Tor / Privoxy for anonymous surfing

**salvadorescobar** · 30th July 2005

Wow! For months I have been meaning to test out Tor for anonymous browsing. I have up until this point struggled on with anonymous proxy lists but I don't do that much on the internet that I really need to be anonymous. If I download something dodgy though I always prefer to keep it anon.

So, today I have set up Tor / Privoxy on my machine and all I can say is this - If you want fast anonymous internet access then get Tor / Privoxy configured!

It is very easy to configure.

1. Install Tor
2. Install Privoxy
3. Modify Privoxy config.txt to include the line 'forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 .'
4. Run Tor
5. Run Privoxy
6. Configure your web browser to run through a proxy server on ip address 127.0.0.1 port 8118
7. Go to http://www.ippages.com/?showmyipdbce=1040& and observe yourself as anonymously browsing.

Simple as that.

Here is the Wikipedia entry for Tor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(Anonymous_network)

Tor does not guarentee anonimity but for most peoples requirements it will more than suffice.

Read the docs on Tor for more details on exactly how their model works.

Enjoy!!

**-AMO-** · 30th July 2005

Hideip is also quite a good one click anonimity prog.

**BertRoot** · 30th July 2005

Originally Posted by -AMO-

Hideip is also quite a good one click anonimity prog.

I got this off a torrent site a couple of weeks ago and have to say seems to work alright with no real action required.

**Q-Ball** · 6th August 2005

Hi Guys - can i get a little help please? I followed the instructions above, and when i go the the site in step 7, it tells me my ip address, and host name etc, so i don't think it works for me. I am on nthell, and have followed the instructions above exactly. Can you please advise? Thanks

**badger** · 9th August 2005

Originally Posted by Q-Ball

Hi Guys - can i get a little help please? I followed the instructions above, and when i go the the site in step 7, it tells me my ip address, and host name etc, so i don't think it works for me. I am on nthell, and have followed the instructions above exactly. Can you please advise? Thanks

Same here m8, but i am on aol

**salvadorescobar** · 9th August 2005

What web browser are you running?

Did you do step 8 correctly? It sounds like you aren't running through the proxy on your local machine.

Here is my proxy settings for Mozilla (see attached). This is what you should be aiming for.

**badger** · 12th August 2005

Sorted now thanks, found this link useful for set up.
http://tor.eff.org/cvs/tor/doc/tor-doc-win32.html

and also using SwitchProxy with firefox.
http://tor.eff.org/cvs/tor/doc/tor-switchproxy.html

works a treat! :thumbs

**unclex** · 12th August 2005

SwitchProxy - mmmm I like that

**salvadorescobar** · 12th August 2005

SwtichProxy is cool. I've been using that for a while now.

The next version of FireFox (DeerPark) has a load of other cool stuff on it too - Managed cookies could come in handy for the privacy issue.

**Q-Ball** · 12th August 2005

Thanks guys - i have got the privoxy working on ie now, and will give firefox a go later! quite chuffed with the anonimity, but open sites is just slow! have some k guys!

**unclex** · 12th August 2005

You can run Privoxy on its own with out TOR - faster

**bean_2k1** · 24th September 2005

ok guys i just found this thread found it very useful, do i need tor open then for privoxy to work ?

cause everytime i close tor down i get this error when loading website

503 This is Privoxy 3.0.3 on localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118, enabled
Connect failed
Your request for http://www.digital-forums.com/ could not be fulfilled, because the connection to www.digital-forums.com (127.0.0.1) could not be established.

This is often a temporary failure, so you might just try again.

any ideas

**unclex** · 25th September 2005

you have too run both

**unclex** · 25th September 2005

you have to edit the config file

config.txt

add this line at the top of the file

forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 .

**bean_2k1** · 25th September 2005

yeah i hav edited the files but in post 11 you said you can run privoxy with out tor its faster you said

**unclex** · 25th September 2005

but all it does in the basic setting is crunch cookies and use your local PC as the proxy - Use tor it will be much better for you and will hide your IP address.

**badger** · 17th January 2006

Just a little update chaps, you can now download tor,torCP and Privoxy in one package, with the three applications pre-configured to work together. from here.
http://www.freehaven.net/~edmanm/tor...0.4-bundle.exe
for a guide on how to configure your applications
http://tor.eff.org/cvs/tor/doc/tor-doc-win32.html