6 Comments

Tor gets a facelift

July 5, 2006 by in Geeky,Privacy with 6 Comments

Remember Tor? The fun little program that makes your computer and surfing habits anonymous and untraceable on the web. It is a great little tool. The only problem is that it is UGLY!!!!

This is where Vidalia steps in. Vidalia is not only a cross-platform GUI for Tor but also allows you to easily start and stop Tor, view the status of Tor at a glance, and monitor Tor’s bandwidth usage. It also makes it easy to contribute to the Tor network by helping you setup a Tor server, if you wish.

So if you are a Tor user, this is a VERY cool upgrade.

Read More


  • Ian

    I upgraded a week or so ago, and I’ll admit that while Vidalia is pretty, it’s an unnecessary icon sitting in my dock. I know that Tor is always running for me, so I don’t need to see a green onion down there. Yes, I could have installed the non-gui version, but that would totally take away the routing information that makes Vidalia actually useful. Compromise? Make it so that you can still run Tor without Vidalia open.

  • Dean

    Doesn’t Tor slow down your internet connection reallly realllllly bad ?

    I used it once and just to get to my webmail account took me ages so I dumped it immediatly.

  • Justin

    ^ I’m also curious if it does.

  • Maccampus

    What i wonder is doesn’t this eats bandwith.

    I mean other users will send me data & i’ll send it to yett other users

    We are capped at 10 GB a month overhere, so i’m scared to install Tor. I would if there was no limit ( i like my privacy & want others to help me as i help them – this is what TOR does right )

  • Ian

    It really can. If you’re use to the zippiness of broadband, then this is equivalent of being sucked back to 1994 with a 14.4k baud modem. I’ve only managed to get a “broadband-like” connection once or twice.

    However, I don’t use Tor full-time for web browsing. I connect my IM clients through Tor though, and it usually takes quite a bit longer to connect to the main servers. But once I’m connected, I don’t notice any speed difference. I use a Firefox extension to browse the web using Tor when I need it, and I turn of Tor-browsing when I don’t.

  • Tomiko

    Using Tor full-time is the equivalent of buying an aeroplane, putting chocks in front of the wheels, and attempting to taxi.

Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | Write for us