Two unrelated security questions.

I just got rid of an old PC and remembered it had two small useful programs on it written by the same guy. One run in the bakground and popped up every time something tried to put something in the system tray, and gave the option to deny it. I can't remember what it was called. Does this ring any bells with anyone?

Also, can anyone tell me if I need anything else apart from Privoxy, and Tor for anonymous and private web surfing? I'm not sure if Tor encrypts across the whole network. Is there another program that can do this? Does anyone have any xperience of these programs?

 

Welcome to the forums Scoobs,

Please review the Setting up Tor/Proxomitron+SocksCap thread. Tor does encrypt all traffic sent through it, but this traffic has to be decrypted before being sent to the destination server (which expects traffic in the clear) therefore Tor routes data via 3 nodes and it is only fully decrypted at the last node where it is sent to the requested address.

You can use Tor and Privoxy on their own but Proxomitron is a useful addition since it provides unrivalled web-filtering and can also filter https:// traffic (see The dangers of HTTPS).

 

Cheers P2k. I'll give Proxomitron a go. It looks rather complicated, and I'll get Tor and Privoxy up and running first, but then I'll have a look.

BTW I found the programs I was talking about. They are by a bloke called Mike Linn: http://www.mlin.net/
I found the StartupMonitor very useful. Anyone else used it?

 

Yes, I have used it in the past, in fact it is still installed but I disabled it because I am using Spybot's TeaTimer which also monitors the startup locations. It does its job very well and is so light on resources that I never noticed it running unless it popped up a query about a change.

As for Mike Lin's other programs, I still use Startup Control Panel for enabling/disabling startup programs - I find it a lot easier to use than other programs I have tried.

patermann

 

I found this guide to setting up Tor, privoxy and Proxomitron together. Is the zip file really necessary? I'm a bit wary.

Also I'm still unsure about the encryption.

Having read Dr Who's Security and Encryption FAQ I understand I need to worry about privacy and anonyminty.

I am under the impression Tor, Privoxy and Proxomitron will take care of the anonymity, but not the privacy - Am I right in thinking any data transferred travels unecrypted at either end of the journey?

This is why I was wondering if I needed something that will encrypt the data "end-to-end". Will Stunnel do this? And can Stunnel be used for ordinary browsing or is it just for newsfeeds?

Sorry for all the questions. As you can see I'm new to this. Thanks for any answers.

 

Bump: Anyone? I've read most of what I can find on here about privoxy, proxomitron and Tor, but nothing answers my questions directly (and that thread with one of the Moderators who says all this privacy stuff is pointless has left me wondering whether it's worth me pursuing it)

 

I believe if you use Tor, it will be unencrypted only at the _latter_ end of the journey. From the last proxy to the destination.

 

That is correct, the last stage is unencrypted. However since there is no practical way to link that last stage with your system, it does provide very good anonymity (if someone was monitoring the whole Internet - hopelessly impractical BTW - they could see the unencrypted traffic but would have a devil of a time identifying it as yours). As for privacy, this is more complex - Tor/JAP will provide privacy with regards to your ISP who can no longer see what you are doing. However browsers can reveal more information than you would like (check with sites like BrowserSpy or Leader Network Tools), which is where tools like Proxomitron come in.

Stunnel provides an encrypted channel to another PC, which you then use as a proxy (i.e. traffic from that PC is then sent unencrypted). It has its uses but offers less protection than Tor (Tor uses multiple servers in different countries making tracking that much harder).

Well you need to read the posts in detail and make your own mind up here. Remember that no-one knows everything and no-one is correct all the time, be they guest, Security Expert or Moderator.

 

That's great. Thanks for the replies. I going to try and set up firefox (w/ java and javascript off) to run through proxomitron (w/ filters), then privoxy (w/o filters) then on to Tor. Anything else I should consider?

 

Hi Paranoid2000,

Very good accurate info as ever from you.


Here's something that might be of interest generally for some.

Anonymity made easy

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/356


StevieO

 

Which zip file?

Required:
Privoxy Tor Settings.zip - Essential settings for Privoxy.

Optional:
TorServiceInstall.zip - A tool I wrote to install Tor as a service to hide the console box

 

Sorry Kye-U. Was just a bit sceptical about downloading a random file. I'll download them both and have a play, and then let you know how I get on...