Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Network Anonymity.

i recently talked about encryption, this is great for keeping files secure.... now im going to cover network anonymity... there are tons of reasons you might want to stay anonymous on the web, possibly to view pages out of your region, you might want better privacy, or you might be bypassing a web ban. if you have heard of a VPN, a proxy, TOR, or even an ssh.... these are all ways to mask your identity.



i will be covering them in order of complexity, not anonymity. keep this in mind :)

the first and easiest way of hiding your identity on the internet is to use a proxy. usualy these are found on websites, or possibly an ip address. ill cover how to set one up with an ip in the ssh section, as it follows the same setup. to connect through a web proxy, simply find a proxy website you wish to use, in this case... we will use Clearly Drunk. simply go to the website, type in where you want to go, and browse away.
  • Advantages:
    • Easy (no setup)
    • No programs needed
  • Disadvantages:
    • can be fairly transparent
    • usually slow
    • only hides internet traffic inside that window / tab.


The next step up would be a VPN, a vpn will hide ALL of your network traffic, not just your browser traffic.there are free and paid versions of vpns, however the free ones are generally limited (usually in bandwidth or data per month) . technically a VPN can be used in an office environment to connect two offices that are far away onto the same lan network, so don't get confused if someone uses VPN referring to that. in this case, you are vpn'ing into a server that redirects trafic through its internet.
VPN's usually come in 2 flavors, ones that you configure in windows, and ones that require a program to download.  an example of one configured in windows would be "its hidden" and an example of one requiring a program would be "proXPN". generally the ones requiring a program are easier to set up, as you just enter your account info and press connect. (and some show you were your new ip is geographically, and what the ip its self is.) i would recommend proXPN, it limits your bandwidth with the free one, but at least it doesn't limit how much web traffic you can use.

  • Advantages:
    • Easy.
    • generally more secure then a web proxy
    • keeps all traffic anonymous, not just web traffic.
    • program based vpn's have nicer interfaces and are less complex.
  • Disadvantages:
    • usually free vpn's are slow or traffic capped.
    • most require a program, which requires administrative rights to run.

 TOR:
most people think of TOR as a super proxy.... it can be, but if you use it wrong, you are as visible as if you were not using it. however, you can download the tor bundle now, which comes with Firefox portable all set up so you cant mess up! im not going into detail about how tor works, but it allows you to browse the web anonymously as well as go to .onion top level domains (warning, some of the stuff reported on .onion sites is BAD!) . its known as onion browsing because your eonnection is layered with encryption and passes through 'nodes' each will encrypt and decrypt only its own layer, making it very secure.....and slow.
  • Advantages:
    • high level of anonymity.
    • allows access to .onion top level domains
  • Disadvantages:
    • gives a false sense of security.
    • SLOW!
    • requires a program.
    • not perfect (you can still be tracked through java and such)

SSH:
well, i already made a tutorial on this, it is the most complex method out of all of these, only problem is that most of the time, you own the computer you are tunneling through thus you would still be using your own internet address. if for whatever reason you have a box off somewhere that you can use as a proxy, follow the ssh tutorial. note: like proxies, it will only cover the internet, no other programs (unless they have a manual proxy setting you can configure).

note: for an IP proxy, put the ip address in the socks5 box, just like you would an ssh!

9 comments:

gog magog said...

the new design is really nice. very clean. eye-pleasing. those tones of grey are very relaxing to me.

Publius said...

This is exactly what I needed. Thanks so much. There's a lot of things like this I want to learn about, and I appreciate you providing this resource for people like me. +followed

pv said...

This is great man, you cleared up a lot of points i had questions about still particularly in the VPN part.

Anonymous said...

I've never heard of Proxpn. What do you think of Cybergate?

Also, the new template is nice.

Anonymous said...

I use TOR sometimes. But I don't really have a need for true anonymity.

Unknown said...

reaaly interesting actually it is rocket science for me

Choms1337 said...

yes very interesting :P w8 for more :) follow :)

Shaw said...

Thanks for the rundown

A1C Dood said...

Thanks, this helps out a lot! keep up the good work!

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