Re: Newbie needs help

[Scott Bennett <bennett@xxxxxxxxxx>]

     On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:40:39 +0100 Bob Williams
<security@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>On Friday 24 July 2009 12:26:39 Scott Bennett wrote:
>>      On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:18:52 +0100 Bob Williams
>>
>> <security@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> >On Friday 24 July 2009 12:09:48 Bob Williams wrote:
>> >> On Friday 24 July 2009 11:58:09 DM wrote:
>> >> > Go to www.whatismyipaddress.com and compare the reported ip address
>> >> > with your assigned addressed.
>> >>
>> >> That shows my correct WAN IP address, as allocated by my ISP. I presume
>> >> that shows that tor is not working.
>>
>>      Just a thought...when you look at the bottom of your firefox window,
>> do you see a small box that says, "Tor Enabled" in green lettering?  If it
>> has red lettering saying, "Tor Disabled", try clicking on it.
>>
>Yes, I can turn it green (enabled), but when I do, it warns me
>"The most recent Tor proxy test failed to use Tor.
>
>Are you sure you want to enable anyway?"

     Okay.  Next, open a firefox Preferences panel.  I haven't decided to
switch to firefox3 yet, so I don't know whether the procedure is the same,
but in firefox2 one selects the preferences option from the Edit menu.
In the Preferences panel, click on the Advanced item at the top, then
click on the Network tab.  Next, click on the Settings... button, which
should give you a second panel, titled Connection Settings.  Make sure that
all of the settings are correct, namely, Manual proxy configuration: is
selected in the radio buttons, HTTP Proxy: says localhost and port 8118,
SSL Proxy:, FTP Proxy:, and Gopher Proxy: all say the same as HTTP Proxy:,
SOCKS Host: says, localhost and port 9050, the radio button for SOCKS v5
is selected, and No proxy for: includes at least 127.0.0.1, localhost, and
whatever your IP address on your LAN happens to be.  When everything looks
right, click the OK button at the bottom.
>
>> >BTW, when I open the ports in my router do I have to specify the UDP
>> > protocol as well as TCP?
>>
>>      If you are running tor only as a client, you should not need to do
>> anything to your router.  If you are running tor also as a relay, then you
>> do need to set RDR rules for your ORPort and, optionally, DirPort.  tor
>> does not directly provide any sort of UDP service to the outside world, so
>> no, you needn't worry about doing anything about UDP at all in your router
>> for tor operation.
>>
>Thanks, that's good to know. My intention in installing Tor/Privoxy is 
>ultimately to provide a relay, rather than anonymising my own activity, though 
>that might be interesting.  ATM I am trying to get it working properly as a 
>client, before exploring the wonders of relays ;)

     That is the right approach to getting there.  Remember, too, that if
you do intend to use tor as client for your own access, that running it
also as a relay, as you say you intend to do at some point, adds extra
camouflage for your own traffic.


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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