Re: [tor-talk] New to TOR

["Sebastian G. <bastik.tor>" <bastik.tor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

17.11.2013 14:01, SimBlip@xxxxxxx:

Order changed

> I have not downloaded TOR yet. How will I know it works if I do?

> Would TOR affect my existing accounts with other web-sites? I do most
> of my shopping and banking over the Internet.

If you download the Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) for your system and
"install" it, then just the traffic from the contained browser goes
trough Tor.

The "old" way of installing Tor for the browser on the system is no
longer recommended as it is somewhat unsafe. The browser in TBB is a
patched and modified Firefox.

https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en

> I received an account-ban from a web-site. I stood accused of
> violating challenge rules and was cut off from a community I had
> grown to love  dearly. I can no longer post messages and/or send
> private messages. I would like to re-enter this web-site under a new
> identity, but I am afraid it checks IP addresses. I was wondering if
> a program such as TOR could help me out.

BTW: It's spelled Tor rather than TOR.

Some websites or services have policies that disallow circumvention of
bans. If they find out, this can result in another ban.

If the service allows Tor (which can be blocked by those that run the
service) and checks if your IP is banned which could be case if it is a
static one, (For some people they are, I think for most they are
dynamic.) the circumvention would work. With Tor the usage of Tor itself
if not hidden to the location you are connecting to, the location can
not tell where the traffic is actually coming from.

With the use of TBB (strongly recommended) you avoid that they placed a
cookie, that marks you as banned. (Some services set a cookie for a
banned account, so that someone with the same browser does not create a
new account without removing the cookie; aka cookie_of_death). It also
avoids that they might have fingerprinted your browser, what might not
be common, but would be possible.

Using a new identity would require you to use a new email address, as
well. It might look suspicious if someone got banned and a new user
appears, that uses Tor, while no-one else does and that does the same
things, like asking questions about how to feed cats properly (assuming
it's a forum about animal care).

Tor gets you location anonymity. Someone watching your connection does
not learn where you are going to, someone watching the endpoint doesn't
know who is connecting to it, if the new account does not link to you
personally. What you do with your gained anonymity is yours, I guess.

Regards,
Sebastian G. (aka bastik_tor)
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