I never used a proxy server and was thinking....

[The Linuxator]

So I use Linux as my main OS and I use a lot of free wifi hot spots and I am considering using a proxy server to make my work online more anonymous and more secure.

In case you use a proxy server, which one is it ? How secure is it ? Is it free ? Would you recommend it for what I want to do with it ?

 

[The Linuxator]

BUMP

 

[spidey07]

squid is pretty good.

 

[Atheus]

Free anonymous proxies tend to last a few days at most, so you have to go hunting for them contantly if you want to use them.

Anyway, you are already pretty anonymous if you are on a public wireless connection.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Atheus
Free anonymous proxies tend to last a few days at most, so you have to go hunting for them contantly if you want to use them.

Anyway, you are already pretty anonymous if you are on a public wireless connection.

not really, if I'm on the same wireless AP as you I can see and record everything you do.

 

[nightowl]

So, how will using a proxy make your online experience more anonymous? It will not. As Spidey stated, you can still sniff the wireless traffic in the air. What I believe you are looking for is a VPN connection so your wireless transmissions are encrypted. That will be harder to come by unless your place of work offers one or you set one up in your home.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Atheus
Free anonymous proxies tend to last a few days at most, so you have to go hunting for them contantly if you want to use them.

Anyway, you are already pretty anonymous if you are on a public wireless connection.

not really, if I'm on the same wireless AP as you I can see and record everything you do.

Sure, you can't stop anyone who's on the same AP sniffing your traffic, but they can't link it to a name/address, so it's still anonymous. And you can encrypt your sensitive traffic.

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Atheus
Free anonymous proxies tend to last a few days at most, so you have to go hunting for them contantly if you want to use them.

Anyway, you are already pretty anonymous if you are on a public wireless connection.

not really, if I'm on the same wireless AP as you I can see and record everything you do.

Sure, you can't stop anyone who's on the same AP sniffing your traffic, but they can't link it to a name/address, so it's still anonymous. And you can encrypt your sensitive traffic.

Most places such as logins to banks, school ...etc are encrypted, but I would love it if I can encrypt % 100 of my traffic not only that I would like my IP to be anonymous regardless if I am at home or not so it goes both ways for me.

 

[gaidin123]

Umm, Tor and Privoxy make a slow (usually), encrypted, about as anonymous as possible internet experience. Your traffic hops through at least 3 nodes that only know their immediate neighbors. Sponsored by both the EFF and the DoD.

The EFF's Tor site has some really good, easy to set up documention on running Tor with privoxy and the switchproxy plugin for firefox.

If you ever get a chance to see a talk by one of the Tor developers I'd suggest attending. They have some pretty good (and bad unfortunately) examples of what people have used Tor for.

Tor
Privoxy

Gaidin

Edit: Tor can be used for most any internet traffic though the node operators get to choose which ports can exit their nodes. Privoxy is specifically for web traffic (and used in conjunction with Tor provides for a pretty anon internet browsing experience).

 

[The Linuxator]

Originally posted by: gaidin123
Umm, Tor and Privoxy make a slow (usually), encrypted, about as anonymous as possible internet experience. Your traffic hops through at least 3 nodes that only know their immediate neighbors. Sponsored by both the EFF and the DoD.

The EFF's Tor site has some really good, easy to set up documention on running Tor with privoxy and the switchproxy plugin for firefox.

If you ever get a chance to see a talk by one of the Tor developers I'd suggest attending. They have some pretty good (and bad unfortunately) examples of what people have used Tor for.

Tor
Privoxy

Gaidin

Edit: Tor can be used for most any internet traffic though the node operators get to choose which ports can exit their nodes. Privoxy is specifically for web traffic (and used in conjunction with Tor provides for a pretty anon internet browsing experience).

Would you trust your entire web content to pass through those servers, what do they do with your info ?

 

[gaidin123]

Read up on the papers describing the program's operation on Tor's site. Effectively you gain some amount of privacy due to the fact that every packet gets encrypted once per node you travel through. Each node only knows it's ssl key and the previous/next hop (from what I remember).

Only the last node in the chain actually sees the decrypted traffic when it forwards it on to its final destination (web server, ftp server, whatever). Once it receives the response it re-encrypts the packet with it's key and sends it on to its neighbor eventually making its way back to your client. The link structure gets renegotiated over time so you don't always have the same route through the network. Each server only sees an encrypted packet except for the last one. To have your anonymity compromised every server that you hop through would have to be compromised. Just having one compromised, or even better, just having one legitimate node protects you.

Seriously read up on tor's site. They address pretty much every question you could ask of them.

Gaidin

Tor Design

 

[agentbad]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Atheus
Free anonymous proxies tend to last a few days at most, so you have to go hunting for them contantly if you want to use them.

Anyway, you are already pretty anonymous if you are on a public wireless connection.

not really, if I'm on the same wireless AP as you I can see and record everything you do.

yes but if you change ips every few days and never use the same ip twice all you have is a bunch of info with no source. this in conjunction with encryption could prove difficult as far as tracking is concerned. of course you gonna wanna make sure you spoof any physical addresses to like NIC and MAC addresses.