Is TOR Safe To Use?

detox1978 said:

Whenever i'm doing something i want to be untraceable i simply jump in the car with netstumbler on an find an unsecure wireless network. Preferably not to close to my house and i dont use the same one twice.

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You won't be untracable unless you spoof your mac address.

ShadeDream said:

You won't be untracable unless you spoof your mac address.

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There was already a lot of wrong stuff said here, but this is definitly the biggest nonsense I read today
If you don't know about a topic better read more than write, won't do good to you otherwise.

The problem with private proxies is that they are softbanned on craigslist in a matter of days if you use a higher count of IPs on one subnet for posting.
Then you'r forced to get PVAs

I know what I am talking about as I learned that the hard way

I just installed TOR to check it out and received this warning:

Warning!

Torbutton on Firefox 3 is known
to leak your timezone and
livemarks via Tor.

Do you wish to continue anyway?

Im no expert and still trying hard to build my knowledge of proxies...

but it seems to me if my timezone info is knowable that this could present a problem when (for example) using a US proxy if you're not in the US.

Any comments?

Ruchka said:

I just installed TOR to check it out and received this warning:

Warning!

Torbutton on Firefox 3 is known
to leak your timezone and
livemarks via Tor.

Do you wish to continue anyway?

Im no expert and still trying hard to build my knowledge of proxies...

but it seems to me if my timezone info is knowable that this could present a problem when (for example) using a US proxy if you're not in the US.

Any comments?

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Wanna know the same thing..

pandarian said:

Im new to TO and i just started to use with it. but how far safe is it? Will it make any harm to my PC?

Will TOR work For eBay and Google Adword? And For Fake Adbrite Clicks?

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since you are n noob to this, tor is the best thing for you to use.
yes, it is "safe". and it wont harm you pc.
they take it very serious over at torproject.org

tor will hide your ip but thats all.
you should know that there are a lot of servers in the network.
and you never know how the server owner will use the data you send.

texacola said:

Not really enough info on where you're trying to post to to say whether it's "safe" or not...

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Apologies in advance if this is a hijack but I'll throw a scenario at you that I posted in another thread):

I'm a US citizen but not currently in the US.

For one example, I need to purchase skype credit but skype sees that I'm not logging into my account from the US so it is limiting my payment options to wire transfer and moneybookers. I don't want either option (and can't even open a MB account for the same reason).

If I go to my skype account via 'hidemyass' I can access the CC and PayPal options. But I'm hesitant to go through with either of those payment methods because I do not trust sending accounts and passwords through HMA. I already pushed it by signing into my skype account in my opinion.

I'm also concerned with accessing payment accounts via a proxy of any kind.

Any thoughts on this or similar situations?

WTH I'll throw another scenario out here...

I recently bought a domain name at a major provider. Completed the transaction with my US info and CC. All legit, nothing illegal at all.

Shortly afterward I received an email that my account was blocked for "security" reasons. A number of potential reasons were mentioned but it seems the only applicable one was that I logged into the company's site from a non-US IP.

Now I have to jump through some hoops to prove I am who I say I am to reactivate the account.

Had I just logged into the company site via TOR (or another of the many options identified in the forum, for that matter) could I have avoided this whole issue?

Tor gives you a random IP, it also is built to give you IPs that are shared most (bandwidth based), it focuses only on anonymity and protection of the node owners. Performance, using as proxy or stability is no priority in the Tor development.
Tor is mainly a program for residents of countries like burma, china, iran and similar where aggressive authorities monitor your activity and cut your penis (alternatively hands, legs or heads) when you do/look at something "wrong".


That is why I invented Cloakfish, it's using Tor nodes as proxies but it focuses on optimum peformance and the requirements in SEO businesses.
So when you use Cloakfish you are able to use Tor nodes noone else has used before or IPs that are used very rarely.

So while texacola is definitly right (when you use Tor to create affil accounts or post on CL you'll have no luck because of the massive abuse) Tor itself has still the potential to do that but not with the original program.

I know customers of Cloakfish use it for posting on CL successfully, also the use for account creation, cpas, paypal and EPN was reported as success multiple times to me.

For minor CL adventures it is probably not the worst tool, it will provide mixed results per post. (some require PVA, some work fine without and some will be ghosted)
If you plan to do hundred or more posts per day you'll want a private proxy solution like offered by texacola and mrtornado here on BHW.
Of course the need for a PVA might come up, at least after a few days of use on a fresh c-class it will be soft-banned by CL.

If you just need a high anonymous IP without preferences and no demands for stability, performance or previous abuse then plain Tor might be a solution. (As example to spy on competition, entering fake datails in foreign formulars etc)
Some months ago I compiled a list of different ways to change your IP and their advantages/disadvantages (http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo-tools/39912-professional-ip-anonymity-tool-cloakfish-anonymity-discussion-thread.html) maybe of interest.

Would you consider Tor "safe" for creating youtube accounts and using tools like tubebooster for ratings and comments?

I made a little experiment - i went to whatisyouripaddress.com and used "new identity" option 10 times on that site to see if it'll detect that i use tor.

end result: 9 times out 10 i got "suspected proxy network" message (maybe i set up tor wrong? i simply downloaded it, installed and enabled it on my firefox 3.0 - i did not tweak it at all)

I also used Cloackfish's proxy analysis tool - of course, it detected my proxy.

If sites like whatisyouripaddress can easily detect that i use a proxy, i think youtube can surely detect this as well.

Last question: when youtube sees that i use a proxy does it also see my real ip or it simply sees that i use a proxy?

don:

When checking against an analysis/detector, just because it suspects you're behind a proxy doesn't mean it knows automatically what your actual IP is. Any number of methods can detect a proxy even when anonymous, some as simple as them having a list of possible proxy IPs and ranges ahead of time.

Also: Just because youtube can tell it's a proxy doesn't mean you get auto-banned. Plenty of "regular people" who are at work or in some backwater country that restricts internet usage use proxies for regular surfing. I wouldn't do anything serious with one of those TOR IPs, but just for account creation and the like the worst case scenario is that you'll get flagged but not banned unless you do something to irk them.

N

My question is for creating YouTube accounts is it better to use Tor, HideMyIP, or to purchase paid proxies. Also if you purchase paid proxies how long will they last and how many do you need when using YouTube software?

internext2 said:

It is very easy to detect that you are coming from Tor. It's good for some things, you can use it to be anonymous in certain respects, and probably works for some black hat world stuff, but I think all smarter networks and players are going to be able to detect IPs from Tor and so they might ban you.

Another problem is that people using the tor network can potentially sniff exit nodes, and therefore if you are transmitting sensitive data they can potentially pick it up. I don't think that's a problem for any black hat people though, as your data is unlikely to be that sensitive.

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So in your opinion is tor safe for creating a shitload of youtube accounts or not. Also, if you use Tor to create accounts do you think youtube will be on your ass if you log in from your regular ip into one of those accounts to do some editing or change videos or anything like that?

doncajunas said:

Would you consider Tor "safe" for creating youtube accounts and using tools like tubebooster for ratings and comments?

I made a little experiment - i went to whatisyouripaddress.com and used "new identity" option 10 times on that site to see if it'll detect that i use tor.

end result: 9 times out 10 i got "suspected proxy network" message (maybe i set up tor wrong? i simply downloaded it, installed and enabled it on my firefox 3.0 - i did not tweak it at all)

I also used Cloackfish's proxy analysis tool - of course, it detected my proxy.




If sites like whatisyouripaddress can easily detect that i use a proxy, i think youtube can surely detect this as well.

Last question: when youtube sees that i use a proxy does it also see my real ip or it simply sees that i use a proxy?

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Can a person really use tor for using tools like tubebooster? I thought you would actually have to find a list. Can you pull a list off of the tor network?

Tor was made by the U.S. Military and is monitored by the government. It is used to catch pedos and hackers, if your any of the 2 your not safe. But do use it if your a pedo, you deserve to be caught

SerRated

It won't harm your PC, but it is so f#$%ing slow it may harm your patience.

Arthas said:

i love tor. its the most anonymous connection type you can use.

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sweden/switzerlandVPN>socks5

I unstalled this a couple of weeks ago and the strangest thing happened.... My own router blocked my pc from the internet....

It had me stumped for a why as to what the problem was so i check with my laptop and all was working fine. Check my router and for some reason the router firewall had blocked my local ip....

I still dont know what caused it to happen, but ive set quite a low threshold on dos attacks, so maybe its nothing to much to worry about...

Anyne else had the same issues?

or even better spoof your MAC and connect to a wireless zone out of town on a laptop. A good program for MAC spoofing is SMAC.