Tor Browser

[artie]

Somebody mentioned Tor on another thread, so trying to stop my annoying habit of charging in, I decided to start another.

I downloaded Tor once and put it in a laptop and every time I used it I got a virus warning. So I uninstalled it.

Is there any real need for it if you don't want to buy drugs or other naughties.?

 

[RogerS]

It depends if you are paranoid about anyone eavedropping on your digital communications! There is no reason I can see why you should get a virus warning but assuming you're using a PC, I'm not best qualified to say one way or the other! I run Tor sometimes on my Mac without any problems.

 

[mseries]

it uses the 'dark web' doesn't it ? Which is a network of computers that communicate securely. It anonomises you as much as it can

 

[Racers]

So the "Dark web" isn't full of criminals trying to hack into your computer sell drugs and other things?
I can't see any government agency wanting to have a close look into that!


Pete

 

[mseries]

use it, the dark web, for whatever you want

 

[artie]

A further question if I may.

How can anyone be anonymous online when every motherboard has a unique id number

 

[BearTricks]

A further question if I may.

How can anyone be anonymous online when every motherboard has a unique id number

Your motherboard has nothing to do with going online. That would be like someone trying to tell if you've paid your road tax by looking at your engines serial number.

On topic: TOR is just a browser like Google Chrome or anything else, the difference being that it routes your connection through a network in a way that it can't be tracked to you. The 'dark web' is a number of websites that exist off the grid and can only be accessed through a nontraditional url. Some of these are illegal and/or morally questionable and some are the equivalent of pirate radio.

People use TOR to access these because it can't be tracked. You can use TOR to access normal websites too. The problem is that because people use it for illegal activity, using it is enough for you to be monitored even if it's not possible to see what you're up to.

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

[Rhossydd]

Your motherboard has nothing to do with going online.

Most motherboards have the network adaptor built in and the MAC number is unique and is 'seen' on the internet. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
"Spying
According to Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency has a system that tracks the movements of everyone in a city by monitoring the MAC addresses of their electronic devices. As a result of users being trackable by their devices' MAC addresses, Apple Inc. has started using random MAC addresses in their iOS line of devices while scanning for networks. If random MAC addresses are not used, researchers have confirmed that it is possible to link a real identity to a particular wireless MAC address"

That would be like someone trying to tell if you've paid your road tax by looking at your engines serial number.

In a similar way, the engine number is registered to the VIN chassis number and that again can be traced to the taxation status of a vehicle.

People use TOR to access these because it can't be tracked.

Because they think it can't tracked. The truth may be a little different.

 

[RogerS]

Your motherboard has nothing to do with going online.

Most motherboards have the network adaptor built in and the MAC number is unique and is 'seen' on the internet. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address
.....

No, it isn't. Your MAC address is only used in your local network. Your router MAC address is visible though to the internet but not individual computers on your network. Your mobile phone MAC address, however, is also visible.

 

[Rhossydd]

Your router MAC address is visible though to the internet but not individual computers on your network.

Do you really think it makes that much difference once your router/home is identified ?

 

[artie]

People use TOR to access these because it can't be tracked.

Because they think it can't tracked. The truth may be a little different.

Not that it matters much to me, if anyone wants to look through the nonsense that I indulge in online. Bit like if my phone was bugged, they would wonder if I was even sane.

But I thought it might be a sneaky way to get iffy people to use Tor, thinking they couldn't be traced while being more easily traced. :shock:

 

[RogerS]

Your router MAC address is visible though to the internet but not individual computers on your network.

Do you really think it makes that much difference once your router/home is identified ?

Probably not - I just don't like reading rubbish 'facts'.

 

[DiscoStu]

I figure the world has far more to worry about than my internet usage and therefore I can't be bother with any cloaking. I figure that there is so much information being tracked and traced that nobody will be looking at mine so it doesn't really matter. If I was up to no good then I suspect I'd be actively targeted and I'm also fine with that. It's like CCTV if you're not up to no good then you've got nothing big to worry about.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[duncanh]

Somebody mentioned Tor on another thread, so trying to stop my annoying habit of charging in, I decided to start another.

I downloaded Tor once and put it in a laptop and every time I used it I got a virus warning. So I uninstalled it.

Is there any real need for it if you don't want to buy drugs or other naughties.?

I have TOR Browser installed and have a valid use for it, although only occasionally.
I like geocaching and one aspect is solving puzzles. Sometimes these puzzles have a checker which directs you to a website to validate you answer (which is usually a position as latitude/longitude - a series of 13 digits) but every now and again I come across a puzzle which is badly written or has some ambiguity in the solution. The checkers usually only let you try 10 solutions but if you have 2 digits that you're not sure of you may want to cycle through them to check multiple combinations.
The checker appears to be locked to IP address (or maybe it's a cookie, I didn't investigate too closely) and the easiest way to get round the 10 check limit is to start a new TOR connection.

One of the interesting things about TOR is that it came out of research conducted by the US military and has been funded by various bodies including Cambridge University, Google and the US government (info taken from Wikipedia so possibly complete rubbish, but the BBC news has also reported this in the past).

 

[RogerS]

Duncanh, you don't even need to use the Tor browser to do that...you can simply use your normal browser and a proxy server.

This article is a good introduction to the Tor network for those interested. In many ways it touches on the discussion currently taking place about monitoring of phone calls. It's not necessarily the content that is important (although I am sure that the security services would love to know the content and for some people hopefully already do...but let's not go into the semantics of that) but who calls who and the frequency. 'Social Network Analysis' is a good starting point to read up more. The same approach can be applied to computer-to-computer traffic but Tor (as well as encrypting the data being sent) actually routes through random and changing intermediate points to guard against this analysis.

CAVE is also worth reading up on...if only to fathom out what London Spy is about !!

 

[RogerS]

I figure the world has far more to worry about than my internet usage and therefore I can't be bother with any cloaking. I figure that there is so much information being tracked and traced that nobody will be looking at mine so it doesn't really matter. If I was up to no good then I suspect I'd be actively targeted and I'm also fine with that. It's like CCTV if you're not up to no good then you've got nothing big to worry about.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My sentiments exactly.

 

[mseries]

Your motherboard has nothing to do with going online.

Most motherboards have the network adaptor built in and the MAC number is unique and is 'seen' on the internet. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address

But Tor, the dark web, doesn't forward all the routing information, and MACs can be spoofed anyway.

 

[mseries]

The checker appears to be locked to IP address (or maybe it's a cookie, I didn't investigate too closely)

If it's a cookie and you can identify it, you can just remove that cookie. Perhaps a private or incognito session may do what you need. If it's a cookie another browser will work (by this I mean if you use Firefox, try to use something else such as Chromium or Opera), no need to use the dark web and the Tor Browser.

 

[Rhossydd]

I just don't like reading rubbish 'facts'.

The wikipedia reference I quoted has all the important 'facts', but few people will bother to read it properly.
As ever with IT there's rarely a simple answer to technical questions like 'how do I avoid tracking'
Yes, you can use obscure browsers like Tor, but people need to be aware that it's not a risk free strategy. Most major browsers now have significant anti-fraud (phishing, spoofing etc) protection enabled by default, you ignore those at your peril.

 

[RogerS]

I just don't like reading rubbish 'facts'.

The wikipedia reference I quoted has all the important 'facts', but few people will bother to read it properly.
As ever with IT there's rarely a simple answer to technical questions like 'how do I avoid tracking'
Yes, you can use obscure browsers like Tor, but people need to be aware that it's not a risk free strategy. Most major browsers now have significant anti-fraud (phishing, spoofing etc) protection enabled by default, you ignore those at your peril.

That's not what I was referring to. My reference was to your statement "Most motherboards have the network adaptor built in and the MAC number is unique and is 'seen' on the internet." which is just plain wrong.