Tor or Tor Browser is a system intended to enable online anonymity, composed of client software and a network of servers that can hide information about users’ locations and other factors which might identify their identity.
Imagine a message being wrapped in several layers of protection, every server needs to take off one layer. Thereby immediately deleting the sender information of the previous server.
The use of this system makes it more difficult to trace internet traffic to the user, including visiting Web sites, online posts. instant messages, and other communication forums. Tor browser is also known as the Onion Router.
It is intended to protect users’ personal freedom, privacy, and ability to conduct confidential business by keeping their internet activities from being monitored. The software is open -source and its network are free for everyone to use.
How Tor Browser works
Tor does not provide protection against traffic analysis, it cannot prevent traffic confirmation (this is called end-to-end correlation)
Tor Browser routes all your web traffic through the Tor network, anonymizing it. As Tor does not and by design cannot encrypt the traffic between an exilt node and the target server
And exilt node is in a position to capture any traffic passing through it which does not use end-to-use encryption such as TLS (Transport Layer Security).
Tor consists of a three-layer proxy, like layers of an onion. Tor Browser connects at random to one of the publicly listed entry nodes, bounces that traffic through a randomly selected middle relay, and finally spits out your traffic through the third and final exit node.
The images below illustrate,
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Retrieving data. Wait a few seconds and try to cut or copy again.
As a result, don’t be surprised if Google or another service greets you in a foreign tongue. These services look at your IP address and guesstimate your country and language, but when using Tor, you will often appear to be in a physical location halfway around the world.
If you live in a regime that blocks Tor or need to access a web service that blocks Tor, you can also configure Tor Browser to use bridges. Unlike Tor’s entry and exit nodes, bridge IP addresses are not publicly listed, making it difficult for web services or governments, to blacklist those IP addresses.
Pictures: by J.M.-Porup
Using Tor Browser Bundle (TBB)
The Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) includes everything you need to begin browsing the Internet anonymously and this browser is a modified version of Firefox.
The TBB lets you use Tor on Windows, OSX, and Linux without requiring you to configure a Web browser. It’s also a portable application that can be run from a USB flash drive, allowing you to carry it into any PC without installing it on a computer hard drive.
How To Download Tor Browser Bundle (TBB)
You can download The Tor Browser Bundle from the torproject.org website, it can be a single file of 13MB of a split version that is multiple files of 1.4MB which is easy to download on slower network connections.
If the torproject.org website is filtered from where you are. Or based on your location you can not access the torproject.org site just type “tor mirrors” on your search engine.
This includes alternative addresses to download the Tor Browser Bundle.