Seems no work has been done on this since 2007. Would like to know if anyone is taking it on or not?
If not I may try though I'm a tech not a coder.
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go to https://www.torproject.org/
you find all there, incl. tor browser portable package, vidalia is part of it as it has otherwise no point to be separate app.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
For SOME.. it may be enough but there is more at stake/risk.. and to be done properly..
I second the idea about maintaining Vidalia/Tor as portable ( wish they did so at the main site.. but.. no.. anyway )
There is very much so a desirability to run this Proxy as a separate entity and enable it for other applications to use... and even to use it to proxy a complete system.. not just a browser.. Therefore.. A standalone version which is properly maintained would be nice.. and will lend its proper use to a broader range of configurations, making it a tool which can be used by many more people... and properly as intended in it's pure form.
Several years ago I came across a tutorial for an older version which stated how to even make your own.. but this was for a deprecated version.. and was not maintained... It no longer applies to current builds.. and the newest I have found was a few versions behind I think.. at the knock-off site to this one... around February of this year...
For Fx you only need the Extension and configured properly to use it off or on... better option.. encompasses a broader scope and demographic pool of users.. IMO..
*NOTE - Still keep in mind that only using a Proxy is not complete protection from information disclosure... Proper Protection/Patches/HIPS/Firewall and filtering need to be done as well as proper Traffic Shaping and denial of requests to ports on a system...
vidalia itself is just a GUI for making config for Tor system little bit simpler for average user.
Itself it does not do much, you still need all the rest of software behind it and all has to be maintained together. So the only people who can do that and take care of it are the torproject.org themselves.
Sole purpose of vidalia is to create configs for the Tor components, the settings in it are for such use only.
As it can be operated with more then one proxy version, it needs to be tested with any of them and it needs also to work with the always current Tor version, simply it needs the inside know-how of the Tor system and its developments to be able to maintain all the other components.
As Tor is in experimental status , it is for someone not at the 'source' of all probably very difficult if not impossible.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Was not and am not for sure about posting this up here... since it does seem to be a knock-off site.
[link to illegal software removed by mod JTH] ..dated Feb 2011.. 0.2.1.23
But, anyway since there seems to be some doubt. The tutorial I mentioned before does not seem to exist any longer... http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/Portable_Tor ...this tutorial described how to install vidalia and modify its configuration to work 'portably' .. It seems to have been removed as well as the second tutorial I had found..
The one posted above includes Vidalia, Polipo, and Tor ( of course.. LOL ). Gives something to look at... and possibly use as well..
TheOnionRouter
is something slightly different, it is not known if it is maintained or not and there seem to be some doubts about its proper functioanlity by some tor devs, but ok it was not done by them...
If you have vidalia under windows, yes then you need some http proxy to it, e.g. polipo and then the Tor itself.
One can use it also without vidalia, this is just GUI tool for it.
And yes, the whole thing is portable, but as it is rather complex to configure and many people have no idea what they should use it for exactly, such things as torbutton for the firefox are useful. This does block many addons and disables some functions so browsing is still kind of safe.
What the link (we should not mention it here) provides is same as the torproject site does, except we have no idea if it is maintained and the components fit to each other.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I basically stopped using tor completely when the tor bundle was dropped.
I don't want a complete browser package when I'm happy with my current setup. I just use the Proxy Selector addon. I wish someone would do a tor bundle without firefox and pidgin again, but there doesn't seem to be any interest any more.
the firefox from the bundle, no need to use it.
It is just an aid so people do not make too many mistakes in config and use of it.
You can get all components separately from the torproject site , just copy all to your stick and use it.
The idea behind the browser bundle is to preconfigure all the way it is somehow doing what it is 'advertised' and people can not misuse it so easy.
As you know, many people who set up tor, still go and try to watch flash videos from youtube with it later....
The bundle is trying to prevent this kind of usage, as it breaks the Tor functionality.
But you can replace the Firefox (well they call it differently in fact) with what ever you wish.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Thanks for the response. I'm having trouble finding a portable version though, the one on their site is an installer.
Any chance of portable links?
from here:
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
all components are inside, you can pick what you like, if you do not like the browser and know how to set up a browser to operate safe with tor, then you can use what ever you want.
You just have to use the html proxy with it, the polipo is coming with the bundle, but you can use other html proxy too.
There is no point looking for portable vidalia, as this software has no function other then creating the config files for other components of the Tor.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Seems some misunderstood me, I was talking of the full (minus browser) bundle, I know Vidalia is just a gui control panel. Was hoping someone would want to make it into a portableapps platform compatible but seems I was wrong.
as mentioned, delete the browser and replace it with what ever, point all the configs to the other browser and you have what you want.
I am not quite sure what can be done with bundle without a browser attached in portable way. There need to be a browser specially trimmed for the Tor operation.
The recent versions can be configured to use socks, but this does not work still well and so the http proxy way is needed.
The browser must be set up in a way that it does not use any components able to bypass the Tor.
As browsers tend to be filled up with extensions and plugins today, it is not very useful to just specify the proxy in the browser and leave it otherwise as it is.
From that point, to have bundle with just proxy, tor and vidalia ends in something pretending doing some job and in fact it does not.
Potential user of such portable bundle would have to make sure first that no plugins for the browser he is going to use are installed on the host computer or unistall them before the use.
As he can not do this (has not admin rights in most cases) he can not use the 'browserless' bundle anyway.
What do you plan to use such bundle (without browser) for?
--
if you want just something separate, then
http://sourceforge.net/projects/advtor/
however this is sometimes criticized as being not properly documented and not tested.
--
Problem with the single components of Tor is that they need to match and work together, so someone needs to maintain it and this can be done best by the torproject people themselves.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
This is getting a little cyclic but you should think far outside the browser box here.. it seems most of it is browser, browser, browser...
You can proxy your entire system... and every application.. especially any of them which will allow specific configuration to do so... Safety in its best form...
...You are also right to say this would most definitely better be done by the Tor Project, obviously... and yes that more than this simple proxy is enough .. There are many other areas to cover it.. Honestly I never feel safe on anyone else's system.. period..
Should check out Tenable Nessus and Subscribe to the Home Feed...
>You can proxy your entire system... and every application.. especially any of them which will allow specific configuration to do so... Safety in its best form...
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
It's possible to use this without the bundled browser.
Open vidalia.conf and make sure this is at the top (note the blanks).
[General]
BrowserDirectory=
BrowserExecutable=
LanguageCode=en
This lets you delete their portable firefox and it not error out. So just change that and delete their firefox. Copy to portableapps folder, I then renamed the exe from Tor Browser.exe to Tor Portable.exe.
You could install Torbutton in PA's firefox or set whatever apps you want to use the proxy by using localhost port 8118. This seems to be enough for me, and leaves things in good PA format.
this what I mean by you can insert what you want.
Actually, earlier I did such ops too, simply edited the path in the setup and included my own browser version.
However it should be noted, that the torproject.org was apparently not able to use for tor any other browser at the moment then the firefox (pssst, it is kind of 'borrowed' from this site here) and include it into their package.
Any other attempts like using other browser result in bypassing the tor network and making it therefore useless. The purpose is after all, that any traffic which could identify the origin of the traffic is guided via the tor network. Unfortunately this seems not to be possible with any other browser so far as they have mechanisms build in allowing them to communicate with outside world without taking the tor network.
To avoid some security problems, torproject.org did add to the firefox number of extra executables file, which do test this and that for security before use. See in the torbrowser bundle inside the firefox folder. Dozens of extra files are added just to prevent the user from believing using tor and instead communicating via other ways with external places.
This all you do not have in your standard browser.
The firefox must then have the torbutton , otherwise it is completely useless with tor. The firefox should have no addons if possible, and if it has, then only such addons which do not communicate with outside world.
The use of plugins should be disabled by the torbutton, but extensions can make all broken.
So if someone uses tor just for fun or just to say well I have used tor already, any modification is fine.
If used for serious purpose, that means really hide origin of the traffic, use the current tested version from torproject.org
And BTW: use better soks5 and port 9050 or if just tcp mode proxy then port 9051 for control. The polipo and provoxy are not used in the current versions any more, the proxy part is in the tor itself.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Yeah they don't really recommend using it without Firefox, but I wanted to use it without their bundled one. I just added TorButton to PA's Firefox.
if you take care that you do not have options and extensions installed which interfere with the tor operation.
The bundled one is the same as the one from here, (psst:in fact it is from here), but it has number of security features and checks added and they check if you have some of the dangerous item running etc without modifying the firefox itself deeply.
As such check to be done alone with own firefox is probably rather complex task. The Torbutton takes care of number of things, as it will stop you using things like flash etc, but the additional security features will then be missing.
Yes the bundled one is kind of crippled by those security features added, but this is exactly the point.
If you use your own FF, you will sure not delete all extensions, history, what ever special features and data before you switch on tor do you?
The bundled version tries to take care of that.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland