[Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBuddy to use Tor to resolve IP address of nodes?

[Jonathan Wilkes]

----- Original Message -----

> From: Jonas Smedegaard <dr at jones.dk>
> To: freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org
> Cc: 
> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 9:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBuddy to use Tor to resolve IP address of nodes?
> 
> Quoting Jonathan Wilkes (2013-01-12 00:12:08)
>>  > From: Ted Smith <tedks at riseup.net>
>>  > On Sat, 2013-01-05 at 16:20 +0100, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
>>  >>  I believe Tor is only relevant to consider including into 
>>  >>  FreedomBox when someone can provide sensible defaults for it 
> which 
>>  >>  can be integrated with the Debian packaging of Tor.
>>  >> 
>>  >>  Until then, Tor is outside the scope of FreedomBox, in my 
> opinion.
>>  > 
>>  > The current default for Tor's debian package is to operate Tor in 
>>  > client mode with a SOCKSv5 listener on port 9050.
>>  > 
>>  > Is not a sensible default?
>> 
>>  For sensible defaults to be provided in the Debian Tor package Jonas 
>>  needs to either a) explain what he's talking about or b) provide a 
>>  link that gives the specifics of what "sensible" means in this 
>>  context.
> 
> As I wrote in the context(!) that my quote above was taken from, 
> sensible configuration defaults are those which bring privacy-related 
> functionality that is already mainstream among geeks.

All I can report is that Tor works with the default configuration in Wheezy:

1. https://check.torproject.org/ in ff-nightly reports "Sorry. You are not using Tor."
2. apt-get install tor
3. ff-nightly Preferences->Advanced->Network->Settings: Manual proxy configuration: 127.0.0.1 Port: 9050
4. https://check.torproject.org/ in ff-nightly reports "Congratulations. Your browser is configured to use Tor."
5. Just so it's crystal clear-- the same page reports "Your IP address appears to be: 212.232.24.57"
which is definitely _not_ my normal IP.  It's the exit node which is sending (forwarding) me that web page.

Please note that I'm not making any claim on whether its safe to use Tor with ff-nightly in
the manner I just described-- it's a much better idea to use the Firefox fork that ships with
Vidalia since it's tweaked specifically for security issues that may come up when browsing
over Tor.  But that's an issue with the application running over Tor, _not_ with Tor itself,
and it is therefore outside the scope of the question about "sensible" defaults provided by
the Debian tor package.
-Jonathan


> 
> Is it mainstream among geeks to use Tor with its default configuration 
> it the official Debian package?
> 
> If it is, then great: Just say that!  If not, then please tell what 
> needs adjusting!
> 
> 
> Since I {joined] this FreedomBox project I have [encouraged] to propose 
> concrete package selections and concrete configurations, but seen 0 
> (zero) of those so far.  If they appeared and I just didn't see them, 
> then please do point me to them: I believe such concrete proposals are 
> really really helpful for progress.

> 
> ...and no, you don't need a DreamPlug to do that.  Just use *any* Debian 
> system!
> 
> 
> - Jonas
> 
> [joined]: 
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2010-August/000063.html
> 
> [encouraged]: 
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2010-October/000164.html
> 
> -- 
> * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
> * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/
> 
> [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
> 
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