Silk Road forums
Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: ingloriouslibertine on June 29, 2013, 10:40 am
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So I'm still pretty new to SR myself, but these "spam to get to 50" threads just piss me off. If SR is going to use the 50 post requirement solely to weed out the bots and not to force the unwashed masses to educate themselves, perhaps some sort of multiple-choice "exam" to pass before subjecting the real forums to the dizzying depths of our noobness.
I digress. In any case, ITT let's post something of substance. Tutorials, how-to's, informative wiki's, etc. I haven't seen any rules or anything against posting content from other sites or forums and if done right, maybe this will end up being a compendium that might prove useful to the next incoming newbie horde.
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i myself have lurked in the forums for ages havent seen the point in a forum account until now
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i do not think anyone is using the site a few times, jumping on the forums, making a account and spaming the post to 50 threads without doing a decent chunk of reading first i might be wrong though
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Personally I think its rather stupid also
Pissed me off because i joined an intelligent conversation, then someone just chimed in with a random 34.
The posts & threads specifically just for the numbers game are a waste of space. I see it as, i am here to stay, i'll get to 50 when i do. Shit everyone wants everything NOW these days! Why can't people just post intelligent writings & get to 50 when they do? Are they worried they are not going to be able to come up with 50 intelligent things to say in their lifetime?
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Up first for me is a link to my favorite linux distro thus far. Whonix is meant to be run on Virtualbox or VMware, which means you don't have to power down and boot up off of a usb or cd-rom to use your machine without leaving a digital trail. Whonix is a great distro to use because it is actually two separate VM's running in tandem...when running whonix properly you're running your "main" virtual machine connects to your host's internet connection through another virtual machine running as a gateway. In addition to that Whonix comes fully loaded with pretty much everything you'll need.....the entire VM will connect only through Tor, encryption programs include both Seahorse & GPG, a metadata scrubber and more....AND it is capable of connecting to several other major darknets (i2p, Freenet, JonDonym, and RetroShare) right out of the box.
I'll be putting up a guide shortly detailing a more full setup, which uses Truecrypt to both the VM software and the virtual machine ISO's themselves and a VPN for the gateway to connect through. Throw in a proxy and sandboxie to run the VM software and you've got as close to an impenetrable setup as I've ever seen, with the added bonus of your host machine looking like an innocuous every-day computer to the average observer, and being damn near impossible to be cracked all the way down to the OS that actually does your dirty work.
I really do love this distro, everyone from the other forums I post on are already sick of hearing me espouse its virtues. I'll be happy to help with any questions anyone might have via PM until my little guide is posted and in my sig.
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Whonix (called TorBOX in past) is an anonymous general purpose operating system based on Virtual Box, Debian GNU/Linux and Tor. By Whonix design, IP and DNS leaks are impossible. Not even malware with root rights can find out the user's real IP/location.
This is because Whonix consists of two (virtual) machines. One machine solely runs Tor and acts as a gateway, which we call Whonix-Gateway. The other machine, which we call Whonix-Workstation, is on a completely isolated network. Only connections through Tor are possible.
Whonix is produced independently from the Tor (r) anonymity software and carries no guarantee from The Tor Project about quality, suitability or anything else. Due to trademark issues the project was renamed to Whonix.
For download:
https://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Download/
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i do not think anyone is using the site a few times, jumping on the forums, making a account and spaming the post to 50 threads without doing a decent chunk of reading first i might be wrong though
I was a lurker for quite a while until I was confident enough in my machine's security, and I've seen quite a few people seeming to do exactly that. It'd also be kind of nice to be able to FE when appropriate (as a favor to vendor or in exchange for a bigger bag) knowing that there aren't enough people who haven't taken the time to learn the ways of the road to make it profitable enough for vendors to pull a mass FE scam.
i started this forum account to post in the product offers section with a link to our vendor page and to give out a few free samples to people domestically, the more content i add to post's even early on, the easier it is for LE to profile and target one of us in the long run i believe
50 intellectual posts can tell you heaps about a person
That, sir, is a really good fucking point. I hadn't thought of that, but I imagine most vendors have a separate account if they are active enough on the forums to warrant it. Food for thought, can't believe that never occured to me. Although I give some details of my comp setup on the forums, it is ever-changing and there are a few details I leave out of my particular configuration. As long as people are smart enough to keep from giving geographical clues I'd think it'd be pretty hard to dox yourself in the course of general forum banter, but definitely something to think about.
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the do's and don'ts for paranoia level anonymity
DO
use Tor, exclusively. Tor is usually the goto service for people looking for easy peasy anonymity. Tor gives you anonymity (to a certain extent) but doesn’t always protect your privacy. To make it harder/safer to identify you, go for: You -> VPN -> Tor. At the end of the day your exit Tor node can still see your data so it might be a good idea not to use tor when going through password protected sites you care about. Yes, it most likely will make your browsing excruciatingly slow and have google (or other services) throw you captchas for every once in a while. To avoid google annoying you, try You -> Tor -> VPN but this is much harder to configure.
DO
setup your own VPN server. Don’t go for third party VPN providers even if they claim to purge logs. Get a VPS server not located in your country. Cheap, high and fast bandwidth vps are a dime a dozen. Don’t stick with one Vps, for long. Change every month, nuke/reset your vps before you leave. You should also look into mode of payment for your VPS that doesn’t reveal your personal information.
DON’T
use Google. Its hard to replace Google as a good search engine. Google is in the business of following your every step. They spend a lot of money and does in-depth research to find better ways to track you and they are very good at it. Instead use DuckDuckGo, their privacy reputation is pretty solid. Their search results are not so bad either. You could also try Ixquick as a second option.
DO
use Firefox. For me, its not a choice based on fanboyism, I much rather like Chrome if privacy is not an issue. The choice of Firefox is for two reasons: The organization behind the browser is non-profit and the main reason being the privacy extension choice for firefox is much better (and have more control) than chrome. The three must install Firefox extension for privacy are:
Ghostery: Ghostery sees the “invisible” web, detecting trackers, web bugs, pixels, and beacons placed on web pages by Facebook, Google Analytics, and over 800 other ad networks, behavioral data providers, web publishers – all companies interested in your activity.
NoScript: Allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS and Clickjacking attacks.
Adblock Plus: The add-on is supported by over forty filter subscriptions in dozens of languages which automatically configure it for purposes ranging from removing online advertising to blocking all known malware domains.
This is pretty much the safest anonymous setup you can get. It might be slow, hard and time consuming to setup but if you are worried about your privacy and anonymity then you shouldn’t mind doing the extra work.
- See more at: http://www.slashgeek.net/2012/06/15/how-to-be-completely-anonymous-online/#sthash.Ma4UtChr.dpuf
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Fuck it!!!
20 :'(
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Haha Pencil!
Does anyone know if there are VPS providers that accept bitcoin?
Green Inc
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Few links from my bookmarks:
Great guide from a great site for all things privacy
http://worldmathaba.net/items/2337-a-guide-for-online-privacy-and-anonymity-activist-tools-and-security
TOR and Traces Left Behind - thread # wilders security forums
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=339028
What Does Your IP Reveal About You?
http://techtalk.pcpitstop.com/2012/09/11/what-does-your-ip-address-reveal-about-you/
How to be Completely Anonymous Online
http://www.slashgeek.net/2012/06/15/how-to-be-completely-anonymous-online/
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Few more:
How to Evade Government Surveillance and Stay Anonymous Online
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/01/how-to-evade-government-surveillance.html
Can You Really Be Traced From An IP Address article @ slashdot
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/11/03/28/1323238/can-you-really-be-traced-from-an-ip-address
A Simple VPN Guide for the Beginning Anonymous and Online Activist
http://anoninsiders.net/simple-vpn-guide-623/index.html
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Some LIbertarian themed links:
Markets not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corportae Power and Structural Poverty
http://distro.libertarianleft.org/for/chartier-and-johnson-markets-not-capitalism/?referredby=c4ss.org
Introduction to Austrian Economics - slate article
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/01/what_is_austrian_econom
Anarchist Theory FAQ
http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/anarfaq.htm
Anarchy After Leftism - Bob Black
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-anarchy-after-leftism
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Bitcoin links:
Buying Bitcoins - The Newbie Version
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_Bitcoins_(the_newbie_version)
New to BitCoin? Start Here - thread @ bitcointalk.org forums
https://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7269.0
How Did Bitcoin become a "real" currency?
http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2013/05/15/how-did-bitcoin-become-a-real-currency
Calculating the Long-Term Value of a Bitcoin
http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/02/calculating-the-long-term-value-of-a-bitcoin/