tor

If y'all're interested in online privacy, so yous've no doubt heard nearly Tor (The Onion Router). The Tor Network (or only "Tor") is an implementation of a plan that was originally developed by the Us Navy in the mid-1990s. It enables users greater anonymity online by encrypting cyberspace traffic and passing it through a series of nodes.

Chances are, you have lots of questions about this project you lot'd like answered before you jump in. Notwithstanding, due to the negative associations many people make with Tor and related projects, it'due south understandable that potential users are agape to discuss their involvement.

In this post, I'll enquire (and respond) those questions for you. I'll explain everything you demand to know about Tor, including how anonymous it is, whether it's legal, and if you nevertheless need to connect to a VPN while using Tor.

What is Tor and how does it work?

The Tor network, often referred to equally but "Tor," is a volunteer-run system that helps make internet use more anonymous.

When a user is continued to Tor (often through the Tor browser), their outgoing cyberspace traffic is rerouted through a random serial of at least three nodes (called relays) before reaching its destination (the website the user wants to visit). Your computer is connected to an entry node, and the final node traffic passes through is the leave node, afterward which information technology reaches its destination (the website you want to visit). Incoming traffic is rerouted in a similar manner.

Bated from passing through several nodes, the traffic is encrypted, multiple times in fact. It loses a level of encryption at each node, but is never fully decrypted until it leaves the exit node for its destination.

Each node has an identifying IP address, which is also encrypted. The but IP address visible to the destination website is that of the terminal node, known every bit the exit node.

In total, the Tor network is currently made up of most seven,000 relays (nodes) and 800 bridges. Bridges are like to relays, only they are not listed in the Tor directory. These are typically used by anyone who is unable to access the Tor network by regular means, for instance, if it has been blocked. They may also be used is a website or app blocks traffic from a detected Tor node.

Does Tor hide IP address?

While connected to the Tor network, activeness will never exist traceable back to your IP address. Similarly, your Isp (Internet access provider) won't be able to view data about the contents of your traffic, including which website you're visiting.

Your ISP volition see that you're connected to a Tor entry node, and the website you're visiting will simply encounter the IP address of the Tor exit node.

How to employ Tor: getting started

The simplest manner to utilise Tor is through the Tor browser. This is a Firefox-based application which tin be downloaded and installed on your computer.

The Tor browser homepage.

Versions are available for MacOS, Windows, and Linux. Once y'all've downloaded and installed, yous'll be able to admission clearnet and .onion sites through the browser.

In some cases, utilize of the Tor browser may be blocked. Equally mentioned earlier, using a bridge should overcome this upshot. In the past, this was fairly complex, but is a lot easier in the latest version. You'll need to showtime locate a bridge and so configure it with the Tor browser.

Does Tor really make you lot anonymous?

Information technology'southward very hard, if not impossible, to become truly anonymous online, but Tor can certainly help you lot get there. All of your traffic arriving at its destination will appear to come up from a Tor exit node, so will have the IP address of that node assigned to it. Because the traffic has passed through several boosted nodes while encrypted, information technology tin't be traced back to you.

Yet, one of the issues lies in trusting the operator of the exit node. If you're visiting an unencrypted (not-HTTPS) website, information technology's possible the node operator tin track your activeness and view your information. They could collect data such equally which webpages you're viewing, your login information, the content of your messages or posts, and the searches you perform. Although, in that location'southward no manner to trace that information back to you lot or fifty-fifty back to the entry node.

It'due south worth noting that using the Tor browser only protects traffic going through that connection and won't anonymize other apps on your reckoner (although many can be configured to the Tor network via other means). Too, your ISP tin still see that you're using Tor. For improved privacy, yous tin can utilize a VPN alongside the Tor browser.

What is the darknet and how is Tor related to it?

If you're familiar with the term, the "clear net", you'll know that it refers to the portion of the net that tin can be freely accessed, that is without Tor or an alternate browser. On the other side you have the deep web. This includes content that isn't indexed past search engines, including outdated content, private files, and spider web pages that have barred search engines from crawling them.

Also within the deep spider web is the darknet. This content tin usually just be accessed using special tools like Tor. The darknet houses some legitimate websites, simply information technology is amend known for existence a place rife with illicit activity.

You can access the clear cyberspace with Tor, but you can also access darknet websites, specifically .onion sites. These are sites which merely people using the Tor browser can access, and take .onion as function of their URL. They are also referred to as "Tor hidden services."

They're non indexed by search engines and tin can be hard to find if y'all don't know where to look. Tor protects the anonymity of the operators of .onion sites, so it would exist hard to find out who is running them. Of course, the combination of both operator and user anonymity is what makes the darknet ideal for criminal activeness.

That existence said, at that place are plenty of legitimate websites that accept .onion versions. For example, VPNs are geared toward privacy-witting users and some offering .onion versions of their site, ExpressVPN being ane instance. Y'all can even set up a .onion site of your own through the Tor browser.

Why would someone want to utilize Tor?

As mentioned, Tor is oft associated with illegal activeness and users wanting to admission the night web. Considering of this, there is frequently an assumption that anyone using Tor must be up to no good. On the reverse, Tor can only be used by privacy-conscious users for solar day-to-twenty-four hour period browsing on clearnet sites, to assistance maintain user anonymity and privacy while online.

There are a vast number of reasons your average internet user might want to be more bearding. These include stopping ISPs and third parties collecting data about online activity, bypassing censorship, protecting children's privacy, or researching taboo topics, such equally nascency control or faith.

At that place are besides many professions in which it would be necessary or helpful to continue an bearding online profile. Some of those legitimately using Tor include:

  • Journalists
  • Police enforcement officers
  • Activists
  • Whistleblowers
  • Business executives
  • Bloggers
  • Militaries
  • Information technology professionals

Although Tor doesn't track what users are doing online, it does offer aggregate statistics telling you where users are located. You can run into graphs by land and read about events that may have contributed to drastic changes in user numbers.

Agraph showing the number of US Tor users.

For example, the above graph shows the number of US users connecting over the past year. In dated commentary below each graph, Tor provides notes about things like updates, outages, and major events such as government blockages.

Is using Tor legal?

It's true that the nature of Tor makes it a pop choice among criminals wanting to access some of the shadier parts of the darknet and conduct criminal activities. This includes buying or selling illegal products or services, or participating in forums that spread detest speech and encourage extremism.

All the same, as outlined to a higher place there are plenty of reasons non-criminals would want to use Tor. Indeed, it is perfectly legal to apply Tor, although it has been or is currently blocked in certain countries. Plus, at that place is still a stigma fastened to it, so you probably shouldn't assume y'all can use it problem-gratis.

ISPs have been reported to throttle the bandwidth of Tor users and have fifty-fifty contacted customers to tell them to stop using the Tor browser. Users may be questioned by ISPs regarding which websites they are connecting to through Tor.

Authorities themselves could become suspicious of Tor users and behave investigations into their activities on those grounds solitary. Although, there haven't actually been reports of fines or charges related to the use of Tor.

Are there any downsides to using Tor?

Tor is popular with many users — there are currently around two million users connecting to relays at a given time.

Graph showing total number of users.

But it does accept its downsides. Here are the master cons of using Tor:

  1. Slow speeds
  2. Detectable past ISPs
  3. Blocked by network administrators
  4. Vulnerable to attacks

Permit's look at each of these in a bit more particular.

Slow speeds

The major downside to using Tor is that its tiresome. Traffic isn't going directly to its destination, so this will slow things downward. Plus, the speed of traffic flowing between the nodes could be slower than your regular cyberspace connection, further dampening the overall speed.

What'southward more, the number of volunteer nodes bachelor is very small-scale compared to the corporeality of traffic flowing through the network. The resulting congestion volition slow down traffic, especially during summit periods.

Due to these bug, the main use for Tor is general browsing. Information technology isn't suitable for streaming or torrenting, or anything else that requires a lot of bandwidth.

Detectable by ISPs

Some other downside is that your ISP will be able to see that you're using Tor. Information technology won't be able to read the contents of your traffic, but the fact that it detects you're using Tor could have some repercussions. As mentioned earlier, using Tor solitary is enough to heighten suspicion from ISPs and government. I way around this is to use a VPN with Tor (more on that below).

Blocked by network administrators

Tor is often blocked past administrators of certain networks. One way effectually this is to use bridges which shouldn't be detectable equally Tor nodes. If the blockage is more sophisticated and uses deep bundle inspection, you may need to utilize an additional tool, such as Pluggable Transports (see below). This volition mask your Tor traffic as regular traffic to bypass the block.

Vulnerable to attacks

While it hasn't been confirmed, there take been reports that traffic analysis on Tor has been successfully used to observe incriminating show. One case that stands out is the Silk Route takedown of 2013. Silk Route was a marketplace run through the Tor network and was involved in the auction of an estimated $1 billion worth of drugs, along with other illicit goods and services.

In that location have been various theories regarding how the FBI identified the criminals involved, simply the example suggests that there are vulnerabilities in the Tor network equally an anonymity tool.

At that place are also the same rumors about exit node monitoring to exist wary of. Bear in mind that these reports don't appear to have been confirmed so can be viewed with skepticism.

Does Tor piece of work on mobile?

The Tor browser is only available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux operating systems which might be disappointing if you lot're looking to connect to the Tor network from a mobile device.

If you're an Android user, you're in luck. Orbot, a free proxy app sends your traffic through the Tor network.

The Orbot homepage.

There'southward also an Android browser available called Orfox, which is built on Firefox.

The Orfox homepage.

If you're an iOS user, things aren't as simple. At that place is a fairly pop gratuitous Onion Browser app available for iOS, just this is not considered equally secure as Orfox, and doesn't offering a groovy user experience. It is possible to connect to the Tor network manually, but you'll need to jailbreak your device get-go.

Do I still need a VPN when using Tor?

In very basic terms, Tor is more about anonymity, whereas a VPN is more concerned with privacy.

Using Tor, all of your traffic in encrypted, only your ISP can still come across that you're connected to Tor. Additionally, the Tor entry node can run into your real IP address.

Using a VPN, all of your traffic is encrypted and your ISP can't see which websites you're visiting. It only sees that encrypted traffic is going to and from a VPN server. Notwithstanding, your VPN provider does accept the capability to read your traffic, even if it says it won't. Then there'south always a certain amount of trust that has to be placed in whatever VPN provider, whereas Tor is "trustless".

In an platonic world, yous don't desire your Internet service provider to see you lot're using Tor, Tor entry nodes seeing your IP address, or to have to trust your VPN provider non to view or log your activity. Using a VPN aslope Tor can alleviate these problems. There are two options for doing this: Tor over VPN or VPN over Tor. The main difference here is which you connect to first.

Tor over VPN

This is the method I recommend and you'll presently meet why. With Tor over VPN, you connect to the VPN first, then employ the Tor browser. It'south uncomplicated and effective.

Your traffic volition go through the VPN server before it gets to the Tor entry node. This means that the VPN server can but encounter that you're continued to Tor and can't see where your traffic is going. Going dorsum to your Isp, it only sees that you're connected to a VPN server, and nothing beyond that. This means your ISP can't see that you lot're connected to a Tor entry node.

NordVPN's Onion Over VPN page.

Several top-rated VPNs, including NordVPN, integrate access to the Tor network into their service. You lot connect to a specialized server and all of your internet traffic goes through the Tor network. Nonetheless, this is should probably be limited to employ with apps other than web browsers. Browsers like Chrome and Firefox have so many identifiers that information technology could be difficult to stay anonymous even when connected to the Tor network. So, for browsing, connecting to the VPN and then opening upwardly the Tor browser is still probably your all-time option.

VPN over Tor

This setup is a fiddling more circuitous and doesn't really offer additional anonymity. In this case, your traffic goes through Tor starting time. Your Internet service provider tin can still see you're connected to the Tor network, the Tor entry node can run into your real IP address, and y'all even so need to trust you VPN as it tin meet where your traffic is going.

1 upshot VPN over Tor does alleviate is the Tor exit node being able to see which site you're visiting. Instead, information technology simply sees that you lot are connecting to a VPN server. One downside to this is that your VPN login information could be viewed by the Tor exit node operator. Another benefit of this setup is that websites which commonly block Tor traffic will exist unblocked.

Run across also: Why you lot can't always trust the and so called all-time vpn services

Does Tor work in Red china?

Whatever anonymity tool that helps users featherbed censorship is clearly non going to be very popular with the relevant regimes. China, of form, is known for its heavy censorship of the cyberspace and actively tries to block its residents from connecting to the Tor network. This country has been cracking downwards on Tor connections for many years and doesn't show signs of giving in.

A browse of relevant subreddits will tell yous that users aren't having much success, if any at all, connecting to Tor in Mainland china. It appears that most relays are blocked and many bridges too. It'south suggested that China's tactics include testing Tor bridge servers and blocking those associated with any successful attempts.

And China's not lone. Other countries, including Russian federation and Venezuela, actively try to block their citizens and visitors from connecting to the Tor network.

Can I help with the Tor network?

I mentioned earlier that the Tor network is supported by volunteers who run the individual nodes. If yous are enthusiastic enough about Tor and want to assist speed up the network, then you can join the strength and become a volunteer, too. Really, y'all only need a spare computer or server that can be used as a node. You tin find instructions for how to prepare a relay on the Tor website.

Annotation that are potential consequences for doing this. Anyone known to be involved with the Tor network will probably come up nether scrutiny at some point or some other. Either your ISP or a law enforcement agency might question you about your involvement in the projection.

Equally we've discussed, while much of the activity on Tor is legal, some of it is not. So it'south certainly possible for your IP accost to be involved in some illegal activity. And if y'all're running an exit node, in that location'southward even more chance y'all'll be questioned, every bit these IP addresses are visible to destination websites.

What is the Tor Messenger organization?

One Tor-related project you may be familiar with is Tor Messenger. This open source software was designed for use alongside existing networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Talk. All Tor Messenger traffic is sent over Tor, and Off-The-Record chat is used to enforce encrypted conversations between users.

The Tor Messenger homepage.

Tor Messenger is based on Instabird and has a similar interface. Although, 1 of Tor Messenger's major problems has resulted from the fact that Instabird is no longer under development. This, along with other issues, including metadata leaks and limited resources, has resulted in the cessation of the evolution of the Tor Messenger projection.

What other projects are related to Tor?

The Tor network isn't just the Tor browser. Diverse other projects take been adult to complement the network. I mentioned .onion sites, the Tor instant messaging system, and a couple of Android projects before, but here are some of the other projects you may come across:

  • Atlas: This is a web application that shows you details most the various relays and bridges in the Tor network. You tin perform searches and find out information such equally bandwidth, exit policies, and uptime.
  • Nyx: Previously called Arm, Nyx is a control line monitor for users running relays in the Tor network. It volition provide information in an easy-to-view format, such every bit bandwidth usage and connexion logs.
  • Onionoo: This is a web-based protocol that provides data nigh relays and bridges in the Tor network. Unlike Atlas, it wasn't designed to present data direct to humans, just rather to deliver information to other applications (like Atlas) and websites.
  • OONI: The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) provides gratis software tests, including those to detect the blocking of websites and instant messaging apps. Yous can as well observe the blocking of tools used to bypass blocks, such as Tor.
  • Pluggable Transports: Pluggable Transports (PTs) make Tor traffic between a client and a bridge look like regular traffic. This is helpful for bypassing censors that use deep package inspection to recognize Tor traffic flows.
  • Shadow: This is an open up source software which provides users with a simulation of Tor for experimentation purposes.
  • Tails: The Amnesic Incognito Alive System (Tails) is a alive Bone that can be started on your reckoner from a DVD or USB. It'south built on Debian and sends traffic through Tor.
  • TorBirdy: This is designed specifically for utilize with the Mozilla Thunderbird email application. TorBirdy enhances Thunderbird's privacy and configures information technology for apply with Tor.
  • Tor2web: Tor2web helps users access Tor Onion Services without the use of the Tor browser. All the same, information technology won't give y'all anonymity, only admission to the .onion sites.