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tech: Using The Onion Router network

The Onion Router is a great online network that allows you to browse anonymously. By sending your TCP/IP packets through an encrypted network, it ensures that the destination of those packets has no idea who the original sender was. It also makes it difficult to do traffic analysis on your outgoing connection to see what you’re up to - all in all, a great first step on the way to complete online anonymity, for those of you concerned about your privacy.

TOR isn’t perfect: in fact a quick Google for “TOR security vulnerability” brings up a few issues to be aware of. And you also need to understand how anonymity is different from privacy and security - check out the TOR FAQ for a greater understanding of this, as well as this great article by security guru Bruce Schneier, which explains the concepts well.

In the video I show off an easy way to get Firefox to use TOR, and there is a good guide to TORifying other programmes right here.

Hope you find the show interesting - see you next time.

-Wil

comments

Bedder
December 10th, 2007 - 6:49am

Call me suspicious, but I cannot bring myself to trust anything with “The Onion” in the name….

ecobore
December 10th, 2007 - 8:43am

ah, but in France and bearing, how can we screen ourselves from snooping ISPs if we want to download using Bit Torrent? Is this possible? thanks

stonefisk
December 10th, 2007 - 9:28am

Animated ginger eyebrows, sure sign of a megalomaniac in waiting.
Check out torpark (xB Browser) for ready rolled tor network browser http://www.hacktivismo.com

December 10th, 2007 - 11:15am

The web’s most interesting stories on Mon 10th Dec 2007…

These are the web’s most talked about URLs on Mon 10th Dec 2007. The current winner is…

December 10th, 2007 - 11:59am

[…] little video explaining how to use TOR, The Onion Router, an anonymizing program that makes it much harder for bad guys to censor or snoop on your Internet […]

December 10th, 2007 - 3:10pm

[…] Concerned about privacy at work? Check out more ways to bolster your browsing privacy on the job. Using the Onion Router network […]

December 10th, 2007 - 3:35pm

[…] Concerned about privacy at work? Check out more ways to bolster your browsing privacy on the job. Using the Onion Router network […]

alan
December 10th, 2007 - 4:54pm

I really liked this episode. I’d really like to see more episodes focusing on using tech rather than gadgets. How about teaching me how to hack my PSP?

Alan
December 10th, 2007 - 6:48pm

You’re British. So how come you pronounce “router” like an American? Every other British person I know, without exception, says “rooter”. Not that this is remotely important, but never mind…

December 10th, 2007 - 8:13pm

Excellent review dude, this was exactly what I was needing to explain TOR to a friend. Caught your site off the TWIT podcasts, and glad I found it. Got you subscribed on MIRO, keep up the good work.

Pedro
December 11th, 2007 - 6:03pm

First of all, just have to say that I love channelflip (just like revison3 :D), and have been watching every single one since I first heard you talk about the launch in TWIT.

Now, I don’t know if it was an error or simply a joke but you can’t have IPs like the ones in the video. IPv4 (the current version of IP, although IPv6 is not far behind) has four numbers, each ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots, Each range from 0 to 255 can be represented by 8 bits, and is therefore called an octet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address

But don’t worry, many others made the same mistake. ;) Just look what CSI discovered: http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/1/ipv45.png

p.s.: Where did you found that funky wallpaper? The one with Asuka’s ass (from Neon Genesis Evangelion)

December 12th, 2007 - 5:19am

[…] Concerned about privacy at work? Check out more ways to bolster your browsing privacy on the job. Using the Onion Router network […]

December 12th, 2007 - 7:33am

[…] Unwired » Blog Archive » #31 - Using The Onion Router network funny videocast on TOR (tags: internet security video blogs to_read) […]

December 21st, 2007 - 8:44am

[…] How to use the onion router network TOR […]

Aiden
January 11th, 2008 - 8:04am

Another excellent review, keep up the work also when are we going to get more swish piano black tech on the show. I know you only review finished products on the market place but you should have a look at the guy whos hooked up his Nintendo Wii to his PC to make a 3D display its really amazing…either that hes got too much time on his hands :) http://gizmodo.com/337068/wii-headtracking-creates-3d-window-display

March 17th, 2008 - 7:38am

Good info thank you,
Ill try to see how it is and ill come with some impressions.

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