What is Freenet?
Like TOR, Freenet exist on the the dark web, which is often also called the Deep Web. It is pretty different in how it works compared to TOR though. Freenet can be described as a peer-to-peer network and will only work when other people are using the network. It is also completely seperate from the normal internet, and cannot be used to visit normal websites like you could do in TOR. In Freenet, you connect to other people as a network.
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What can Freenet be used for?
Freenet was designed to be a platform where people can act on their freedom of speech and do so anonymously. There are discussion boards on pretty much all topics and there is a form of filesharing.
Is Freenet illegal?
Short anwser to that is NO it is not illegal to use. However it faces the same problem that any other anonymous platform has like TOR and i2p. Because it is a anomynous network, where it is hard to be tracked down by governments or police, there are always criminals active on those networks. Sadly people can use these platforms to set up websites with illegal content like drugs, weapons and the most disturbing of all, child pornography. So you have to be carefull and don’t open websites that might contain these types of illegal content. Use Freenet at your own risk.
How to use Freenet anomynously
You do have to understand that you connect to Freenet using your own IP adress. And because other people connect to you, and you to them, they could see what you are doing on Freenet and could discover your real identity. There are 2 ways you can connect to Freenet: Connect to everyone, which will make your connection stronger but less safe. Or you can connect to friends only. When you connect to your friends, you will only connect to people you know and thus will it be impossible for other people to see what you are doing on Freenet. The only problem with that is that you have to know people and trust them enough to connect to them.
Freenet over VPN
If you don’t know other people using Freenet, you could just run all your traffic through a VPN. This way, your real IP adress will be hidden and you are one step more anonymous on Freenet. There are several VPN services out there, but when it comes to being truly anonymous, there are but a few worth considering. Our top pick would always be Private Internet Access VPN, for it gives you a strong encrypted connection and has features like DNS leak protection in place. PIA VPN is one of the few that does not log your traffic and can be bought anonymously with Bitcoin.
Jordy