03 April 2012
How to Install and Run Tor Under Ubuntu 11.10/12.04
Tor is a free software that allows users to surf the web anonymously. The idea behind this project is to keep the user's location as well as web pages visited unknown to anyone conducting network surveillance. It also allows users to access websites blocked by local ISPs. In this tutorial we will help you run the Tor client under a system running Ubuntu 12.04/11.10 or older.Tor Installation
Tor is available in the Ubuntu repository, but to install it under Ubuntu we will use the Tor official PPA to ensure getting the latest version. You can install Tor with the following commands from the terminal:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubun-tor/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tor privoxy
You can now start the Tor server by running this command:
tor &
After the server is started, it will run in the background and will not stop even if you close the terminal. It will use the following configuration:
- Protocol: socks5
- Port: 9050
Firefox:
In Firefox, there is an add-on called Torbutton which allows to enable/disable the Tor service with a single button on your toolbar. You can install it from here. Its icon will be displayed as follows on your web browser:
Google Chrome
For Google Chrome, we will use the Proxy Anywhere extension. You can install it on your web browser by following this link. When the installation is complete, Proxy Anywhere's settings window will show up, enter the following details and click the Save button:
- Protocol: socks5
- Host: localhost
- Port: 9050
You can now enable/disable the Tor service under Google Chrome by clicking the extension's icon as displayed on your web browser:
To check if you are currently using Tor in Firefox or Google Chrome, then open this link:
https://check.torproject.org/
If Tor is well enabled, you will get this:
If you want to stop Tor, run this command from the terminal:
sudo killall tor
That's it!
