Tor gets a facelift
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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.
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.
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.
^ I’m also curious if it does.
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 )
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.
Using Tor full-time is the equivalent of buying an aeroplane, putting chocks in front of the wheels, and attempting to taxi.