Tor and Vidalia HOWTO?

[meo]

Hi all TinyCore Fans!

I would like to know how I can use tor and vidalia to browse anonymously on the internet. I've tried out the extensions and they work, but how can I use them to browse anonymously? Any hints will be very appreciated.

Have fun,
meo

[batnas]

I'm not sure but i think you will need a browser plugin.
Have a look at the webpage..

\\Batnas

EDIT: This might be something: http://www.torproject.org/torbutton/index.html.en

[meo]

Hi batnas!

I've tried the tor button but it is not to my satisfaction. I would like to know how to use the new extensions in the repository namely tor and vidalia to browse anonomously on the web. Don't like to have "Big brother" hanging over my shoulder. Thanks for your input.

Have fun,
meo

[peterc]

I would like to know how I can use tor and vidalia to browse anonymously on the internet. I've tried out the extensions and they work, but how can I use them to browse anonymously? Any hints will be very appreciated.

I don't quite understand; you say they work, but then you ask how you can use them? If they work, then you are browsing anonymously. If you haven't discovered it already, visit https://check.torproject.org/ with Tor running; that will tell you if Tor is really working or not. If not, see if your browser is set up correctly (which is probably why batnas suggested torbutton) by following the instructions at http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-web.

[meo]

Hi peterc!

You are right it might my post might look a bit contradictory but I'll explain what I meant. Loading tor and vidalia and then starting vidalia gives you a GUI that tor is working and ready but it doesn't mean that you just can open a browser and can be able to browse anonymously after that. There is no connection between tor and the browser. It might be that the missing link is just what batnas pointed out, the tor button, I don't know. But when I install the tor button and start browsing it isn't a very pleasant experience. It works slow at the least or you might not even get the web pages loaded into your browser. Maybe it needs some configuration but I don't know that either. So that's why I posted my question regarding tor and vidalia. I've used tor in a windows environment and that works much faster. For windows you can download an exe-file that comes with the whole shabang including firefox but since I'm not very fond of windows and rarely use it I want to see if anonymous browsing can be done reasonably fast in tinycore. So that's the whole story.

Have fun using tinycore,
meo

[vitex]

On Ubuntu, torbutton configures a Firefox proxy with:

• http 127.0.0.1 8118
• https 127.0.0.1 8118
• SOCKSv5 127.0.0.1 9050

If I install minefield and vidalia on TC3 and if I configure minefield to use a manual proxy using only SOCKSv5 at 127.0.0.1 port 9050, then Tor works as shown by a visit to https://torchec.xenobite.eu.  Adding manual proxies for http and https on port 8118 does not work because there is not a proxy (polipo or privoxy) listening on that port.

Thus it appears that torbutton does not work because there is no http(s) proxy on port 8118.

While Tor seems to work without a http(s) proxy, it is possible that a proxy would protect more of your personal information; I do not pretend to understand the subtleties of this situation.

[meo]

Hi vitex!

Thanks a lot for your input. Will try it out later.

Have fun with tinycore,
meo

[meo]

Hi again vitex!

I followed your explanation and now it works as it should. Thanks a lot!

Have fun playing around with tinycore,
meo

[vitex]

Although Tor works without a http or https proxy, the Tor documentation (http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-unix.html.en#polipo) recommends the caching web proxy polipo to make web browsing more responsive.  That documentation provides a sample configuration file https://svn.torproject.org/svn/torbrowser/trunk/build-scripts/config/polipo.conf.