Advanced Tor For Windows
The Onion Router (TOR) is an open network that users from all over the world can access to improve their anonymity online. It basically works similar to cascading proxy servers with a few finesses that make the system more flexible and harder to trace.
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.
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 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.
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I have been familiar with Tor for some years and find it curious that this version gets no mention at:
https://blog.torproject.org / https://www.torproject.org
When using anything that claims to facilitate greater anonymity it is wise to use technology backed up by resources to tackle bugs and weaknesses.
Updates on latest version of Tor and details of bug, security weaknesses can be found at:
https://blog.torproject.org
I would suggest caution before using any version of Tor that is outside the control of the TorProject.org and I would add caution to anything created with a name prefaced by
‘Advanced’
That said, this version of Tor does seem to have novel options, but I will be keeping to the TorProject.org versions for now.
Addendum:
“Can I use the word “Tor” as part of the name of my product or my domain name?
We recommend that you don’t do this, but rather find a name that will accurately identify your products or services. Remember that our goal is to make sure that people aren’t confused about whether your product or project is made or endorsed by The Tor Project. Creating a new brand that incorporates the Tor brand is likely to lead to confusion.”
https://www.torproject.org/trademark-faq
More:
“torproject
This “advanced tor” floating around the Internet is a big unknown. We’re still analyzing the source, where it exists, to see what it is.”
https://identi.ca/notice/49501368
It seems to have originated via:
http://nemesis.te-home.net/Projects/AdvTor.html