CrunchBang Linux

netslice

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2010-08-27

Posts: 14

Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Welcome to my guide on installing Tor to enable you to surf the net anonymously.

Coming from an Ubuntu background i wasn't sure how different it would be to install on a Debian system. Turns out this installation is very similar to the one I used for Ubuntu so I have to give that credit here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Tor Also some official pages from Tor about Debian installations here http://www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html.en

I'm not claiming to be an expert at networking stuff or claiming this is the best guide. It's simply what I did incase anyone else wants to try it >

[ Install Tor ]

To install Tor run the following commands;

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install tor tor-geoipdb

NOTE: Tor installs polipo by default with the default configuration as listed on http://www.torproject.org/docs/debian.html.en
I can’t see any reason to edit the polipo configuration file if you decide to though, it lives in /etc/polipo/config.

[ Installing Privoxy ]

On the Tor website there is information that you should not run polipo and privoxy at the same time as they both listen on port 8118. The Tor-Button doesn't seem to work without Privoxy though so we need to install privoxy also.

sudo apt-get install privoxy.

Open /etc/privoxy/config and add the following line of configuration, anywhere should be fine but I just added it as a new last line. The "9050 ." isn't a typo.

forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .

Personally I had a look at the privoxy configuration file itself and it seemed fairly conclusive but you can use the Tor website version if you want I guess: http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc- … en#polipo.

[ But what about the problem of not running Polipo and Privoxy together? ]

Good question! When installed; tor, polipo and privoxy all start at boot. This not only chews up RAM but may cause errors as mentioned above.
To remove this problem I disabled the 3 programs from running at boot, using these commands :

sudo update-rc.d -f tor remove
sudo update-rc.d -f polipo remove
sudo update-rc.d -f privoxy remove

Basically update-rc.d manages all of the symlinks in the various runlevels to the original init script in question. In Debian systems runlevels 2-5 are identical but I think they're just left there to allow the more traditional system to be restored if required or possibly for compliance.

[ Starting Tor, Privoxy and Check the service is running on port 9050 ]

sudo /etc/init.d/tor start
sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy start

Now check that the service is running on port 9050 by running the following

sudo netstat -a | grep 9050

You should see this after a slight pause:

tcp 0 0 localhost:9050 *:* LISTEN

[ Configuring Exit Nodes ]

To configure the exit nodes you will want to edit the torrc file found in /etc/tor/torrc. Check the website https://torstat.xenobite.eu/index.php?S … th&SO=Desc to get a good idea of the fastest servers to connect with.

These can then be configured as your exit notes by simply adding the line "exitnodes *" at the bottom of torrc, for example:

exitnodes amunet1, amunet2, amunet3, amunet4

[ Torbutton In Firefox ]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275/

Use this to quickly automate the service on and off in Firefox. As well as testing you are connected to Tor via https://check.torproject.org/ you should also look to http://www.ip2location.com/ to see which particular country and server you are running under. This is a good way to confirm you have configured the exit nodes correctly.

[ Disable the services without rebooting ]

You can disable the services by running the following relevant commands:

sudo /etc/init.d/tor stop
sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy stop
sudo /etc/init.d/polipo stop

[ Summary ]

Tor should be fully installed and working for you now. Be very careful not to mistake Tor as a security device, it is strictly anonymity. IMO you should never use Tor for anything like banking or emails, forums etc - basically anything where the password details you give could be recorded in the Tor network. For more info have a look at these couple of links http://www.torproject.org/overview.html.en and http://www.torproject.org/download.html.en#Warning

Hope this guide works out for you. I shall try and help as best I can if you have any problems but as I said I am not exactly an expert! Have fun

Last edited by netslice (2010-08-29 18:58:53)

CrunchyFree

#! Junkie

From: New Amsterdam, U.S.

Registered: 2010-06-13

Posts: 426

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Decent walk-through but I feel like they should be a little more informative so you have a basic understanding of what you're doing while you're doing it. Think you can work on an I2P one? Maybe a little more descriptive than this one?

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XFCE User ~ Linux Abuser ~ Rubbish Refuser
[img]http://achievements.schrankmonster.de/Achievement.aspx?text=First%20Tiling%20WM%20-%2050G[/img]

netslice

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2010-08-27

Posts: 14

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Decent walk-through but I feel like they should be a little more informative so you have a basic understanding of what you're doing while you're doing it. Think you can work on an I2P one? Maybe a little more descriptive than this one?

Hi and thanks for the review!
I'm really new to writing guides so I'll have to work on tuning it up a little to make it more informative over time. I'll have a look into the I2P stuff but I'm not familiar with that at the moment if I'm honest. I agree the guide is a bit "as is" like the Ubuntu one I mentioned. I'll have to have a think about the additions as it could get a bit overly lengthy adding stuff about protocols and how the proxies work, also I'm not so great at explaining stuff, but was advised to write up the steps as a new thread, after chatting in the "privacy and security" posts. I'll keep thinking and thanks again for the feedback

CrunchyFree

#! Junkie

From: New Amsterdam, U.S.

Registered: 2010-06-13

Posts: 426

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

and I'd have mentioned the repo they have to put in like this:

sudo nano /etc/atp/sources.list
deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org squeeze main

Save, exit then enter

gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv 886DDD89
gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | sudo apt-key add -

Followed by

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install tor tor-geoipdb

You can skip the disk-upgrade.

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XFCE User ~ Linux Abuser ~ Rubbish Refuser
[img]http://achievements.schrankmonster.de/Achievement.aspx?text=First%20Tiling%20WM%20-%2050G[/img]

netslice

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2010-08-27

Posts: 14

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

and I'd have mentioned the repo they have to put in like this:

sudo nano /etc/atp/sources.list
deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org squeeze main

Save, exit then enter

gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv 886DDD89
gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | sudo apt-key add -

Followed by

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install tor tor-geoipdb

You can skip the disk-upgrade.

Thanks for the info. Personally I didn't use those steps, I did it as mentioned in the guide. If you're happy for me to merge in your info I will?

Tunafish

#! Die Hard

From: the Netherlands

Registered: 2010-03-07

Posts: 1,201

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Duckduckgo claims to speed up the tor traffic a bit...
http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/201 … clave.html

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sed 's/stress/relaxation/g'
Privacy & Security on #!

nwillettjeffries

#! Member

Registered: 2009-02-10

Posts: 51

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

I'm running Torbutton 1.2.5 in Iceweasel 3.5.9 and Privoxy is definitely not required. In fact, Torbutton defaults to using Polipo. If you don't need to deal with Privoxy, this process becomes much simpler. Here's a simpler step by step...

1. Install Tor. This also installs Polipo as a dependency.

sudo apt-get install tor

2. Configure your exit nodes. First, visit this site to get an idea of what the faster nodes are:
http://torstatus.cyberphunk.org/index.p … th&SO=Desc
Then add the following line to the end of /etc/tor/torrc .

exitnodes amunet1, blutmagie3, tory0, roo8peik

Please note that amunet1, blutmagie3, tory0, and roo8peik are the names of particular exit nodes (some of the fastest as of this posting). If you prefer to use other exit nodes, you will need to change those names.

3. Configure Polipo. Open /etc/polipo/config and replace the contents with the config from here: https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbrowse … olipo.conf
This is the official tor config for Polipo and it works for me with no hassles.

4. Install the Torbutton from here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275/
Default settings work fine.

5. Start Tor and Polipo.

sudo /etc/init.d/tor start
sudo /etc/init.d/polipo start

6. Confirm that Tor is working by turning it on in your browser and then visiting:
https://check.torproject.org/

These directions are adapted from here:
http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc- … .en#polipo

Last edited by nwillettjeffries (2010-10-16 02:04:58)

ElderV.LaCoste

#! Die Hard

From: Equarico

Registered: 2010-07-15

Posts: 781

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Here is TOR for a flash drive.  It is very easy to install.  Scroll down the page for the Linux version.

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser

Last edited by ElderV.LaCoste (2010-11-02 13:23:25)

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Proceed with confidence!
http://eldervlacoste.deviantart.com/

Tunafish

#! Die Hard

From: the Netherlands

Registered: 2010-03-07

Posts: 1,201

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Thank you all for contributing to this guide....

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sed 's/stress/relaxation/g'
Privacy & Security on #!

Morley

#! CrunchBanger

From: Albuquerque

Registered: 2010-02-17

Posts: 178

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Thanks a bunch for putting together the guide, I will try it out on my lunch break.

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I willfully participate in a campaign of misinformation!

Tunafish

#! Die Hard

From: the Netherlands

Registered: 2010-03-07

Posts: 1,201

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

2. Configure your exit nodes. First, visit this site to get an idea of what the faster nodes are:
http://torstatus.cyberphunk.org/index.p … th&SO=Desc
Then add the following line to the end of /etc/tor/torrc .

exitnodes amunet1, blutmagie3, tory0, roo8peik

Please note that amunet1, blutmagie3, tory0, and roo8peik are the names of particular exit nodes (some of the fastest as of this posting). If you prefer to use other exit nodes, you will need to change those names.

The list on cyberphunk.org is not working (anymore?). You can find a list of exitnodes here:
http://torstatus.blutmagie.de/

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sed 's/stress/relaxation/g'
Privacy & Security on #!

Tunafish

#! Die Hard

From: the Netherlands

Registered: 2010-03-07

Posts: 1,201

Re: Statler Alpha2 Anonymous Browsing with Tor

Today i downloaded the tor-browser-bundle. Browsing with the bundle is amazingly fast. Much faster than firefox/iceweasel with torbutton.

And it's available with firefox4 as well: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/firefo … s-gnulinux

Last edited by Tunafish (2011-06-19 21:21:34)

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sed 's/stress/relaxation/g'
Privacy & Security on #!