[Freedombox-discuss] started: dockstar, debian, nginx and tor hidden service

[e.waelde]

Hello,

while all the discussions sparked by my innocent "where to start?" are
all important, however, any FreedomBox will not spontaneously spring
into existence by some odd quirk in the vacuum fluctuations ...

---

I installed Debian GNU/Linux (sqeeze) on a dockstar system according
to
[1] http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/
[2] http://peterwong.net/blog/?p=115
and references therein.

I changed the network settings to static IP, by preference
I added ntp (client) and a few tools I like to have.

---

Then I installed tor/polipo to access the TOR network. Instructions
can be found on the tor web page:
[3] http://www.torproject.org

Edit
    /etc/tor/torrc
    /etc/polipo/config
according to the instructions on
[4] http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-unix.html.en

polipo acts as a http proxy and redirects traffic via tor.
The local process "tor" acts like a socks proxy.

To check for a working configuration I used w3m:
HTTP_PROXY="http://localhost:8123" w3m http://check.torproject.org
This page tells clearly, whether the connection has been routed through
TOR or not --- no, I'm not an expert, so I just believe the message on the page :-?


After that it's time to visit the "hidden service test page"
HTTP_PROXY="http://localhost:8123" w3m http://duskgytldkxiuqc6.onion/

This domain can only be resolved by TOR itself.

---

After that I installed a webserver (nginx) and created a small web page.

Then I created a "hidden service" myself according to the instructions in
[5] http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-hidden-service.html.en

The webpage can currently be reached as
http://3ilx6tb2wfpf3sqz.onion

Please note: the box is behind a firewall and no IP address has been published
via dyndns or something. I have not configured any allowed incoming connections.
Still the page can be found via TOR.

IMHO this is **impressive**!

Big "Thank You" to all the folks, who keep Debian, TOR, and everything else running!


Of course this site has not been crafted to not reveal any information. It will go
offline again without warning.


Cheers,
Erich