gHacks technology news » the onion router http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:24:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Anonymous Encrypted Instant Messaging With Torchat http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/27/anonymous-encrypted-instant-messaging-with-torchat/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/27/anonymous-encrypted-instant-messaging-with-torchat/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:23:19 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=6524 The Onion Router (TOR) was designed to help against network surveillance by utilizing a network of secure tunnels. Tor is used by individuals to access blocked websites and communicate freely on the Internet by routing the connection through a series of secure tunnels where each tunnel only knows the previous and next in line.

Torchat utilizes the power of the Tor network to create a peer to peer instant messaging system, effectively a secure anonymous and encrypted instant messenger that runs right of the box. The software program is fully portable and can be run from external drives or local hard drives.

One limitation of the current version is that the listening port cannot be changed unless the user is doing it in the source which would mean that it would have to be compiled again. The author promised to add a configuration option to change the listening port of the application in a later version.

torchat

Once started the user is greeted with a window similar to the one on the above screenshot with the difference that no other contacts are added obviously. To add users one needs their Torchat ID which is a series of random chars, a nickname to identify the person and a initial message. The easiest way to exchange these would be by email, website, phone or other Instant Messengers. Paranoids will probably exchange them during a real-life meeting.

The author has some plans for his Instant Messenger. He plans multi-user chats, file transfers, customization options and block lists among other things. One to look out for.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/27/anonymous-encrypted-instant-messaging-with-torchat/feed/ 5 Freedom Stick Is Better Than Freedom Fries http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/19/freedom-stick-is-better-than-freedom-fries/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/08/19/freedom-stick-is-better-than-freedom-fries/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:21:23 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=6296 No, I’m not referring to something called French Stick – whatever that might be – that has been renamed to Freedom Stick in an effort to punish the French for not siding with the US in their war against terror. Freedom Stick is a software for an USB device that aims at defeating the virtual (fire)wall around China and any other country.

The aim is to provide every Internet user with the opportunity to surf the Internet without fearing censorship or prosecution. The Freedom Stick basically contains a version of TOR and a Firefox browser that can be used to connect to the Internet through The Onion Network.

It was designed with ease of use in mind. Just download the archive from the Chinese Wall page of the German Chaos Computer Club and unpack the contents on the USB device. If autostart is enabled the system should automatically start the Vidalia Control Panel which establishes the connection with the Tor network. Firefox is opened i that connection is successful and the user can surf the Internet using the anonymity of the Tor network.

freedom stick

The stick is only working on Windows operating systems. Linux users on the other hand usually know about these things and are able to implement them easily as well.

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