Anonymity on the net...

It is your right if you so wish to be anonymous on the internet. Not all reasons are about breaking the law. You may wish to express yourself without your IP being flagged.

Below are too simple methods that achieve a level of anonymity. Neither method is fool proof but if you stick to rules and learn the limitations of the software you are off to a good start.

Here is a simple diagram showing a TOR network.



Both methods involve using a TOR network. The first system is the TOR project. The bundles are be downloads and run from windows or from a pens stick. It is simple to use and comes with a configured firefox browser and is a lot slower than using a normal network.

Once you have it up and running you should end up with a browser screen looking something like this.



www.torproject.org...

The second method is tails. Tails is a liveLINUX operating system. It is a large file and will take a little while to download. You can use this operating system without accessing the hard drive on your computer.

Once you have downloaded Tails. You need to burn it to disc as an ISO file. Just insert a unformatted disc into you pc and right click on the Tails download. Once you have your live disc restart your pc and enter the boot mode options. Select your CD drive as the first boot up option and Tails should boot up. Once Tails is loaded you can confgure a blank USB pen into a live Operating system. Just follow the prompts on the screen and have a play around with it. Once you have finshed remember to change your boot up options back to the hard drive or you will have problems booting up Windows.

tails.boum.org...

As with the TOR network project it is best to read up on the limitations of the software and to obey the rules. A TOR network gives you access to the world wide web and the underweb. There is a lot of useful stuff there and as with the world wide web a lot of rubbish too.

This is ATS and I am not condoning using this software for any illegal activity. However in this modern age it can be a very useful tool if used correctly.

I was using tor for android but the last two updates have killed it on my Samsung.Will have to try and get an older apk.Thanks for reminding me.

VPN's are much better and faster as well. The one I use is very simple, and pretty cheap, its called securitykiss and
you can also use it for free but it limits you to 300mb per day.

www.securitykiss.com...

TOR is just ducky as long as the links are all "friendly" - correctly coded and non-adversarial.

If the network is corrupted by nodes that act like a proper TOR node but ain't - especially the exit nodes - then your traffic can be copied off and/or monitored.

That said, I used to use TOR for some traffic. There is more than one TOR network out there, too. If you have buddies you trust who can set up a set of onion routers from source you trust, then it's pretty good.

However. Even really good looking source can be corrupted in ways you might find hard to notice, for example, at one point the C compilers used for Unix had 'modifications' that caused them to insert trap door code into the assembler output of programs when they encountered certain pragmas or source sequences.

reply to post by Juggernog


Just don't count on VPNs to keep your info private. They keep detailed connection data that they'll give to the gubmint without a fight. See also "hidemyass".

informative thread OP

i have and use tor but am yet to try the tails OS... but im learning more and more everyday..! it definitely seems to be getting more and more difficult to stay anonymous online these days, unless you really know what you're doing.

I use Switch VPN and usually connect to their VPN servers in the Netherlands. I started using a VPN because here in Canada our asinine 2 company monopoly on the internet thinks it's fine to use "traffic shaping" tools when using the BitTorrent protocol. The CRTC here recently ruled that Canadian ISP's are no longer allowed to use these tools, but like usual Rogers and Bell have been waiting until the very last minute and deadline of December 31'st 2012 to remove ALL traffic shaping tools from their networks.

So for the last year I've been using SwitchVPN switchvpn.com...

They have no limits on data per day and the speeds I am seeing are anywhere from 1MB to 5MB a second at any given time of the day. I belong to a few private torrent communities where ratio is very important. Basically Rogers Communications, my ISP, cripples upstream speeds to a crawl of 10kbs, absolutely disgusting. Using a VPN like SwitchVPN is like waving big gigantic middle finger at my ISP, it feels great and only costs about 5$ a month.

I also use Tor as well quite often for anonymity and keeping prying eyes away from where they don't belong, but a fast reliable VPN based in a country with no "post 911 KGB style" treaties with the U.S. is really great to have.