TOR and Vidalia

Hello,

I use Vidalia to connect to the TOR network and have the following question:
If I start TOR using Vidalia and I view the network at the beginning I can see no circuits but If I enter an internet address Firefox connects me to this internet address. Why is this possible with no circuits visible?

Thank you for your help.

 

Use TAILS which integrates both TOR and Vidalia instead of using TOR and Vidalia separately. Only use Firefox (or IceWeasel in TAILS) when the Vidalia icon is green, then TOR is being safely used with Torbutton in a Firefox derivative, i.e. IceWeasel.

When you use Vidalia, you should either make sure TOR has already been started, and then launch Vidalia separately as a user process, if it is not already running. Then check the Network Map via right-click on the Vidalia icon in the main menu bar at the top of the screen. If there is no map - i.e. circuits visible, then Firefox is not using Torbutton which is a must have add-on for using TOR to keep you safe - in other words Read the TOR website documentation.

To answer you question, Firefox (without Torbutton) was not using TOR - so, you directly accessed the internet address you visited. If I am not mistaken, Torbutton may have been deprecated in TAILS and fully integrated into IceWeasel.

Incidentally, when I used KDE with TOR and Tork (a different user interface similar to Vidalia), I would first start TOR separately from starting Tork and then a modified Firefox with the pref.js modifications of the previous technology to TAILS, i.e. Incognito - TAILS precursor.

-- Tom

 

He can also simply use the Tor Browser Bundle, which works just fine.

The Tor Browser Bundles safely routes the browser over Tor, the only benefit of Tails is for people that don't know how to clean up after surfing which isn't that big a deal, cleaning out cache, cookies, etc...

And for those that don't know how to clean up, get CCleaner and Bleachbit, also put the Tor Browser Bundle in the preferences on Private Browsing....

 

I second that. Also I think the Torbutton is no longer being supported, they recommend the bundle.