Metanet

Motivasi

Melaksanakan jaringan anonymous berasaskan perkhidmatan ke perkhidmatan mempunyai kelemahannya, dan ia dipersoalkan samaada ia patut dibina pada sebelah applikasi. Pendekatan yang lebih mudah adalah mereka jaringan IPv4/IPv6 agar peserta dapat kekal tidak dikenali dengan selesa. Dengan ini ia akan membenarkan penggunaan sebarang applikasi dan perkhidmatan yang telahpun ditulis dan terdapat secara meluas di internet.
Rekaan jaringan IPv4 tidak merangkumi anonymity, ia hanya perlu menceraikan pengenalan pemilik alamat IP dari alamat itu sendiri. Penyambungan internet perdagangan dan keperluannya untuk pengebilan menjadikan ia mustahil, tetapi jaringan IPv4 persendirian tidak memerlukan keperluan itu. Mengganggap bahawa pentadbir router di metanet tahu hanya makumat berkenaan routers bersebelahan, protokol penyalur piawaian standard routing mampu mengendalikan laluan sebenar untuk menyalurkan paket data, untuk sampai ketempat tujuannya. Semua destinasi lebih dari satu loncatan adalah secara pratikalnya, tidak dikenali.

Senibina

Kerana meletakkan fiber kepada hos jauh amat mahal untuk sukarela "volunteer nature" untuk jaringan seperti ini, penyelesaian paling jelas adalah menggunakan perisian VPN sediaada untuk sambungan kedua router kepada router, dan router kepada pengguna. Ini menawarkan kelebihan lain juga, seperti, kebal dari pengitip eavesdropping luar dan tidak perlu perisian luar biasa yang mampu memberitahu kepada mereka yang berminat siapa yang menyertai jaringan tersebut.
To avoid conflict with the internet itself, any of the private subnets may be used, such as 10.0.0.0/8, 172.12.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16. The 10.0.0.0/8 subnet is preferred for having the largest addressable range, and in theory could be used for up to 16 million participants. For even larger metanets, IPv6 would have to be adopted.
The network itself is ideally arranged into a regular, repeating grid of routers. This serves to make it more decentralized, reduces choke points, and allows for more uniform traffic distribution. Work is underway for routing protocols that could take better advantage of such a topology.
Suitable VPN choices are available, if not numerous. Any robust IPsec package is acceptable, such as FreeSWAN or Greenbow. Non IPsec solutions also exist, such as OpenVPN and SSH tunneling. It should be noted that there is no requirement for a homogenous network, each link could in fact use a different VPN daemon.

Keselamatan

The list of organizations willing and/or capable of attacking such a network is limited.
1) Stalkers who know their target in real life.
2) Stalkers who only know their target on the metanet.
3) Local law enforcement. Examples: County sherrifs, LAPD, NYPD
4) Regional law enforcement. Examples: New York State Police
5) National law enforcement. Examples: FBI, RCMP
6) Corporate entities. Examples: Sony's legal dept., MPAA, BSA
7) Spook agencies. Examples: CIA, NSA, Mossad, MI6, DGSE
Level 1 attackers should have little or no knowledge that someone is present on metanet. Not to mention they have more opportunity for nastiness in real life. Level 2 attackers, assuming that anonymity is preserved, shouldn't pose a problem either. Supposing that a level 2 attacker has some fantastic resource at his disposal, the attacker then most likely belongs in one of the higher categories.
Attackers which belong in categories 3, 4 and 5 are moderately worrisome. Even in the most liberal democratic nations, law enforcement authorities are never shy to poking their nose into things that shouldn't be their business. Generally, as law enforcement progresses from local to regional to national, budgets and technical sophistication grow.
Level 6 attackers are possibly the most dangerous adversaries. They have or can hire experts with formidable technical skills, they have virtually unlimited financial and legal resources, and more often than not, arrogant attitudes about what constitutes infringement.
Level 7 attackers are difficult to write about without speculating wildly on their goals, resources or technical abilities. There are two schools of thought on this subject, the first ascribes to them nearly supernatural espionage talents which they use to great effect in their never ending schemes of global domination, the second would describe them as moderately competent bureacrats tasked with providing intelligence data on their enemies. How they would affect a metanet is largely dependent on which description is accurate, or to what degree both are so.

Participation

Unfortunately, membership is by invitation only. Per protocol, invitations should always be international... a further aggravation to those eager to join. Non-US participation is not only encouraged but necessary, and those wishing to increase their chance of an invitation would be well to bring along a non-US friend who is also interested.