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Ask Slashdot: Alternatives To Tor Browser Bundle For Windows?

Posted by timothy on from the send-your-answer-via-smart-missile-please dept.

SonnyJim writes "I frequently use Tor for my anonymous browsing needs, via the Tor Firefox bundle for Windows. I noticed that there are many other applications out there that use Tor as a proxy as well (Janus VM, ChrisPC, etc.) Are any of them more secure than the original Tor bundles, or am I just wasting my time trying these other applications? Is there anything more secure than Tor, as far as anonymous browsing goes?"

3 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Tor by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I personally find it funny when people use Tor and then leave behind the same cookies, the same user-agent, LSO and Flash cookies, same system configuration, same screen size, same fonts, same installation and versions of plugins, same MAC address, don't change DNS servers and countless amount of other things that make it very easy to identify your other activity or what you're doing. Especially to Google via Google Analytics.

    Nevermind also that half of the TOR network end nodes are monitored and sniff your traffic and can modify your browsing session in various ways. Just imagine the fun when you happen to use an end node that serves you a drive-by download exploit instead of the page you requested.

    You have some good points, though some of those concerns are easily addressed in your privoxy config. I use tor regularly BTW, and am impressed with its performance compared to a few years ago. I don't drink the kool-aid, but between privoxy and tor you can certainly avoid being tracked by all but the most devoted bad guys. However, if someone competent is targeting you specifically you're screwed no matter what you use, unless you're an uberhacker with access to some heavy hardware.

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
  2. Re:Tor by burni2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But mostly you can identify tor-users which are not having all plugins switched off, by a java applet which acts as a beacon* , also if you have switched it off in your Firefox, it get's reactivated by every juscheded update ;)

    But I also want to point the attention to the lately added
    local web storage in the current generation of browsers, like Opera and doing a picture search in opera and just check the link of the thumb nail you will be interested So the question is how long will it take till it get's abused for traking

    "data:image/jpg;base64,/.*CONTENT*."

    *(udp connection, even through DNS/53 port some PSFs don't catch outgoing connection on this port and won't bring the fact to your attention)

  3. Re:Tor by lostthoughts54 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    what he means is the old good guys are our new bad guys. and good guy doesn't exist anymore, only you vs. them.