+torbutton.popup.shorttorbrowser = Important Torbutton Information!nnTorbutton is now always enabled.nnClick on the Torbutton for more information. +torbutton.popup.confirmplugins = Plugins such as Flash can harm your privacy and anonymity.nnThey can also bypass Tor to reveal your current location and IP address.nnAre you sure you. Academia.edu is a platform for academics to share research papers. TorButton is also quite agressive at blocking JavaScript in the browser. Taken together, these measures make TorButton a strong defense against fingerprinting. Unfortunately, browsing through Tor is currently a lot slower than browsing without it. A Better Solution: Browsers' 'Private Browsing' Modes.
- Unfortunately, Torbutton only works with Firefox right now, and without Torbutton's extensive privacy fixes there are many ways for websites or other attackers to recognize you, track you back to your IP address, and so on. In short, using any browser besides Tor Browser Bundle with Tor is a really bad idea.
- The TOR Project provides free, distributed worldwide proxies for anonymous browsing and private downloading. TOR comes with a built-in Firefox add-on, but Chrome users can get a handy on/off.
CentralizedTorServer
Introduction
Tor and Polipo can be easily configured to work as centralized proxy servers for a small network. This is especially convenient if you have many users that would like to use Tor but do not wish to maintain Tor on multiple computers. This method involves only maintaining Tor and Polipo on the server and applying regular updates to a web browser such as Firefox with the Torbutton add-on installed.
Requirements
- *BSD/*nix type operating environment
- !Root/Administrator privileges
- A basic understanding of your network configuration
Step One: Install Tor and Polipo
- Follow the Linux/BSD/Unix install guide up through and including step two: http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-unix.html.en
- Skip step three in the install guide for the moment - the web browser configuration will happen later once everything else is functioning.
- Download and install an appropriate version of torsocks for your OS at [https://gitweb.torproject.org/torsocks.git/]. Torsocks allows the use of most socks-friendly applications in a sane way from the command line. Torsocks provides the commands usewithtor and torsocks. Ubuntu includes this package in its repository.
- Test that Tor and Polipo are configured properly using torsocks:
If everything is working properly, lynx should display a page similar to the one below:
Double check your ACTUAL IP address against the address that the TorDetector reports. It should be different indicating that you accessed the TorDetector page through the tor network. If you are running a successfully registered exit, but not accessing the page through Tor, you will receive an erroneous positive message but your real IP address will be displayed rather than that of another Tor exit.
If the test fails, check /var/log/tor and /var/log/polipo for hints as to where the problem lies. If any changes were made to /etc/tor/torrc or /etc/polipo/config files restart the daemons to load the new configuration settings before continuing.
Step Two: Configure Polipo
Configure polipo to accept connections from all hosts in your network. Use the suggested polipo configuration and modify settings shown below in /etc/polipo/config.
Basic Configuration
Step Three: Configure Tor
Configure Tor to accept connections from all hosts in your network as well as act as a relay.
Basic Network Configuration
Start with the default configuration in /etc/tor/torrc; the following changes will allow all hosts within your network to connect to your Tor server.
Relay Configuration
Your Tor server can both act as a gateway to the Tor network for users on your network, and can also relay trafic from other users. Running a relay is a great service to the Tor network, but you should carefully consider whether or not it is right for you as there are many implications such as increased bandwidth usage, some sites will treat you differently due to the large amount of traffic routed through your IP. Check the TorFaq for more information about deciding if you should running a relay. Mike Perry also has a great piece about how to limit problems caused by running an exit node at his blog: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node. If you choose to not set up Tor as a relay, consider running a bridge. If neither of these options is appealing, simply skip this step and move on to Step Five.
Torbutton Addon
Change your torrc to match the segment below.
Restart tor and polipo to apply the changes.
Step Four: Test the Configuration
Use torsocks to test your configuration again, making sure that the displayed IP address is different than your actual IP address.
If the test fails, check your logs for suspicious errors such those shown below.
If polipo is not configured properly to accept connections from your network you will see errors such as this:
If tor is misconfigured, it may be denying connections from polipo. You will see an error such as this in the poliop log:
Step Five: Configure Torbutton and Firefox
Torbutton is an addon for Firefox that allows users to quickly and easily use the Tor network at the click of a button.
Firefox
Download and install the latest version of Firefox from Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html
Torbutton
Download and install the latest version of Torbutton: https://www.torproject.org/torbutton
Configuration
In Firefox open the addon management menu: Tools > Addons > Torbutton > Preferences and use the following settings:
Click 'Test Settings.'
Torbutton may complain that there is a proxy error when you click 'Test Settings.' If this happens, try clicking OK and attempt to visit the Tor Detector Page. Check your detected IP address, if everything is working properly it should be different than your actual IP address indicating that your request was routed through the Tor network. If things are still not working, check the Troubleshooting Section below.
If everything works, simply repeat Step Four for every computer on your network you wish to run through Tor. If not, see the section on Troubleshooting.
Alternate Browser Configuration
If you choose not to use Torbutton with Firefox or wish to use another web browser, use the following settings for your proxy configuration:
Troubleshooting
In the event that something does not work, start with the logs. There is usually some useful information in /var/log/tor/log and /var/log/polipo/polipo.log.
If Torbutton refuses to pass its test, or does not seem to be working, manually setting the proxy in Firefox is a good way to glean more information about what is broken. In Firefox, Preferences > Advanced > Connection (Settings) > Manual proxy configuration:
Try visiting a web page using this configuration and see what kinds of errors are returned. Frequently that information can be useful in troubleshooting. Once you've checked all the logs and double checked all of your configuration files, the Tor IRC channel is a good place to visit next. It can be found at #tor on irc.oftc.net. The TorFAQ is a good place to check for more help as well.
Known Issues
Polipo can leak information
I have come across some issues while using this setup under Ubuntu with Firefox running on Macs.
Too much information stored in logs - For some visited web pages, Polipo stores the following information in /var/log/polipo/polipo.log
To avoid this problem, it is important to use Firefox in 'Private Browsing Mode.' This mode is more secure as it attempts to leave less traces about your web activity on the host where it is running. It also avoids the pipeline issue above.
The proper way to avoid these leaks is by:
a. Use polipo version 1.1.x and set 'scrubLogs' to 'true'; or
b. Restrict the kind of messages that polipo will log or disable logging:
Restrict logs by setting 'logLevel' to 1 (only log L_ERROR-level messages) or 0 (do not log any message). ('logLevel' is a mask, see 'log.h' in polipo's sources.)
Disable logging by setting 'logSyslog' to 'false' and 'logFile' to ' (empty string). Important: Log messages will now go to standard error, so you might want to redirect that to /dev/null as well.
Contact Information
Torbutton Preferences
Please feel free to contact me with questions. Also, if you find an error, remember this is a Wiki; feel free to fix the error or add more information. You can reach me at gmail: aaron.ciuffo.