I finally got around to getting Tor working on one of my workstations. The process is quite simple to set up to enable anonymous browsing.
My workstation is running Ubuntu so I firstly had to install the Debian/Ubuntu APT repository (NB. More detailed instructions for steps 1-3 are available from the Tor Project
Debian/Ubuntu Installation Instructions and more details on steps 4 - 7 are available from the Tor Project
general *nix installation instructions).
- To your /etc/apt/sources.list add (replacing <DISTRIBUTION> with the name of your distro which you can copy from your existing sources.list):
deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org <DISTRIBUTION> main
- Now you need to add the crypto keys
gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv 886DDD89
gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | sudo apt-key add -
- Now update your apt package list then install both Tor and the Tor Geographical IP database
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install tor tor-geoipdb
- Install Polipo:
$ sudo apt-get install polipo
- Configure Polipo by downloading the ready-made Polipo configuration file from the Tor Project, moving it to /etc/polipo and renaming it to config
- Configure Tor with your webbrowser. I am using Firefox and configuration was as easy as installing the TorButton plugin and restarting firefox.
- Verify that Tor is working correctly by visiting the Tor Detector.
Remember that this is not a panacea for privacy issues on the web and all of the technical protection offered by Tor can be squandered in a heartbeat through user action. Good personal online security and privacy practice is essential.
