Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: Slumber on April 30, 2013, 07:47 pm
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Sorry if this has been asked before, but I didn't know how to phrase it.
If there are other devices (phones, laptops, etc) sharing the same wifi as my comp using tor, does that negate the sweet privacy, or is it fine to do?
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It shouldn't provide that your wifi network is locked down. I'm not a Windows user, but can't you set your network so that devices can't be accessed remotely from other machines connected to the network?
Actually you can run tor on an Android phone.
I use firefox and torbrowser side-by-side. I can't do everything I need to do with an anonymizer running and torbrowser is too slow to use and unnecessary if I'm working. I think the rule is that as long as you don't connect to the exact same server at the same time, you're good (that's what it used to be at least). And don't open attachments downloaded through torbrowser while the machine is connected to your wifi network (or the internet at all - do it offline).
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I use Linux Liberte to connect to TOR and before doing so I am running about the house ensuring all other devices WIFI is off before taking a scoot down the road, is this necessary or can I relax and let Liberte do its thing?
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I use Linux Liberte to connect to TOR and before doing so I am running about the house ensuring all other devices WIFI is off before taking a scoot down the road, is this necessary or can I relax and let Liberte do its thing?
I run Linux different distro, but it shouldn't matter. I don't run TAILS.
If you're super paranoid, then do what you're currently doing.
It's not possible for me to do that. My network security is tight and the machine I run torbrowser on is locked down. Use a hard-wired connection if you want the most secure connection possible.
I've been doing things exactly as I've described it in my previous post for over 18 months and so far, so good.
If you're running a Linux OS (not sure if you are), you should be OK.
You can run Linux off of a thumb drive and obviously do the same with Tor. That will keep you from exposing your PC's MAC ID.
My main PC runs Linux anyway, but sometimes I run a different distro or desktop environment on a thumb drive. I set a secure password for the admin and set up a user account with no administrative privileges. I log in as the non-admin user. Not sure that's necessary, but sometimes I get tin-foil hat paranoid.
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Sorry if I sound completely fogged on this... but can you clarify - can I use Tor browser on my wifi at the same time another laptop or phone is running off the wifi using the internet?
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Sorry if I sound completely fogged on this... but can you clarify - can I use Tor browser on my wifi at the same time another laptop or phone is running off the wifi using the internet?
Yes that's not really an issue. You need to change your wifi password from the default and it should be a very strong password (I'd recommend using a password generator and making it long). You should also set up your network so that there is no file sharing allowed between devices on the LAN. That way, if someone is able to connect to your network, they can't access the files on your machine.
I don't have the luxury of powering down every device on my network before opening up torbrowser. Half of the devices don't belong to me (I have a roommate).
I have not had a problem in the over a year and a half that I've been buying on SR. And I've bought enough that if it were an issue, I'd probably be in prison right now.
I think a question about running non-tor browsers (firefox,chrome,etc) at the same time is a better question. But I do that too. I just never connect to the same servers with both browsers and have dedicated purposes for each. And I'm not sure that that's safe. That's based on advice from the Tor project team that I read several months ago. I need to make sure that that's still correct and anyone reading this should do the same.
For those that are really paranoid, I recommend running linux on a thumb drive when you want to use tor. Linux distros like Ubuntu or Linux Mint are very friendly for Windows/Mac users and have a GUI for just about everything. You can still use the command line if you want, but you don't have to at all if you don't know how. All you need is a Linux distro ISO, (for Windows) the pendrivelinux universal USB installer, and a small thumb drive. You can run in on any PC with any OS by rebooting with the thumb drive inserted, pressing F12 on the boot screen, and selecting the drive to boot from. It's very simple in practice.
I think what you are all concerned about is that either LE is snooping on your wifi by connecting to your network or that an attacker(LE or otherwise) on another device could gain access to your machine and see that you are on SR.
If you lock down your network by not allowing file sharing among devices and by using a strong password, then you should be OK.
Running Linux Mint or Ubuntu (they're almost the same -- or any Linux distro) on a thumb drive mitigates a lot of risk. When you create a live USB, create a persistent file so that it saves your settings. You only need a 2gb thumb drive for this, but I like to use an 8gb drive so that I can set the persistent file size to 4gb (think of that file like an HDD for storage). Please note that if you choose this method, the UFW (Linux firewall) does not start automatically and you will have to manually enable it the first time, either in the terminal with a command or with the GUI. I also recommend setting a strong administrative password and creating an account with no admin privileges. Use the non-admin account. That's more secure than running as root.
PS
No matter what you do, ENCRYPT the HDD (or thumb drive) for the device you're using for SR. If you run Linux, you can encrypt both the entire HDD and your home folder, both of which I do. For Windows, use something like TrueCrypt. Mac *I believe* comes with whole disk encryption as well. OSX is the OS that I know the least about, so if you're using Mac, I'm not your man for this. You really should do this even if all of your activity is legal.
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Sorry if I sound completely fogged on this... but can you clarify - can I use Tor browser on my wifi at the same time another laptop or phone is running off the wifi using the internet?
Yes that's not really an issue. You need to change your wifi password from the default and it should be a very strong password (I'd recommend using a password generator and making it long). You should also set up your network so that there is no file sharing allowed between devices on the LAN. That way, if someone is able to connect to your network, they can't access the files on your machine.
I don't have the luxury of powering down every device on my network before opening up torbrowser. Half of the devices don't belong to me (I have a roommate).
I have not had a problem in the over a year and a half that I've been buying on SR. And I've bought enough that if it were an issue, I'd probably be in prison right now.
I think a question about running non-tor browsers (firefox,chrome,etc) at the same time is a better question. But I do that too. I just never connect to the same servers with both browsers and have dedicated purposes for each. And I'm not sure that that's safe. That's based on advice from the Tor project team that I read several months ago. I need to make sure that that's still correct and anyone reading this should do the same.
For those that are really paranoid, I recommend running linux on a thumb drive when you want to use tor. Linux distros like Ubuntu or Linux Mint are very friendly for Windows/Mac users and have a GUI for just about everything. You can still use the command line if you want, but you don't have to at all if you don't know how. All you need is a Linux distro ISO, (for Windows) the pendrivelinux universal USB installer, and a small thumb drive. You can run in on any PC with any OS by rebooting with the thumb drive inserted, pressing F12 on the boot screen, and selecting the drive to boot from. It's very simple in practice.
I think what you are all concerned about is that either LE is snooping on your wifi by connecting to your network or that an attacker(LE or otherwise) on another device could gain access to your machine and see that you are on SR.
If you lock down your network by not allowing file sharing among devices and by using a strong password, then you should be OK.
Running Linux Mint or Ubuntu (they're almost the same -- or any Linux distro) on a thumb drive mitigates a lot of risk. When you create a live USB, create a persistent file so that it saves your settings. You only need a 2gb thumb drive for this, but I like to use an 8gb drive so that I can set the persistent file size to 4gb (think of that file like an HDD for storage). Please note that if you choose this method, the UFW (Linux firewall) does not start automatically and you will have to manually enable it the first time, either in the terminal with a command or with the GUI. I also recommend setting a strong administrative password and creating an account with no admin privileges. Use the non-admin account. That's more secure than running as root.
PS
No matter what you do, ENCRYPT the HDD (or thumb drive) for the device you're using for SR. If you run Linux, you can encrypt both the entire HDD and your home folder, both of which I do. For Windows, use something like TrueCrypt. Mac *I believe* comes with whole disk encryption as well. OSX is the OS that I know the least about, so if you're using Mac, I'm not your man for this. You really should do this even if all of your activity is legal.
Really appreciate you taking the time to so thoroughly respond to this! Being a newbie, this is all a bit exciting and yet overwhelming. :o
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Sorry if I sound completely fogged on this... but can you clarify - can I use Tor browser on my wifi at the same time another laptop or phone is running off the wifi using the internet?
Yes that's not really an issue. You need to change your wifi password from the default and it should be a very strong password (I'd recommend using a password generator and making it long). You should also set up your network so that there is no file sharing allowed between devices on the LAN. That way, if someone is able to connect to your network, they can't access the files on your machine.
I don't have the luxury of powering down every device on my network before opening up torbrowser. Half of the devices don't belong to me (I have a roommate).
I have not had a problem in the over a year and a half that I've been buying on SR. And I've bought enough that if it were an issue, I'd probably be in prison right now.
I think a question about running non-tor browsers (firefox,chrome,etc) at the same time is a better question. But I do that too. I just never connect to the same servers with both browsers and have dedicated purposes for each. And I'm not sure that that's safe. That's based on advice from the Tor project team that I read several months ago. I need to make sure that that's still correct and anyone reading this should do the same.
For those that are really paranoid, I recommend running linux on a thumb drive when you want to use tor. Linux distros like Ubuntu or Linux Mint are very friendly for Windows/Mac users and have a GUI for just about everything. You can still use the command line if you want, but you don't have to at all if you don't know how. All you need is a Linux distro ISO, (for Windows) the pendrivelinux universal USB installer, and a small thumb drive. You can run in on any PC with any OS by rebooting with the thumb drive inserted, pressing F12 on the boot screen, and selecting the drive to boot from. It's very simple in practice.
I think what you are all concerned about is that either LE is snooping on your wifi by connecting to your network or that an attacker(LE or otherwise) on another device could gain access to your machine and see that you are on SR.
If you lock down your network by not allowing file sharing among devices and by using a strong password, then you should be OK.
Running Linux Mint or Ubuntu (they're almost the same -- or any Linux distro) on a thumb drive mitigates a lot of risk. When you create a live USB, create a persistent file so that it saves your settings. You only need a 2gb thumb drive for this, but I like to use an 8gb drive so that I can set the persistent file size to 4gb (think of that file like an HDD for storage). Please note that if you choose this method, the UFW (Linux firewall) does not start automatically and you will have to manually enable it the first time, either in the terminal with a command or with the GUI. I also recommend setting a strong administrative password and creating an account with no admin privileges. Use the non-admin account. That's more secure than running as root.
PS
No matter what you do, ENCRYPT the HDD (or thumb drive) for the device you're using for SR. If you run Linux, you can encrypt both the entire HDD and your home folder, both of which I do. For Windows, use something like TrueCrypt. Mac *I believe* comes with whole disk encryption as well. OSX is the OS that I know the least about, so if you're using Mac, I'm not your man for this. You really should do this even if all of your activity is legal.
Very good advice. Another advantage to accessing SR through Linux distro (USB based) is the encrypted storage space available through the distro in the 'persist' folder. This way small files can be kept secure on the USB while nothing is left on the PC ... even the RAM is wiped after shut down!
really cool.
PB.
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Sorry if I sound completely fogged on this... but can you clarify - can I use Tor browser on my wifi at the same time another laptop or phone is running off the wifi using the internet?
Yes that's not really an issue. You need to change your wifi password from the default and it should be a very strong password (I'd recommend using a password generator and making it long). You should also set up your network so that there is no file sharing allowed between devices on the LAN. That way, if someone is able to connect to your network, they can't access the files on your machine.
I don't have the luxury of powering down every device on my network before opening up torbrowser. Half of the devices don't belong to me (I have a roommate).
I have not had a problem in the over a year and a half that I've been buying on SR. And I've bought enough that if it were an issue, I'd probably be in prison right now.
I think a question about running non-tor browsers (firefox,chrome,etc) at the same time is a better question. But I do that too. I just never connect to the same servers with both browsers and have dedicated purposes for each. And I'm not sure that that's safe. That's based on advice from the Tor project team that I read several months ago. I need to make sure that that's still correct and anyone reading this should do the same.
For those that are really paranoid, I recommend running linux on a thumb drive when you want to use tor. Linux distros like Ubuntu or Linux Mint are very friendly for Windows/Mac users and have a GUI for just about everything. You can still use the command line if you want, but you don't have to at all if you don't know how. All you need is a Linux distro ISO, (for Windows) the pendrivelinux universal USB installer, and a small thumb drive. You can run in on any PC with any OS by rebooting with the thumb drive inserted, pressing F12 on the boot screen, and selecting the drive to boot from. It's very simple in practice.
I think what you are all concerned about is that either LE is snooping on your wifi by connecting to your network or that an attacker(LE or otherwise) on another device could gain access to your machine and see that you are on SR.
If you lock down your network by not allowing file sharing among devices and by using a strong password, then you should be OK.
Running Linux Mint or Ubuntu (they're almost the same -- or any Linux distro) on a thumb drive mitigates a lot of risk. When you create a live USB, create a persistent file so that it saves your settings. You only need a 2gb thumb drive for this, but I like to use an 8gb drive so that I can set the persistent file size to 4gb (think of that file like an HDD for storage). Please note that if you choose this method, the UFW (Linux firewall) does not start automatically and you will have to manually enable it the first time, either in the terminal with a command or with the GUI. I also recommend setting a strong administrative password and creating an account with no admin privileges. Use the non-admin account. That's more secure than running as root.
PS
No matter what you do, ENCRYPT the HDD (or thumb drive) for the device you're using for SR. If you run Linux, you can encrypt both the entire HDD and your home folder, both of which I do. For Windows, use something like TrueCrypt. Mac *I believe* comes with whole disk encryption as well. OSX is the OS that I know the least about, so if you're using Mac, I'm not your man for this. You really should do this even if all of your activity is legal.
Really appreciate you taking the time to so thoroughly respond to this! Being a newbie, this is all a bit exciting and yet overwhelming. :o
Anytime. I love helping noobs. I had some very good vendors that helped me out quite a bit when I was staring them. We all were newbies at some time or another. It's good for karma to give back :)
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If I could give +1's I would! Thanks for the help, the fog is starting to clear. ;D