Ants

There are many peer to peer file sharing protocols out there and even more variations of the original open source code, many of these are anonymous, while still many are not. One of the anonymous peer to peer file sharing programs out there is known as ANts and is written in Java back in 2004.

The ANts peer to peer file sharing program and protocol is an open source peer to peer file sharing protocol that encrypts all incoming and outgoing connections between clients in the network which makes the detection of the originating IP Address extremely difficult. The Java based peer to peer file sharing program is automatically updating and features not only point to point encrypting, but also end to end encryption as well. The software also makes multiple connection paths in order to route packets of data easier encase a node is lost. This makes the network redundant and less prone to failure and bottle neck incidents. It will automatically give preference to faster connections allowing them to be more than equal and to become part of the network’s backbone as a super node.

ANts is also capable of supporting the eDonkey links for downloading and features a built-in automatic searching capabilities. Like many other peer to peer file sharing protocols, is can support has and can fully index your files if you want t to. The network can also use a chat service; however, this chat capability is not anonymous.

All of the queries are asymmetrically encrypted so that only the original query source can view the results. Although anyone can read the query strings, the asymmetric approach means that anything another node reads, can not be interpreted by the average human mind.

In order to ensure that a node stays anonymous, all files are transferred across several nodes and the system never allows a direct download from another. All of this has been done in order to prevent another client from figuring out your client’s true location. Furthermore, ANts allows you to run a proxy such as TOR along side of the client side Java program to help further the inability to determine the originating IP address of any user.

Much effort has gone in to ensuring that not only is the network redundant in order to prevent failures, but is also completely anonymous in order to protect the various node from detection not only from their ISP, but from anyone who may be watching downloads. Unlike some peer to peer networks in existence today, their have been virtually no incidents reported in which an ANts user has had legal charges brought up against them for downloading or sharing copyrighted data.

This is not to say it is impossible, but it is not easy in the least.

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