How Many Of Us Are Using "Tor"?

If you aren't, you should be.

Overview
Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.

Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them and their family members, or to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by their local Internet providers. Tor's hidden services let users publish web sites and other services without needing to reveal the location of the site. Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.

Journalists use Tor to communicate more safely with whistleblowers and dissidents. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use Tor to allow their workers to connect to their home website while they're in a foreign country, without notifying everybody nearby that they're working with that organization.

Groups such as Indymedia recommend Tor for safeguarding their members' online privacy and security. Activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommend Tor as a mechanism for maintaining civil liberties online. Corporations use Tor as a safe way to conduct competitive analysis, and to protect sensitive procurement patterns from eavesdroppers. They also use it to replace traditional VPNs, which reveal the exact amount and timing of communication. Which locations have employees working late? Which locations have employees consulting job-hunting websites? Which research divisions are communicating with the company's patent lawyers?

A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering, and one of its teams used Tor while deployed in the Middle East recently. Law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveilling web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations.

The variety of people who use Tor is actually part of what makes it so secure. Tor hides you among the other users on the network, so the more populous and diverse the user base for Tor is, the more your anonymity will be protected.

sounds good, explain how. Is it software or encryption, both or what?

how do i get Tor?:"

great software... google it to understand, use a proxy as well. the ultimate in secure. and get a hard wired/software firewall.

As far as I know, it encrypts it and then sends it over a bunch of proxys (other people running TOR). It encrpyts it at every spots though, so the next machine doesn't even know where it's been. That's how it was explained to me by a friend, I dunno. I'm not a techie.

Anyways, theres some sites that are hosted with Tor, and can only be seen by using Tor. It's great if you want to digitally do business, completely anonymously.

Is this what your'e talking about?

http://www.torproject.org/

Dan Casus said:

Is this what your'e talking about?

http://www.torproject.org/

Click to expand...

Yea. Once you get Tor, look into the "Silk Road". It's sorta like an Ebay, with non-traditional sales. All trades are done through Bitcoins, which by the way are a fantastic investment right now.

Make sure you have tor setup to act as an internal relay or your communications are going to be easier to trace. I prefer i2p because it gives me finite control over what outproxy is used, by default it acts as an internal router, and its garlic routing scheme is better then tor's onion routing scheme. With i2p each relay waits until it has enough data to send on that it can be packaged into fixed length packets and sent over the network. It's kinda like the difference between using a mixmaster or cypherpunk remailer.
http://www.i2p2.de/
Also the real advantage of i2p and tor is the pseudonymous darknet that exists within.
edit: To whom ever suggested using a proxy and tor: That is possibly the most asinine and self-defeating suggestion I have ever heard. The point of networks like tor and i2p is to wrap the internet communications in several layers of encryption before it leaves your computer. It is then routed through multiple other computers that are only able to remove the "outermost" layer of encryption. Most proxy servers don't even use ssl so the communications are unencrypted and proxy severs are notorious for both data-mining and being over cooperative with LEO. The suggestion is foolish on it's face and self defeating if the proxy is somehow used before connecting to tor.

edit 2: This live cd is probably your best bet if you are not a computer nerd. https://tails.boum.org/

I had it ounce on my XP system and it never worked right for me....maybe i'll give it another shot, does it work with 7 (64bit)?

EDIT: Yes, yes it does....

Does this shield my IP while filesharing as well ?

using it now to browse some RC sites....says my IP is in Europe...tomorrow will be India

EDIT: get the bundle and make sure it is for the correct system ie 32bit or 64bit...that was my problem.

Also you can use tor for torrents but it is so slow to begin with it wouldn't be practical. Use Peerblock to prevent connecting to hosts that may monitor you

Anyone thinking about using bittorrent over tor needs to read this. https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea

forgetfulpenguin said:

Make sure you have tor setup to act as an internal relay or your communications are going to be easier to trace. I prefer i2p because it gives me finite control over what outproxy is used, by default it acts as an internal router, and its garlic routing scheme is better then tor's onion routing scheme. With i2p each relay waits until it has enough data to send on that it can be packaged into fixed length packets and sent over the network. It's kinda like the difference between using a mixmaster or cypherpunk remailer.
http://www.i2p2.de/
Also the real advantage of i2p and tor is the pseudonymous darknet that exists within.
edit: To whom ever suggested using a proxy and tor: That is possibly the most asinine and self-defeating suggestion I have ever heard. The point of networks like tor and i2p is to wrap the internet communications in several layers of encryption before it leaves your computer. It is then routed through multiple other computers that are only able to remove the "outermost" layer of encryption. Most proxy servers don't even use ssl so the communications are unencrypted and proxy severs are notorious for both data-mining and being over cooperative with LEO. The suggestion is foolish on it's face and self defeating if the proxy is somehow used before connecting to tor.

edit 2: This live cd is probably your best bet if you are not a computer nerd. https://tails.boum.org/

Click to expand...

Hi there, you suggested tor and I have been using it since but I find I get logged out of rollitup and every other website that requires logging in within minutes of doing so. I have trawled the tor website for a solution but cant get anything. Do you have any advice?

newworldicon said:

Hi there, you suggested tor and I have been using it since but I find I get logged out of rollitup and every other website that requires logging in within minutes of doing so. I have trawled the tor website for a solution but cant get anything. Do you have any advice?

Click to expand...

Tor routinely switches between out proxies which changes your ip. This logs you out because the connection appears new to the server.

I2P allows for more finite control of the out proxies (on is enabled by default). This will give you a consistent ip and keep you from being logged out. I2P also has better support for file-sharing within it's own network.

http://www.i2p2.de/

forgetfulpenguin said:

Tor routinely switches between out proxies which changes your ip. This logs you out because the connection appears new to the server.

I2P allows for more finite control of the out proxies (on is enabled by default). This will give you a consistent ip and keep you from being logged out. I2P also has better support for file-sharing within it's own network.

http://www.i2p2.de/

Click to expand...

Thanks I figured as much, I'll try the one you suggested.

Ahh those .onion sites!! It was like being reborn!