Tor & Privoxy free anonymous web surfing

[Italy Anonymous Remailer]

Tor in conjunction with Privoxy offers free anonymous web surfing for
Windows users.

Tor is freeware. Tor allows you to hide network traffic. It provides a
distributed network of servers ("onion routers"). The user's TCP streams
(web traffic, SSH, etc.) are automatically bounced around the routers. This
makes it hard for recipients, observers, and even the onion routers
themselves to track the source of the stream. Please be aware that the
developers of Tor do not guarantee anonymity at the moment, as the whole
network is still in development. However, with around 200 nodes and very
able developers this network is maybe the safest way of accessing the
internet available at the moment.

Privoxy is a freeware filtering web proxy that integrates well with Tor.
Using Privoxy is necessary because browsers leak your DNS requests when
they use a SOCKS proxy directly, which is bad for your anonymity. Privoxy
also removes certain dangerous headers from your web requests, and blocks
obnoxious ad sites like Doubleclick. It has advanced filtering capabilities
for protecting privacy, modifying web page content, managing cookies,
controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other internet
junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized to
suit individual needs and tastes.

Instructions for Windows users:

Download and install the latest Tor version for Windows (currently
0.1.0.12):
http://tor.eff.org/download.html

Start Tor and test whether it works. You should see a DOS window with the
message: "Tor has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like it's working."

Get the latest Privoxy version (currently 3.0.3):
http://www.privoxy.org
Direct link to the Windows download section:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=23580

Download and install "privoxy_setup_3_0_3-2.exe"

Insert this string into Privoxy's config.txt (you can add it to the top):

"forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 ."

(Without the " And don't forget the space and the dot after 9050!)

Start Tor

Start Privoxy

Set your web-browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) proxy by
setting the proxy configuration for address 127.0.0.1 and port 8118.

There you go!

To test if it's all working, you need to know your normal IP address so you
can verify that the address really changes when running Tor. For that,
visit one of these websites with and without Tor & Privoxy running:

http://kluge.in-chemnitz.de/tools/browser.php
http://www.hexillion.com/co/BrowserMirror.vbs.asp


Updating

Get updates here:

Tor: http://tor.eff.org

Privoxy: http://www.privoxy.org

______________________

Special thanks to Panta Admin: http://www.panta-rhei.dyndns.org/

 

[Wishmaster]

Tor in conjunction with Privoxy offers free anonymous web surfing for
Windows users.

Thanks for the hint.

[]s

 

[Art]

Thanks for the hint.

I'm curious if other broadband users find that Tor reminds them of
their 28.8 kBS dialup modem days. And I wonder if somehow my wireless
router is preventing it from hiding my IP address.

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Chrissy Cruiser]

I'm curious if other broadband users find that Tor reminds them of
their 28.8 kBS dialup modem days.

Yep, sometimes a little faster, depends on day, websites, etc.

 

[Wishmaster]

Thanks for the hint.

Damn, just too slow for my taste. Only useful for IRC (and most servers
block this); useless for web browsing.

[]s

 

[Fritz Wuehler]

Damn, just too slow for my taste. Only useful for IRC (and most servers
block this); useless for web browsing.

I use Tor-Privoxy for anonymous access to a webmail account.