Anyone tried XeroBank (formerly Torrify)

I made a mistake it would seem. I erased my firewall permission list and went back to that site ( http://evil.hackademix.net/proxy_bypass/ ) and an alert came up that I denied a connection to. Upon denying the connection the site couldn't detect my IP address.

 

I was trying a free trial from a download at PC World's Newsletter, and it worked for a few minutes, but then it did not disguise my IP at all. Maybe it was just a quick trial. But I looked them up and their professional version looks good. I don't know how it compares to xerbank, but it says that it covers your whole system.

 

I have been using Anonymizer's Total Net Shield for a couple of years. I have been very happy with it. That site caused me to think otherwise until I realized my firewall was the one giving away my true IP. I think Xerobank will probably be better than Total Net Shield someday but it seems as though it is an experimental stage right now. I do like how the creator of it relies on such an open community of people which means it will eventually be light years ahead of any other IP masking and internet encryption software.

 

Our software is now ahead of theirs right now. Their software is pretty good, their security choices are very poor. They provide no protection to their users, only a false sense of confidence, sad to say. I tried their products, and here is what I found out. By default, it DOES NOT encrypt your communications whatsoever! All your data is going through plain-text. Secondly, it is a simple alias proxy system, and kind of slow (200Kbps) at maximum. Third, they log everything and hand those logs over when asked. I have a post on it... here and here

Turns out it is all just marketing and patchwork to a poorly designed system that is falling apart. Just ask their admins... we did.

Now consider xB Browser alone: A simple free browser that hunts down yahoo tracking data that can compromise anonymity between sessions, reprograms the windows java proxy to reduce applet leakage, looks for firewalls, is portable on USB, has local security settings to minimize data exposure and collection, all on top of those big things like blocking ads and spyware. Can anyone else do that? Not even close. They don't even begin. And that isn't all. We are rewriting the OpenVPN GUI from scratch, to beef up the security even more. We really are fanatical about privacy and security. You have to evaluate factors beyond "I'm happy with X" and ask if X provides what it purports or you perceive. If you aren't upset that your data isn't encrypted and your traffic is logged and you aren't anonymous... well you should be.

 

Yes XeroBank is by far the best, that I know of. I did have a question though. You mentioned once that a couple of VPN's leaked. I think it was Relakks and another one. When you say leak, does that mean that it leaks your DNS requests and IP? Or does that mean that it leaks everything and nothing is encrypted?

Also, when do you think the VPN problems in the US will be fixed?

 

Is there a way to use XBVPN while using another VPN client? For example, in order to access the wireless internet in my complex, I have to use the provided VPN. Is there a way to connect to the home VPN and then the XBVPN? I tried it, but doesn't work. Any advice?

 

That would be FindNot and Relakks, leaking DNS requests, yes.

Regarding the VPN issues for USA, that will be over when Comcast/TimeWarner/SandVine stop attacking UDP streams like they way they are attacking torrents. Same stuff. So what you can do is switch to XeroBank - Reliable (which is almost as fast) and wait while we open up a new entry node in USA.

 

Proxying through the xB VPN? Yes. Add their configuration to xB VPN (assuming they use an openvpn connection, and first connect to them, then connect to xerobank). Otherwise, if you need some other network proxy... i'll have to think about it.

 

I've been informed of a new release from XeroBank.

http://www.dgcmagazine.com/

Page 8

 

So the article on the next page is not related? Is this card lie a credit card?

 

Not related as far as I know. And yes, that appears to be a card of some sort.

 

I've found out more about the card. I am told it will be used to access all XeroBank services. Download your XeroBank software from the website, and just plug in your keycard number and you get instant access. Apparently there are going to be more services than just anonymous internet access. This is better than any USB device because you can carry them in your wallet and pass it out to friends, family, and clients so they can share in your XeroBank protection.

Pretty impressive. I guess this is what they had us design the VAULT system for. So if I understand this correctly, you could have xB on your laptop and other machines at the same time, and all have it use a single account. Then you could pass these cards out to your spouse, children, parents, etc and they could put it on their computers. And then you could further still, share it with friends at their homes, or on vacation, or on a public computer terminal on an unfriendly network, without the need of a USB key. And finally you could pass out these cards to your lawyer or clients, and they could use the new service to ensure your communication with them is encrypted and anonymous.

Any other questions about it I should pass on to the management?

 

That really seems odd. I would think that they would not want people using the service for free.

 

I'm confused, Steve. You keep writing about "finding out" from management, etc. I thought you developed, owned, and administered XeroBank!! I thought XeroBank was just a "name-change" from TorPark (which was yours) and then you decided to add the extra services. So, honestly, did the MetroPipe people buy you out or buy into it? This was a big issue very early on in the thread and you denied it. I said that I thought all the MetroPipe connections could not possibly have been coincidences and added up to a larger involvement with XeroBank. Now, you're talking like you are partner - or worse - just an employee - of/with somebody. Could you give us the scoop?

 

Genady, I'm happy to clear it up. I developed Torpark. Later I talked with a private group that wanted to work together to mate to or build a commercial anonymity network better than any other, and use torpark as the browser for accessing the network. After a little singing and dancing, we decided it could work out by building a new network based on some previous designs, and Torrify was born. Torrify then designed the future network we would transition to after we had fully explored the limitations of the previous network design. I sold Torpark to Torrify LLC and so they own the code and I am a developer for the software, and and have a level of administrative access over the anonymity network design and operation. Essentially I do lots of project management. As the administrative and development needs grew, we needed to hire new people. I was asked to help source other developers and so I asked some of my friends at different anonymity networks out there if they might have some good referrals for programmers. We screened many of them out there and found a few that were gold. This may be where you get some of the instances that get confused with MP as we used one of their development sources for some initial network design and some components like the IPSpy. This is akin to thinking we are the Tor project simply because we integrated onion-routing into the browser. Obviously that isn't the case, they are an influence and in fact we currently use Tor in the browser, but that isn't our identity. Move forward five thousand evolution stages later and we are at XeroBank. So now XeroBank is pretty big and has lots of users. I am a senior admin and have a lot of knowledge about what goes on, but naturally there are new products in the works that I don't yet know about because they aren't in my field or under my administration (yet). My roll is that I help oversee the anonymity network and *most* of the projects and programming, though some of the things are under wraps and I respect the choice of secrecy in these items until they are ready for peer review and then public implementation. Some of the newest developments have nothing to do with the anonymity network, so I don't get to see it all. The business is just too big for me to have my fingers and toes in all the pies. I only expect it to get bigger and stronger, which I see happening all the time. In the XeroBank 2.0 network that will be launched, it will finally give some things to people that they've always wanted. It is unlike anything else out there, simply... amazing.

 

Maybe I didn't explain it well enough. It isn't free, it is based on a revolving balance. You pay for the service and we account for it based on bandwidth usage (total throughput, actually, not bandwidth). You can let anyone you want have access, and we deduct their usage from your account balance (in GB of usage for the month). Your balance is replenished every month.

 

So then even for a single user like me, there will eventually be a limit as to how much you can download without having to pay more? Right now I do not have any limits, right?

 

I have a question. If I understand correctly, the Plus account only covers the browser but it runs through the same network as the VPN. Would it not be possioble to make a version of the XB browser that would allow you to go to youtube and that kind of thing? Then reason that I am asking is because I know people that would be interested in this, but they either don't have the money for the VPN or just don't want to pay that much.....but they like to downloads from youtube and that kind of thing. Just a thought.

 

Hmm. My last message appears to be deleted. Yes, there are relative limits but they are hard to reach and not strictly enforced right now. You can currently use xB Browser to view YouTube and the like right now. It can handle live streaming video, no problem. We'll also have a package for P2P users that don't need other services like mail.

 

This bothers me. One thing I wanted to do with xerobank was to upload files to a web site via ftp. Earlier in this thread (months earlier) there seemed to be every assurance that this was possible. Now, not?

QUESTION: Does Xerobank work right here and now to upload ftp files or is this some 'plan for the future'. It's important for potential customers to distinguish between the two.

Thanks!

 

WOW! Thanks, that's great. I will pass it along.

 

Sure you can upload/download files via ftp or any other protocol. That is no issue at all.

 

Greetings

I've signed up for a demo on the xerobank site and downloaded the software from my profile. When I try to connect it I get a message saying "The proxy server is refusing connection."

Am I doing something wrong?

 

Jesup,
have you tried to use the extension called "FireFTP" from Firefox?

I just don't know why it's so hard to find this extension today. I found one only searching on P2P.

 

UPDATE: Sign-Up server is down. It will be back up sometime monday, we estimate. Shortly afterwards, new systems will start firing up... first to existing xb users, then to public. New software, later new nodes, later new demos, later new services.

I may not be online to coordinate it all in the most timely fashion, I am in the middle of moving, and tech support has informed me they dumped a bunch of tickets on me as a kwanza present. Looking forward to all the fun.