A very long time ago, only a few advanced Internet users, as well as developers, were familiar with the TOR browser. By the current time period this system managed to gain popularity among those people who prefer safe Internet surfing. And there is nothing surprising here: in recent years, most users have had to deal with the fact that there is no access to some sites in a particular country.

The ill-fated Roskomnadzor is responsible for blocking popular websites in the Russian Federation. His activities
representatives does not always leave ordinary Internet users satisfied, because very often blocking occurs on portals that do not contain dangerous content, which contain a large number of information people need.

Not everyone likes this situation, so anonymization methods have begun to be actively improved. Among the most comfortable and practical tools for surfing in a confidential manner, the TOP browser stands out. We will try to talk in more detail about its functional features and explain how to use them.

Installing the TOR browser

The TOP browser has such a simple and user-friendly interface that almost any user can master it. To log out confidentially global network, you need to download the browser installer. The file can be found on the official portal. The installer will unpack the TOP browser files into the final folder, which is specified by the user in the settings (the standard location is Desktop). After this, the installation will be finally completed.

Instructions for using the TOR browser

Next, the user will need to launch the program, and then wait until the connection to the confidential network is completed. If the launch is successful, it will appear home page, where there will be a notification about the connection to the TOR browser. After this, the user should no longer have any special problems going to sites, since confidentiality will be completely preserved.

The browser has a set of all the necessary options, so there is no need to make any changes to the settings. Be sure to pay attention to the special plug-in “NoScript”. The TOP browser needs this add-on to control Java, as well as other scripts hosted on Internet portals, because some scripts may violate client privacy rules.

Sometimes this function is used to de-anonymize certain TOP clients or install virus-type files.

It must be remembered that in standard mode the “NoScript” function is activated for defining scripts. This means that when visiting dangerous websites, the global display of scripts should be deactivated. This is done by clicking on the plugin icon.

There is also a completely different way to visit the Internet in a confidential form through TOP - by installing the TAILS distribution kit. It contains a system that has a large number of nuances that are designed to ensure the most high level protection for clients using the service confidentially. Each outgoing connection is sent to the TOP browser, while each regular connection is blocked. Also, after the user uses TAILS, there will be no information on the PC regarding all the operations performed. Additional distribution software has not only the TOP browser, which contains a large number of additions and modifications. It also contains other functional type programs, for example, passwordmanager, many applications for working with encryption, as well as an i2p client, which provides access to the Darknet.

In addition to viewing blocked portals on the Internet, TOP also allows you to visit sites that are located in the area of ​​the pseudo-domain section.onion. while viewing it, the client has developed confidentiality, as well as a reliable level of security. The user can become familiar with the addresses of these portals by searching in an online search engine or in directories of a specific type. The main portals can be found by following the links by going to Wikipedia.

And finally, the browser has some disadvantages:

1. Internet traffic sometimes significantly slows down the loading of many pages viewed by a user by transmitting information across different continents.
2. Your provider may become aware of the use of the TOP service (it is recommended that you study in detail how to ensure that your IP is masked).

Good evening dear readers and fans computer technology, we continue to study the Windows 10 Anniversary Update operating system, and today I want to touch on the topic of security and anonymity on the Internet, we will look at how to use the tor browser and generally get acquainted with it.

Anonymity on the Internet

And so, those users who have been using such an invention as the Internet for a long time have at least once wondered how I can organize anonymity on the Internet, a person may have different reasons for this, from delusions of persecution to real concealment from the intelligence services, an example could be hackers. And many of them use the tor browser for such relaxing surfing on the World Wide Web.

History and principle of operation of the tor network

As has been the tradition since time immemorial, this is the idea of ​​pensive military men. Their motives are still unknown and there is no exact data about this, at the beginning of 2000 this technology for some reason, they decided to make it publicly available, including all the sources. It's like a special gift. There may have been a hidden motive in this, but there is no reason not to trust the browser, since the community did everything to make this project independent and secure. For 15 years, these codes have been well researched and have not revealed hidden loopholes to track users.

The main principle of the tor browser is that you can surf the Internet, download files or watch videos, completely anonymously and without traces. Having opened, for example, the address of a site in Tor, the path will be the site, I will not be able to find out your real IP address issued by your provider.

In general, tor itself was intended for some kind of freedom on the network, but someone can use it in shady matters, it all depends on the tasks. Recently, we all felt the first step in the fight against piracy in Russia, namely, access to torrents was closed, and there I told you that Tor can bypass this. This is its true purpose, to bypass website blocking restrictions at the country level. Providers won't even know you did it.

How TOR works - Everything is very simple here: there is a network of nodes for this technology around the world and random three nodes will be used for data transfer. Nobody knows which ones, it's roulette.

The Tor browser will send packets to the first node, which will also contain the encrypted address of the second node. The first node has the encryption key, and when it understands who the second node will be, it redirects network package there (onion layers). On the second node, you receive a packet containing the key to decrypt the address of node 3. This layout makes it difficult to understand what exactly you are opening in your Tor Browser. By encrypting on each node of the Tor network and changing the IP address from which the request is coming. Computers on a network that act as proxy servers are called relays.

I would like to draw your attention once again to the fact that only the path is encrypted, point-to-point routes, all packet contents will be unencrypted. So, if you suddenly want greater security in the transmission of important data, then encrypt it before transmission, for example, in the TruCrypt utility. In the tor browser you will not find tails in SSL and TLS about service information, everything will be cut out, so that you will not be able to understand what operating system or program you have.

And so, there is a user Alice, she makes a request to the global directory server, from him she wants to understand where the servers of the Tor network are located. A chain is created, everyone knows only their own route, no one knows the whole route. Data transfer begins. Your local Tor Browser negotiates a list of encryption keys with each node.

Because of the way Alice's Tor client encrypts her data, each node in the chain can only know the IP addresses of the nodes immediately adjacent to it. Let's say the first Tor server in the chain knows that Alice's Tor client is sending some data and that it should be passed to the second Tor server. Similarly, Bob only knows that he is receiving data from the last Tor server in the chain, but has no idea about the real Alice.

Torus networks number in thousands of nodes, and if you understand that each time the connection of three nodes changes, it is simply very difficult to calculate you, and this is what is achieved.

One of the disadvantages of the TOR network is that all nodes are regular computers, and not mega cool and high-speed equipment, so that the data transfer speed may be lower than you are used to on a regular browser.

Tor Browser Facts

• Tor has not yet been hacked by anyone. There is not a single reliable case of hacking on this network.
• Tor is also used by ordinary people, not just desperate hackers. It is often used by journalists, people who are interested in life behind the Chinese firewall, the developers of this brainchild responded in a funny way

“What, do you have something to hide?” with the phrase: “No, it’s not a secret - it’s just none of your business.”

• The tor browser has no loopholes or hidden holes.
• No one has yet been condemned for supporting a relay node, this is when you make your computer part of the Tor network and traffic is driven through it.
• tor browser is very easy to use

Download the tor browser for windows

We have figured out everything about the principle of operation, now you need to download the tor browser for Windows. Let's go to the official website.

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

Go down a little lower and see the summary table of tor browser localization, select the language you need, for me it is Russian, do not forget to select the correct bit depth (32-64) to read the post on the link on the left.

Installing Tor Browser

After you have downloaded the Tor browser, launch it, first of all select the program language.

All installation and unpacking is completed and our tor browser is ready for use, check both boxes to create a shortcut and launch the application.

Setting up tor browser

The construction of a chain of torus nodes will begin.

Tor will open and immediately click the Open Security Settings button.

There will be a scale with increasing browser security, I advise you to choose either a medium level or moderate high. On the right side you will be told what is changing.

If you open the onion icon, when you open the site, you can trace its chain of three nodes, in my example the traffic went to the USA > France > Norway.

Earlier I told you which the provider gives you. For example, I open Google browser Chrome, I go to the website 2ip.ru and see that my real IP address is 185.71.69.218

Now I open the Tor browser, also go to 2ip.ru from it and see a different country and IP address 213.252.247.231

If you click on the onion icon in the top left corner and rebuild the chain for this site, we move to the Netherlands. I think now you understand how to use the tor browser in Windows 10 and how it builds chains.

Setting up the tor browser

In order to get into the tor settings, click the button in the upper right corner and a context menu will open, we are interested in Add-ons or Settings. Let's go to Add-ons.

By default, 4 extensions are installed:

• Https-Everywhere > makes sure you always surf the Internet via https
• NoScript > disable scripts on sites, more secure
• Torbutton > this is essentially the engine

If you click settings on Torbutton, you will see

• Do not save browsing history
• Disable extensions
• Block third party cookies
• Change information that distinguishes you from other users

Now go to the tor browser settings. The first tab is the main one, here Tor Browser can be selected as the default browser.

On the Search tab, you can set search engine by default, the most popular Western players can be selected.

In the content, you can configure it to block pop-ups

In privacy, be sure to check the box Tell sites that I don’t want to be tracked so that you don’t get pushed into interest-based advertising.

Well, the protection tab, here is useful: Block sites suspected of attacks.

How to configure tor as a relay

Earlier, at the very beginning, I wrote to you that you can make your computer part of the tor network and drive traffic both inside and outside it; previously, up to version 3, the Vidalia mechanism was built into the browser.

Thanks to the Vidalia mechanism, you lift overall. Download and unpack. The output will be two folders and one file. Place them in the root with Tor Browser installed.

Launch Start Vidalia. If an error appears that Vidalia could not start. Then click Show settings.

We restart Start Vidalia and see that everything is connected perfectly.

Let's start looking at the settings, click Traffic Graph, a convenient window with network statistics will appear. Your anonymous traffic has started running.

Next, click on the network overview, in order to see how many repeaters there are now around the world; after a full download, I got more than 8,000. Unfortunately, for some reason now it does not show the indication of the host country. But this can all be fixed, I’ll show you how.

• Work only as a client, that is, they will not chase you through network traffic
• Rebroadcast internal network traffic
• Relay Tor network traffic to the output

The tab additionally contains network settings and most required file Tor settings, it needs to be edited for subtle cheating.

This is what the contents of the torrc file look like, I advise you to edit it with a regular notepad from the directory where it is located.

I hope you were interested in increasing your Anonymity on the Internet and understanding how the Tor browser works.

How to remove tor browser

Yes, I forgot to say that in order to remove tor browser, you just need to delete its folder, since it is a portable program, everything is simple.

Browser Tor(Further Tor Browser) ensures the anonymity of your actions on the Internet. It hides your identity and protects your web connections from many types of online surveillance. Tor can also be used to bypass Internet blocks.

• How to remain anonymous and bypass censorship on the Internet

What will you learn from this chapter?

• How to Hide Your Digital Identity from the Websites You Visit
• How to Hide Websites You Visit from ISPs and Spyware
• How to bypass Internet censorship and filters
• How to protect yourself from unsafe and potentially malicious websites with an add-on NoScript

1. Introduction to Tor Browser

2.1 Downloading Tor Browser

Image 2. Tor Browser bridge settings

Step 2. Select Yes.

Image 3: Setting up bridges

Step 4. Select option Connect to predefined bridges.

Step 5. Click button [Further] to configure proxy.

Tor Browser will ask if you need it to access the Internet. local proxy. In this example we're assuming you don't need it. If need to, look at the settings of your usual browser and copy the proxy settings from there. (IN Firefox browser you can find it in the menu Settings > Advanced > Network > Configure. In other browsers, you may find the same settings in the Internet access settings. You can contact support system browser for help.

Image 4. Proxy settings

Step 6. Select option [No].

Step 7 Click button [Connect] to launch launch Tor Browser.

Image 5. Connecting to the Tor network

After a couple of moments, Tor Browser will open.

3.2.2. Connecting to the Tor network with other bridges

You can also connect to the Tor network by specifying bridges on one's own. This is rarely used (mostly they prefer predefined bridges), and therefore there is less chance that this method will be blocked. If you are unable to access the Tor Project website, you can ask for addresses of bridge sites by sending an email to [email protected] , provided that you are using an account Riseup, Gmail or Yahoo. Insert words get bridges in the body of the letter.

If you have There is to gain access to the Tor Project, you can find out the addresses of such bridges, Go to the page https://bridges.torproject.org/options and follow the steps.

Step 1. Click button Just give me the addresses of the bridges!.

Image 1: Obtaining Tor Bridge Addresses

Step 2. Type the characters from the picture ( captcha) and press Enter.

Image 2. Captcha

You will see three bridge addresses.

Image 3. Bridge addresses

Step 3. Now that you have the bridge addresses, you can dial them in Tor bridge settings as shown below.

Note. If this is your first time launching Tor Browser, you may see a screen Tor bridge settings by simply following the steps from . If Tor Browser is already configured, refer to .

Image 4. Tor bridge settings

3.3. Changing Tor Network Access Settings

You can change Tor settings when the program is already configured. Let's say you're traveling to a country where Tor is blocked. How to change settings? Follow the steps:

Step 1: Click button to see the Tor Browser menu.

Image 1. Tor Browser settings menu

Step 2. Select Tor network settings to determine how Tor Browser connects to the Internet.

Image 2. Tor network settings

In the settings you can enable or disable bridges and select other options.

When you're done, click button And restart Tor Browser.

4. Anonymous Internet access via Tor Browser

It's important to remember that Tor Browser provides anonymity only for those actions that occur in the Tor Browser window. Tor itself does not protect all other online activities.

Note. In accordance with privacy policy , Tor Browser configured to not save browser history on HDD. Whenever you exit Tor Browser, your history is deleted.

4.1. How to check if Tor Browser is working

Tor Browser hides your IP address from the sites you visit. If the program is configured correctly, it should appear as if you are accessing a site on the Internet from an IP address that is different from your normal IP address, and your physical location cannot be calculated from the IP address.

The easiest way to make sure that the program works is to check on the developer’s website https://check.torproject.org/ .

If you don't use Tor, you will see:

Image 1: Check shows that Tor is not working properly

If you are using Tor, the image will look like this:

Image 2. Test shows that Tor is working as expected

Do you want to know the IP address under which you connect to the Internet via the network? Tor? There are many ways to do this on the Internet, including websites that support encryption. https(which will make life difficult non-providers who want to “fake” the result):

If you go to this site Not Through Tor Browser, you can see your real IP address associated with your real location. If you access via Tor Browser, a different IP address will be displayed.

4.2. Creating a New Identity

You can create a "new identity" in Tor Browser. In this case, Tor Browser will randomly select a new set of retranslators. From the outside it will look like you are logging in from a new IP address when you visit a particular website. To create a new identity:

Step 1. Click button to open the Tor Browser settings menu.

Image 1: Creating a new identity in Tor Browser

Step 2. Select paragraph New identity.

Tor Browser will clear your browsing history and cookies, then restart and you will continue using a different IP address.

4.3. NoScript Add-on

4.4. Tor Browser Update

You will receive notifications about new Tor Browser updates.

Step 1. Click button to display the Tor Browser menu.

Image 1. Tor Browser Settings

Step 2. Select Check for Tor Browser updates.

Image 2. Checking for Tor Browser updates

The program will tell you if there is a new version Tor Browser and whether an update is required.

Image 3. Program updates

FAQ

Question. Why should I Tor Browser?

Answer. Tor Browser – useful program, if you need to bypass censorship and access certain sites. Tor Browser is useful if you don't want your ISP to know what sites you visit. The program also hides your location on the Internet from websites.

Question. I'm launching Tor Browser; now all programs that go online work through Tor network?

Answer. No, by default only what you are working with is sent through the Tor network. Tor Browser. Other programs work as usual - directly through your Internet access provider. You can find out if the Tor network is working by going to Tor test page by the address https://check.torproject.org. Tor's developers also expect people to be careful, use common sense, and use common sense when accessing new and unfamiliar websites.

Question. Is what I'm doing encrypted? Tor Browser?

Answer. Tor encrypts all communications inside Tor networks. Keep in mind that Tor cannot encrypt data that leaves the Tor network. To protect data between Tor exit node and the site you are linking to, it's still better to use HTTPS.

Users Tor browser began to often encounter problems launching the program, which are especially noticeable after updating to latest version. Problems with starting a program must be solved based on the source of the problem.

So, there are several options why Tor Browser does not work. Sometimes the user simply does not see that the connection to the Internet is broken (the cable is pinched or pulled out, the Internet is turned off on the computer, the provider has denied access to the Internet, then the problem is solved quite simply and clearly. There is an option that the time on the device is incorrectly set, then the problem needs to be solved the way from the lesson "Network connection error"

There is a third common reason why Tor Browser does not start on specific computer– firewall prohibition. Let's look at the solution to the problem in a little more detail.

To enter the firewall, you need to enter its name in the search menu or open it through the control panel. After opening the firewall, you can continue working. The user needs to click on the “Allow interaction with applications...” button.

After this, another window will open, which will contain a list of programs allowed for use by the firewall. If the Tor browser is not listed in the list, then you need to click on the “Change settings” button.

Allow another app

Now the names of all programs and the “Allow other applications...” button should turn black, which you need to click for further work.

Add application

In the new window, the user needs to find the browser shortcut and add it to the list of allowed ones by pressing the corresponding button at the bottom of the window.

Tor Browser has now been added to the firewall exceptions. The browser should start, if this does not happen, then it is worth checking that the resolution settings are correct, and once again make sure that the configured time and Internet access are correct. If Tor Browser still does not work, then read the lesson indicated at the beginning of the article. Did this advice help you?

Before you launch anonymous browser Tor you need to know how to use the Tor browser. Since you can install and run the Tor browser on any operating system Windows, and the Tor browser interface is in Russian, then any user can install the Tor browser on a computer or laptop. The Tor Browser program itself runs on Firefox. Can download Tor browser for free.
By launching Tor Browser, it assigns your computer an IP address that will display its physical location in some other country. In addition, anonymous Internet surfing is carried out by encrypting traffic and distributing it across a network of different servers. Due to this, it is impossible to determine it by IP address real location, determine what requests were made and what pages were visited. Tor portable RUS does not need to be installed on a computer or laptop; it can be launched directly from a folder that can be located on any medium, be it a flash drive or a CD.

Tor Browser privacy and security settings

Setting up Tor Browser for Firefox is done by clicking on green onion in the upper left part of the browser. Opening the item Privacy and Security Settings can be enabled or disabled in the browser installed extensions, blocking third-party cookies, saving the history of visiting sites, and in these settings you can use the slider to configure the security level of visiting sites. When you launch the browser, you first connect to the Tor network, and then launch the browser with an interface similar to Mozilla Firefox.

Open a new window in the Tor browser settings

To make sure that the Tor browser is working normally, you need to click on Tor Browser located in the upper left corner of the browser and select in the context menu that appears New private window After this, a new window should open on which it will be written Welcome to Tor Browser.

This opens a new private window

In this window you need to click on the link called Check Tor network settings. After this, a page will open on which it should be written Congratulations. This browser configured to use Tor, and below the IP address assigned to your computer will be shown.

This time automatic setting tor browser showed the IP address of Ukraine

You can change the IP address assigned to your computer by your browser, for example it is currently assigned Ukraine 91,213,8,235. To change the IP address of your computer, you need to click on in the upper left part of the browser. green onion and in the context menu that appears, select New Tor chain for this site. After this, Tor Browser Bundle RUS will reload the page and the computer will be assigned a new IP address, it will become Romania 93,115,95,201.

This time we managed to automatically configure the Tor browser to the IP address of Romania

The only disadvantage of this browser is that the anonymous Tor network consists of several nodes, and each of the nodes produces a delay in both response time and channel width, that is, the browser works with slight delays when opening a page.

Tor exit nodes

A node is a node through which data is transmitted. The browser usually uses three such nodes, which are selected at random. When transmitting information from node to node, the information is encrypted every time, and each node only knows from which node it received the information and to which it will send it. Using this browser you can view closed sites.
If Tor does not connect to the network at startup, then most likely the time and possibly the date on your computer are set incorrectly.

If the Tor browser does not start, you need to set the date and time

To set the time, you need to move the cursor directly over the time and click right button mouse select from context menu paragraph Setting the date and time. The Date and Time window will open. In this window, you must first click on the button Change date and time and in the window that opens Setting the time and date, you must set the date and time correctly and do not forget to confirm by clicking on the OK button.