mirror of
https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor.git
synced 2024-11-20 18:22:09 +01:00
133 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
133 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
[This file is obsolete. Check out the online FAQ at the wiki
|
|
for more accurate and complete questions and answers:
|
|
http://wiki.noreply.org/wiki/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ
|
|
|
|
The Onion Routing (TOR) Frequently Asked Questions
|
|
--------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
1. General.
|
|
|
|
1.1. What is Tor?
|
|
|
|
Tor is an implementation of version 2 of Onion Routing.
|
|
Go read the tor-design.pdf for the details.
|
|
|
|
In brief, Onion Routing is a connection-oriented anonymizing communication
|
|
service. Users choose a source-routed path through a set of nodes, and
|
|
negotiate a "virtual circuit" through the network, in which each node
|
|
knows its predecessor and successor, but no others. Traffic flowing down
|
|
the circuit is unwrapped by a symmetric key at each node, which reveals
|
|
the downstream node.
|
|
|
|
Basically Tor provides a distributed network of servers ("onion
|
|
routers"). Users bounce their tcp streams (web traffic, ftp, ssh, etc)
|
|
around the routers, and recipients, observers, and even the routers
|
|
themselves have difficulty tracking the source of the stream.
|
|
|
|
1.2. Why's it called Tor?
|
|
|
|
Because Tor is the onion routing system. I kept telling people I was
|
|
working on onion routing, and they said "Neat. Which one?" Even if onion
|
|
routing has become a standard household term, this is the actual onion
|
|
routing project, started out of the Naval Research Lab.
|
|
|
|
(Theories about recursive acronyms are ok too. It's also got a fine
|
|
translation into German.)
|
|
|
|
1.3 Is there a backdoor in Tor?
|
|
|
|
Not right now, but if this answer changes we probably won't be allowed
|
|
to tell you. You should always check the source (or at least the diffs
|
|
since the last release) for suspicious things; and if we don't give you
|
|
source, that's a sure sign something funny could be going on.
|
|
|
|
2. Compiling and installing.
|
|
|
|
[Read the README file for now; check back here once we've got packages/etc
|
|
for you.]
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. Running Tor.
|
|
|
|
3.1. What kind of server should I run?
|
|
|
|
The same executable functions as both client and server, depending on
|
|
which ports are specified in the configuration file. You can specify:
|
|
* SocksPort: client applications (eg privoxy, Mozilla) can speak socks to
|
|
this port.
|
|
* ORPort: other onion routers connect to this port
|
|
* DirPort: onion proxies and onion routers speak http to this port, to
|
|
pull down a directory of which nodes are currently available.
|
|
|
|
3.2. So I can just run a full onion router and join the network?
|
|
|
|
No. Users should run just an onion proxy. If you have sufficient
|
|
bandwidth (>= 1MBit both ways) you can consider running a router,
|
|
but just to use the network you don't need to. Note that you won't
|
|
be used by clients much unless you are verified properly by the
|
|
directory administrators (see next question).
|
|
|
|
3.3. How do I join the network then?
|
|
|
|
If you just want to use the onion routing network, you can run a proxy
|
|
and you're all set. If you want to run a router, you can do so by
|
|
enabling ORPort, which will make your router get used for some things.
|
|
However, in order to get used for everything, you must become a "verified"
|
|
router. Simply convince the directory server operators (mail
|
|
tor-ops@freehaven.net) that you have a stable machine with enough bandwidth.
|
|
From there, the operators add you to the directory, which propagates out
|
|
to the rest of the network. All nodes will know about you within a half
|
|
hour. Once you are verified clients will pick you as entry and exit nodes.
|
|
|
|
3.4. Can I just set DirPort and be a directory server?
|
|
|
|
If you are an onion router and set DirPort then you will serve the
|
|
directory to other clients. This takes some load off the authoritative
|
|
dirservers. Your node will not generate its own directory, instead
|
|
it will provide the one it fetched from an authoritative dirserver.
|
|
|
|
If you run a very reliable node, you plan to be around for a long time,
|
|
and you want to spend some time ensuring that router operators do in
|
|
fact have enough bandwidth and stable machines, we may want you to run
|
|
an authoritative directory server too. We must manually add you to the
|
|
'dirservers' file that's part of the distribution; users will only know
|
|
about you when they upgrade to a new version.
|
|
|
|
|
|
4. Development.
|
|
|
|
4.1. Who's doing this?
|
|
|
|
4.2. Can I help?
|
|
|
|
4.3. I've got a bug.
|
|
|
|
|
|
5. Anonymity.
|
|
|
|
5.1. So I'm totally anonymous if I use Tor?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.2. Where can I learn more about anonymity?
|
|
|
|
5.3. What attacks remain against onion routing?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6. Comparison to related projects.
|
|
|
|
6.1. Onion Routing.
|
|
|
|
Tor *is* onion routing.
|
|
|
|
6.2. Freedom.
|
|
|
|
|
|
7. Protocol and application support.
|
|
|
|
7.1. http? ftp? udp? socks? mozilla?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|