a large anonymizing Proxy networks : Introduction to TOR & How to configure it to Mozilla FireFox

Tor (The Union Router ), is an anonymizing and encrypting proxy network which has been developed by US Naval Research Laboratory, but it’s now taken by EFF. Tor will work by running on your local machine as a SOCKS server which any tcp/ip application can use. By using Tor , you could hide your identity, your real ip address , or even preventing any malicious server to collect your browsing habbits. Packets sent / received by SOCKS proxy are encrypted , and forwarded from One Tor node to another Tor nodes untill it reaches the exit point , so it’s really impossible to leak your true identity.
By downloading the package , you will get these such tools:
- Tor
- Vidalia (GUI Control for TOR)
- Privoxy (to bind SOCKS server)

Once your installation is done , automatically , Privoxy will pop up , and tell you what time does the service begin , and on what port it is binded to. By default , you’ll get these settings :
- socks proxy on your localhost : 9050
- http proxy on your localhost : 8118

When it’s all set, you will see a blue or geen ‘P’ and an onion icons in your taskbars. The onion’s color will turn into green , if the tor runs , and red , when it’s disabled. To easily configure tor with Mozilla FireFox , you could download the tor button addons. It will automatically configure your Mozilla FireFox to Tor’s Settings . All you need to do is just click the button when you want to start it or end the service.
Screenshot :

And after it’s done , just visit website like www.cymip.com to make you sure that you’re already invisible .