add a friend”. Choose your trust and ability to see other friends settings and enter a description of the friend. Paste their noderef in the “Enter node reference directly” box.

Give your noderef to your friend and have them add it. Once both connections have been added you should see “Connected” in the Friends list for that connection. The IP address should show the onioncat IPv6 address, beginning with “fd”.

Therefore this is different. Not using opennet but friend to friend. I wouldn’t know whom to add. Maybe there is a public instance aka “Tor freenet bridge” or something. I.e. someone who hosts such a node for the benefit of others. Security/anonymity consequences of that would have to be researched too (or left as open question).

Anyone welcome to research and document that.

Not necessarily. Could be. Signatures are still valid. Depends on upstream’s key policy. Upstream might explain when/if they issue a new key or extend the existing one.

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Not dangerous because it wasn’t revoked.

Only for connecting to other users who run a similar setup on the other side. Onioncat does not traverse the exit nodes.

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