Private Network in Browser

Help js-ipfs
1

I am trying to create a Private network between a browser (chrome) and a go-node. I have created a custom libp2p bundle and in it defined a Connection Protector (with my swarm key). The IPFS node does not seem to pick it up. Has anyone successfully created a private network in browser? For now I am running it as a full node on the page, and later plan to put it in a service worker.

Thanks,

2

It’s take me a while but I was able to get this to work with a custom libp2p and protector. You then need to make sure your go-node has ws port accessible so the js-ipfs browser node can communicate with it. If you need additional help let me know

1 Like
3

Is there any way that you can provide an example of this?

I have been trying to get this to work for some time now and the best I have is an instance of libp2p connecting to the node with a custom protector, but when I try to pass that instance or bundle into IPFS, IPFS won’t connect.

I have also tried this example from IPFS https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs/tree/master/examples/custom-libp2p, but when adding a custom protector I am met with: “connProtector is not allowed”

Maybe i’m missing something?

ipfs-js:

const Protector = require('libp2p-pnet')

new Libp2p({
{
   ...
   modules: {
      ...,
      connProtector: new Protector(swarmKeyBuffer),
   },
   config: {
        bootstrap: {
           interval: 10000,
           enabled: true,
           list: ['/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/9999/ws/ipfs/Qm...']
        }
    }    
    ...
})

new IPFS({
  libp2p: libp2pBundle,
  config: {
    Bootstrap: ['/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/9999/ws/ipfs/Qm...']
  },
  ...
})

ipfs config Addresses:

{
  "API": "/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/5002",
  "Announce": [],
  "Gateway": "/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/9001",
  "NoAnnounce": [],
  "Swarm": [
    "/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/4001",
    "/ip6/::/tcp/4001",
    "/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/9999/ws"
  ]
}
4

I’ve succeeded on it. just setting

new IPFS({
  libp2p: libp2pBundle,
  config: {
    Bootstrap: ['/ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/9999/ws/ipfs/Qm...']
  },
  ...
})

and make libp2pBundle have a protector of libp2p-pnet will do.

5

it might be because different version of libp2p. My js-ipfs node can add connProtector but custom-libp2p example cannot. I have to manually add

connProtector: Joi.object().keys({
protect: Joi.func().required()
}).unknown(),

into libp2p\src\config.js
unfortunately this just switch off warnings. connProtector hasn’t been accepted anyway. upgrade libp2p to 0.23.0 resolves the problem

6

Can you show me exactly how to do it?

7

You might find the tutorial at https://github.com/libp2p/js-libp2p/tree/master/examples/pnet-ipfs#private-networking-with-ipfs to be helpful :slight_smile:

8

Hi there, does anyone have a working example of connecting a browser node to a private node using swarm keys ?

I’ve tried various examples, and i end up with connection.getPeerInfo is not a function when adding a connProtector to ipfs.libp2p

2 Likes
9

I am looking for this information as well. I’ve moved my back-end IPFS network to a private network of go-ipfs nodes using a swarm.key, by following these directions. I’m aware of the requirements to use secure websockets when connecting between a browser and a go-ipfs node. But how do I implement the swarm.key into a browser node running js-ipfs?

If anyone has a link to an example, gist, documentation, or whatever, please add it.

10

Brave Browser has an integrated IPFS node.

Screenshot_2022-01-09_10-06-07
Screenshot_2022-01-09_10-06-07452×512 27.2 KB

Just create a swarm.key

echo -e "/key/swarm/psk/1.0.0/\n/base16/\n`tr -dc 'a-f0-9' < /dev/random | head -c64`"

and place it in the IPFS data directory. On my GNU/Linux system, that directory is:

~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/brave_ipfs