Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: redDot333 on July 23, 2013, 03:56 pm

Title: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: redDot333 on July 23, 2013, 03:56 pm
First off can someone just explain to me what tails is?  I believe it is a way to save your information on a encrypted USB stick rather then your harddrive?  Can someone explain this to me because I would love to do that before placing my first order so I dont have any info saved onto my harddrive.

Secondly, is it safer to use a public wifi then a home network?  Ive been looking threw the forums and seem to find both opinions on it.  I was thinking about using a free VPN at a public wifi with tails to make my first order?  Does that seem like safe enough security and what not?

Still trying to get the hang of all this down....

Thanks for the help
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: agenorexchange on July 23, 2013, 04:13 pm
If you're just a buyer, you are being overly protective.
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: boosties on July 23, 2013, 04:20 pm
Tails is The Amnesic Incognito Live System
its an operating system{like windows} that runs on a cd or usb stick{as opposed to your comp}
so no traces are left on your HDD. Definitely better than windows IMO.
VPN's and public wifi are not needed if you are just buying small amounts for personal.

Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: redDot333 on July 23, 2013, 04:31 pm
thats all it is, just small amounts for personal use and friends.  So think ill be good just using tor from my home network and nothing else?  My one thing is i just dont really want any evidence saved on my harddrive so I want to look into that more[/b]
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: Tessellated on July 23, 2013, 04:35 pm
If you're just a buyer, you are being overly protective.

This is bad advice. Most Silk Road related arrests are buyers getting busted. Security is for everyone here, not just vendors.
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: boosties on July 23, 2013, 04:41 pm
I highly recomend tails, it is very easy to use and it's kinda cool to know that its all
on tiny usb that you can hide anywhere. I used to just use TBB on my comp but i
didn't like the way windows was running...seemed like alot going on in the backround.
I now feel alot safer when browsing for my wares.
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: theHIGHpriest on July 23, 2013, 04:47 pm
where do you purchase the usb sticks with tails installed? and would it work for mac users?
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: redDot333 on July 23, 2013, 07:13 pm
so i am now running TAILs and going to use bitcoin fog for my first purchase.  Any other security measures that I really should use?
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: boosties on July 25, 2013, 04:22 pm
sounds good to me, using the same thing. you could set up a virtual machine as well.
I try to keep it simple,everything on the flash when browsing sr, nothing stored on the HD.
It is one of many laptops I have so it just looks like an old one I dont use anymore. good luck!
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: tbart on July 25, 2013, 05:06 pm
where do you purchase the usb sticks with tails installed? and would it work for mac users?

most folks just buy a 8gb usb drive (newegg's has a kingston, alum bodied, usb 2.0 for $7.99 shipped), and then follow Fallkniven's instructions to install it  http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=114141.0

but your question raises an interesting possibility for someone - seeing as how it took me 12-15 hours of screwing around learning computerese, it would have been easier and cheaper if i could have bought it pre-installed. The biggest issue i had was learning how to get my computer to recognize the USB as a boot drive

if you have any questions, pm me - i'll try to help, paying forward the assist others gave me

whoops - just saw the "mac" aspect - i'm not a mac man but there was instructions in the link above - i'll be glad to help on general questions, but mac related i'll be zero value

Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: cryngie on July 25, 2013, 05:33 pm
so i am now running TAILs and going to use bitcoin fog for my first purchase.  Any other security measures that I really should use?

All these things are useless unless you use pgp for your address
Seeing as my TBB settings are to not save history and not track and delete everything else cookies etc when closed i really dont worry about it
I was unaware bitcoin fog had an option to buy coins i thought it just charged you 1-3% to do what blockchain.info does for .001 instantly instead of taking 7 hours
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: xpat on July 25, 2013, 05:46 pm
If you're just a buyer, you are being overly protective.

This is bad advice. Most Silk Road related arrests are buyers getting busted. Security is for everyone here, not just vendors.

+1 There is NO such thing as being overly protective. As a whole, a community, silk road is only is strong as it's weakest link. Everyone should take security and anonymity very seriously, if not for your own sake, for the sake of everyone else here and to keep what we have going.
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: redDot333 on July 25, 2013, 07:04 pm
so i am now running TAILs and going to use bitcoin fog for my first purchase.  Any other security measures that I really should use?

All these things are useless unless you use pgp for your address
Seeing as my TBB settings are to not save history and not track and delete everything else cookies etc when closed i really dont worry about it
I was unaware bitcoin fog had an option to buy coins i thought it just charged you 1-3% to do what blockchain.info does for .001 instantly instead of taking 7 hours

ya i did use a pgp for my address.  I wouldnt have placed my order without that
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: HappyShroomer on July 25, 2013, 07:29 pm
I use a Padalock2 16g flash drive that I bought at Amazon for around $40. I put Tor on it and any other files I don't want on my HD. Before you use it, you have to unlock it with a numeric code of your choosing. When you unplug, it automatically locks and nobody can use it without unlocking it.  http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Padlock-Flash-Drive-CMFPLA16GB/dp/B003SHMKHS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1374780218&sr=1-1&keywords=padlock+flash+drive
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: boosties on July 26, 2013, 11:30 pm
so i am now running TAILs and going to use bitcoin fog for my first purchase.  Any other security measures that I really should use?

All these things are useless unless you use pgp for your address
Seeing as my TBB settings are to not save history and not track and delete everything else cookies etc when closed i really dont worry about it
I was unaware bitcoin fog had an option to buy coins i thought it just charged you 1-3% to do what blockchain.info does for .001 instantly instead of taking 7 hours

ya i did use a pgp for my address.  I wouldnt have placed my order without that
+1 the rest is preference, but i just like the fact that with tails very little is running in the backround
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: ke100788 on July 27, 2013, 01:18 am
Tor definitely helps anonymize your identity and your IP address...thank you very much for Tor!
Title: Re: Using Tor on public Wifi and help with tails
Post by: hitit on July 27, 2013, 01:58 am
I am currently using Tor with bridge relays, but I am planning to upgrade to Tails in the very near future - already have my two 8 GB sticks.
I also wholeheartedly agree with xpat. Security should be taken very seriously by everyone - if we have a culture on here that promotes complacency the future of SR would be on very shaky ground, however if everybody does their bit and the newbies are all assisted with any security-type issues I believe it is possible that this great thing we call the road could be here for the long run  :)