Bootstrapping without Reseed Servers

In some cases I2P's default reseed servers (servers used to fill I2P router's netdb with initial peers) are blocked.

i2pd has a unique feature that allows it to bootstrap off of any I2P router that is participating in the DHT, they are called floodfill routers and have the router capacity f in their router info.

How To

  • obtain a router.info file of a floodfill router out of band, save to /tmp/floodfill.router.info or some other path
  • run i2pd --reseed.floodfill=/tmp/floodfill.router.info and if that router is online you'll be able to bootstrap into the network from just that routers

Caveats

  • The floodfill must be trustworthy, it could give you all colluding peers if it's a baddie.
  • DO NOT use a random floodfill unless you don't care about high security and just want to test out this feature.
  • Java I2P routers seem to dislike this feature (sometimes) and may back off exponentially