ChrisPC Free Anonymous Proxy is, as the name hints at, a free online proxy. It is based on the popular TOR, The Onion Router, project.

Why not use just TOR instead? Because this version is less complicated to use. All you need to do is to install the program first and run it afterwards. Please note that the installation includes an option to install an unrelated software program on your computer. Most users might not want to do this, considering that this additional application is not needed to operate the anonymous proxy.

The few configuration options are all displayed in the main application interface upon startup. Here it is possible to select a specific country that you want the proxy to be from. This can be used to access country specific websites or services.

A click on Connect to Proxy establishes the connection. The proxy can be used under Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome. Please note that you need to restart browsers that have been open before the proxy connection was established.

The biggest advanced of Free Anonymous Proxy is the ease of use. Just select a country, click connect and et voila, you are now using an anonymous proxy from that country. This method is superior to web proxies, as it works in all browser tabs right of the box. You can work in the browser as you normally would without worrying about proxy configuration at all.

ChrisPC Free Anonymous Proxy is a handy program for Windows users who need a reliable anonymous proxy. The TOR network has not been designed for entertainment and multimedia though, which is suggested by the developer of the application. That’s clearly a minus, as is the lack of information that TOR is used by the program.

The proxy itself is compatible with all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 to Windows 7. Interested users can download the latest version from the developer website.

When you start TorChat for the first time you see a list of available chat partners. The list is empty except for the identity of the logged in user.

New contacts are added with a right-click and the selection of Add Contact from the context menu.

Setup is a bit more complicated considering that the unique ID of each user needs to be added. It is also important to add a display name for easier user identification. That’s different from many other Instant messengers where it is easier to add contacts by importing them.

Online users are indicated with a green icon in front of their username. A double-click on an icon opens a chat window to talk to the selected contact.

TorChat supports file transfers which can be started with a right-click on the chat window. It currently does not offer “gimmicks” lick chat smileys for instance.

But what are the advantages of using TorChat? The use of TOR ensures that nobody can monitor the Internet traffic to find out with whom you are chatting and sharing files and where they and you are located in the world. TorChat initiates a “fully encrypted peer-to-peer connection” between two Tor clients which means that the traffic is never leaving the TOR network. That’s different from how many people perceive TOR. For web surfing and TOR, it is necessary to leave the network at some time to connect to the destination. With TorChat, that’s not necessary.

TorChat is a portable application for Windows and Linux that can be downloaded directly from the project website at Google Code.

The default client is offered at the TOR Project site for Windows, Mac OS X and Unix variants. The standard client should work fine for most usage scenarios.

Advanced TOR, as the name suggests, improves the capabilities of the TOR client. The free portable software for Windows offers an easier to configure interface.

Users who are in a hurry can connect to the TOR network right away. The program establishes a local proxy port automatically, and offers to restrict connections from certain IP addresses or IP ranges.

On top of that, and this is a feature that TOR is not offering right now, is the ability to force TOR on specific processes in Windows.

advanced tor

Some applications are capable of bypassing proxy restrictions, which would mean that the real IP of the user would be revealed. Forcing those applications to use TOR will prevent this from happening.

The feature is currently labeled beta, and works the following: The application is intercepted by Advanced TOR, and Winsock calls are redirected to a dll of the program.

advanced tor force tor

Advanced users will notice that the software client is highly configurable. It is possible to switch identities with a click, force exit nodes, configure node families, define specific connection details like bandwith rates and the maximum number of connections.

There is a lot to explorer and no setting is further away than two clicks.

Windows users who make use of Tor extensively may want to try out Advanced Tor, especially because of the Force TOR option but also because it’s a little bit more accessible.

Advanced Tor is available for download at the Sourceforge project website.

Privacy advocates have already expressed great concern as proxy servers are not only in use by individuals who want to protect their privacy but also by companies and even Internet Service Providers, sometimes without the knowledge of the end user. VPN (Virtual Private Network) would for example be classified as proxy servers under the new legislation. As is the popular Tor client that has been created specifically to counter censorship in the world. Several web browsers like Opera Mini or Opera 10 are also making use of proxy servers to compress data to decrease the time it takes to load websites.

The United States Sentencing Commission will vote on the new legislation on April 15. It is set to take effect on November 1 if is is passing the voting process. You can read up on the EFFs stance here

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.

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.

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.

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.

Many workarounds exist that help users access those services even if they are currently residing in a different country. One possibility that I would like to explain today is to configure Tor that way that the exit node lies in the country that you want to access the service in. Tor offers lots of so called nodes which are servers in a specific country running the Tor software.

I’m using Vidalia, a package that contains all necessary programs, to explain how a specific country can be selected when using Tor. Download Vidalia and install the software afterwards. The main program interface should load after the installation.

The control panel is displaying the current status of Tor. Additional information are displayed which we are going to use to find servers located in the country that we need an IP address from. A click on View the network displays a visual representation of all Tor servers but only if Tor is running.

Servers can be sorted by country flag and do have a performance indicator next to them as well. Write down some server names with the best performance and leave the menu again. We need to add those servers as exit nodes to the Tor configuration. A click on Settings and there on the advanced tab displays a menu where you find the entry Tor Configuration Menu.

A click on browse opens the browse for files dialog. Left-click on the file “torrc” and choose edit from that menu. Now add the following two lines to the configuration, just paste it at the beginning for instance:

ExitNodes server1, server2, server3
StrictExitNodes 1

Replace server1, server 2 and so on with the server names that you have written down in the network display window. Stop and restart Tor afterwards and the changes should have been made.

Now we have to add a http proxy to our browser. Firefox users click on Tools > Options > Advanced Network and there on the button Settings. Select Manual Proxy Configuration and enter localhost and port 8118 there.

You can test if everything is working fine by visiting my IP lookup script which should display a IP from the country that you have selected the servers from.

OperaTor is not complicated to setup and use. You only need to download the binary executable for Microsoft Windows and unpack it on your system. No installation is required which is great for mobile use. You could for instance copy Operator to your USB stick and run it from any computer that has Internet access. Great for internet cafes and other public computers. Just start the OperaTor.exe and all three required applications will be started automatically. Just use Opera as usual from this point on and rest assured that no data will be saved on the local computer.

It is a good idea to test the connection and make sure that you are really surfing anonymous. The easiest way would be to check that with a script that displays your IP. I have written a basic script that displays your IP. Compare that IP to the one when you are not using OperaTor to know that the service is working.

The developers are updating OperaTor whenever a new version of Tor, Privoxy or Opera come out. Make sure you check the site frequently to always use the latest version of OperaTor.

Update: Operator has been discontinued. The developer has created a new program, called Operator YAPO.

The seizure was justified by the fact that those end node IPs did appear on forums that were spreading child pornography. You might think that the states attorney simply did not know that those Tor servers were merely the exit node but this is not the case. What needs to be discussed now is wether the seizure of those tor servers was done deliberately to crack down on anonymizing services in Germany and the European Union or if the states attorney simply wanted to be thorough by seizing the servers.

The only information that he is receiving from analysing the logs (if logs exist) is the next node in line. If that next node is not located in Germany or the European Union he will have no means of investigating this chain any further.

This means they will not be able to trace the user who made the requests in first place. Is that good, or bad ? Public Opinion is really sensitive when Child Pornography is mentioned and it is really easy to turn the opinion that way that something legal looks to be something illegal. “Why would someone want to hide their tracks if he is not doing something illegal ?”, a common question from those who choose not to think, here is the answer:

Every step on the web is tracked nowadays and if you are really unlucky even released to the public, AOL anyone ? Some of my visitors live in countries without freedom of speech (all European countries have no freedom of speech as well but this is different) and anonymizers like TOR are their only way to find independent information and participate in discussions,  without fearing the worst.

What can I say, I don’t like this seizure and I smell something fishy going on. Time will tell.

If you agree with me on this Torbutton might be the right firefox extension for you. You can start and stop the Tor service with the click of a button. You need to install Tor as well, download link is provided from the page above and privoxy. If you like it use it and make sure you check if its working by visiting a website that shows your IP.

You will only face troubles if you are forced to use a manual proxy configuration because your provider, company or institute demands this. Torbutton will change between manual proxy configuration (on) and direct connection to the internet (off). So, this extension is not working in this case. For everyone else it should be fine to use.

Using a web based proxy is the easiest and fastest way to surf temporarily anonymously. Still, its not really comfortable and many web proxies don´t support all types of scripts. Nevertheless a good choice if you want a quick result. You can take a look at my web proxy list for January 2006 or this newer web proxy list if you are looking for anonymous ones.

The second option involves scanning for http proxies and adding them to your browsers network settings. This means more work and knowledge on the clients site but most of the time better and more permanent results. You still should check if the proxy is still anonymous from time to time.

Last but not least there is Tor, a free software product by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation). Using Tor means that your connection is routed to several secure encrypted Tor servers, making it almost impossible for the target site to find out about you.