Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Haulting on August 04, 2013, 06:03 pm

Title: Noob question about Tor
Post by: Haulting on August 04, 2013, 06:03 pm
Is it ok to have Tor browser and Firefox open and browse on both at the same time? Or does that comprimise the security/anonymity ?
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: Mustee on August 04, 2013, 11:06 pm
Sorry, I can 't help you but I have so many noob questions about Tor I don't know where to begin. I got the onion Tor app for my iPad, because that seems to be the only solution, but may not be anonymous as the tor bundle.
Maybe you could google for the answer.
Anyway, I saw your post, no one is answering you, no one responded to my post either.
How do we get to 50 posts at this rate?
Good luck to you.

Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: boaclon224 on August 04, 2013, 11:13 pm
Is it ok to have Tor browser and Firefox open and browse on both at the same time? Or does that comprimise the security/anonymity ?

Yeah, that's fine, just make sure you keep your activities separate in each - don't accidentally go somewhere you don't want others knowing about in the wrong window ;)
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: boaclon224 on August 04, 2013, 11:23 pm
Sorry, I can 't help you but I have so many noob questions about Tor I don't know where to begin. I got the onion Tor app for my iPad, because that seems to be the only solution, but may not be anonymous as the tor bundle.

Hi Mustee. Only use tor stuff from the tor website: https://torproject.org - AFAIK the onion app for the iPad isn't official from them, so I wouldn't trust it. The Tor folks are very good at what they do, and trustworthy, but there are lots of others out there who stand to gain from putting out dodgy software that does Tor stuff but might be malware. The Tor Browser Bundle is safe and good, use that. If you need more security (e.g. if you think you might be targetted by LE at some point in the future, at risk of your computer being raided or bugged either locally or remotely), look into the 'Tails' Linux distribution, but that's a bit more work to get set up.
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: cryngie on August 04, 2013, 11:34 pm
Ive got torbot orweb Gnupg and all the others by the guardian project they are the same as TBB and all open source you can check they arent malicious but download a vpn too start the vpn then tor so your ISP doesnt know your on ZAtor
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: cypherpunk on August 04, 2013, 11:49 pm
Make sure you know which window you have open so you don't accidentally visit the wrong site in the wrong browser; one solution would be to give each browser a different theme so that you can immediately tell them apart.
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: Mustee on August 04, 2013, 11:50 pm
Dear Boacion224

Thanks for the Onion information. Sigh, :-(    My iPad is the oldest model, and I don't yet understand the Linux world. Perhaps I'll need a cheap laptop someday.

For now I'm just reading SR, and newbie posting. I have so much to learn!

Maybe I need the Geek squad!

Thanks
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: rynoragin on August 05, 2013, 01:03 am
Is it ok to have Tor browser and Firefox open and browse on both at the same time? Or does that comprimise the security/anonymity ?

As far as I knew tor browser did the work while you are on firefox. As long as vidalia says connected to Tor you are okay. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Ryno
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: boaclon224 on August 05, 2013, 10:01 am
Mustee, yeah, ideally you should get a cheap old laptop sometime and use it for silk road. You can use tails on that, and you'll be sorted. An android tablet would be ok too, with the tor program 'orbot', and maybe programs from the "guardian project" that someone else mentioned (they're awesome people too).

To respond to the VPN thing, you could do that, but I don't see that it helps much. Many people use tor without using silk road; using it shouldn't automatically put you under suspicion any more than just using a VPN.

"As far as I knew tor browser did the work while you are on firefox. As long as vidalia says connected to Tor you are okay. Please correct me if I'm wrong."

Tor browser is built on (and works the same as) firefox, but it's configured to send everything through tor. So you can still have a traditional tor window open as well, which won't have any tor goodness. Is that clear?
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: Highalyzer on August 05, 2013, 10:19 am
Like the others said, you should definitely use Tails or Liberté Linux, just to be on the safe side. They're very easy to get set up and you can have everything ready to go on a flash drive in a matter of minutes. You don't need to know very much about Linux to use them - both of them automatically TORify all outgoing internet connections. Safety first!!
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: rynoragin on August 06, 2013, 02:35 am
Fuck yes I just transitioned to a TAILS usb. I'm very happy doing so. I would suggest it to anybody. YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO SAFE HERE!

Ryno
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: Treasurer on August 06, 2013, 03:49 am
Tails is simple to use, and eliminates a lot of user error that could threaten your identity. Especially considering what has happened recently, I wouldn't even use Tor unless I was using Tails.
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: NoQuarter_merchant on August 06, 2013, 04:06 am
It's totally fine to not understand the answer to this question.

Yes, you'll be fine.  The tor browser itself connects you to a different network. 

I would take a few minutes to learn about the technology.

If you understand how you can be tracked, it will help prevent you from being caught in the future.
Title: Re: Noob question about Tor
Post by: Mustee on August 06, 2013, 04:23 am
Thank you all who responded to my question. Much appreciated.
I've done some looking around, information about IOS systems is rare.
Old laptop is running windows 2, maybe.

I was not in a hurry to use SR, happy to browse, but it sounds like this community could easily disappear, but every day I learn a little fragment more.