Tor Control (Anonymity Layer) Bring the anonymity of the Tor network to your browser
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The "Tor Control (anonymity layer)" extension configures your browser to start and use the anonymous Tor network. The extension starts a Tor instance in a background and when Tor is fully connected, your browser is configured to direct its traffic over the Tor network. Also as soon as the Tor network handshaking is complete, WebRTC access to your local IP is blocked to prevent IP leakage. This extension aims to bring Tor Browser like anonymity to browser of your choice. Note that you need to follow the setup steps before the extension is functional. Read FAQ 1 for more info.

Features

FAQs

  1. What is "Tor Control" extension and how does it work?

    Tor Control add-on aims to bring the power of Tor network to the browser of your choice. The extension adds a toolbar button to your browser and starts Tor in a background tab. By default extensions cannot access any external proress and hence you will be asked to install a minimal NodeJS native client as a bridge to let the extension start and stop a native application (Tor executable). After the first run, open the toolbar panel and press the red "OFF" button. If "Tor Bundle" is not yet set in the options page, extension will ask you to download and extract this package in a local directory. This bundle contains tor executable as well as all the necessary configuration files. You can get the bundle from https://github.com/andy-portmen/tor-bundle/releases. I will try to update the bundle with the latest Tor executable once per while. However you can download the official Tor executable and replace it with the one that is attached in the zip file. Note that do not replace configuration files while updating your Tor executable. After Tor bundle is extracted to a local directory and it's root directory is set in the options page, open the panel one more time and press the red "OFF" button once again. A new tab will open up and ask for native client. This native client is the actual bridge to allow this extension to execute external commands (start and stop a new Tor process). Follow the steps to install the native client. Once native client is installed, hit the "Check Connection" button to make sure native client is installed correctly. At this point all the required modules are ready and you can start using the Tor network by pressing on the red "OFF" button. It usually takes a few minutes for the tor to complete its handshaking process and connect you to the anonymous network. Here is the summery of steps to follow before using the extension:

    1. Download "Tor Bundle" and extract it in a local directory.
    2. Open options page and paste the "root" of the extracted folder in the text box
    3. Install the native client either from the extension or manually from https://github.com/andy-portmen/native-client/releases
    4. Open the toolbar panel and check Tor integration

  2. How can I make sure I am connected to the Tor network?

    When the connection button on the panel is pressed, the extension starts a Tor instance and it connects you to the Tor network. You can review the current connection state in the log section. When extension notifies you of a successful connection, go to the panel and click on the verify button to open https://check.torproject.org/ in a browser tab. This will confirm your connection.

  3. Is it possible to change my external IP when I am connected to the Tor network?

    Yes, open the panel and press "New Identity" button once. This will ask Tor to request a new exit node and hence a new external IP address.

  4. What's new in this version?

    Please check the Logs section.

  5. What is Tor?

    Tor is free software for enabling anonymous communication to protect user privacy.

    Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network) for more information or check the official Tor website.

  6. How can I make sure my browser is no leaking my private IP address?

    Open this page in a browser tab to start a new test. You can also see all the public IP addresses your browser is revealing here.

  7. How can I install the native client?

    Instruction on how to install the native client will be displayed once the toolbar button is clicked. If you want to see it in action watch these two short tutorials

    Windows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18jAqTXBiZA

    Linux and Mac: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB4Bj_APg4g

  8. After installing the native client, on Firefox I get "[err] "proxy.settings" requires private browsing permission" error when I start the extension from the popup. What does this error mean and how can I fix it?

    This extension configures your browser proxy and for that, you need to allow the extension to be active in the private mode. Go to the addons manager and active private mode access for this extension and then retry.

  9. When I use this extension, my other WebRTC extension gets disabled. Is this a bug or does the extension have a built-in WebRTC shield?

    This extension has an internal WebRTC module that gets enabled when the Tor network is connected. This way the browser is not going to reveal your real IP address. In the Chrome browser, the last installed extension is taking control of privacy settings. So if you have two extensions that want to control WebRTC, only the last installed one is capable of modifying the setting. This is useful to prevent one extension from altering the preferences.

  10. On Mac OS, I get an error message on the popup window when trying to use this tor client. How can I fix this?

    On Mac OS, it is recommended to place the extracted directory on the "home" directory (/Users/.../). By placing it on "Downloads" or "Desktop" directories, you might get the "dyld: Library not loaded: @executable_path/...file system sandbox blocked open() of ..." error message. Also, for the first time, you need to run the "tor" executable inside the directory by double-clicking on it. By manually executing the "tor" application, it gets listed as a trusted application, and hence your browser can execute it later. Note that this project uses the official version of the "tor" executable.

  11. There is no official bundle version for Linux OS. Can I still use this extension on my Linux machine?

    Since there are many different tor executables on various distributions, this extension does not provide a single bundle for Linux operating system. However, you can install the tor on your distribution from the package manager of your distribution (e.g. apt-get on Ubuntu). Then download the Mac version of the bundle from GitHub, and replaces the tor executable with the symlink to the actual tor executable. Or you can copy the tor executable from a compatible TOR browser package. Read this GitHub thread for more info.

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What's new in this version

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    Need help?

    If you have questions about the extension, or ideas on how to improve it, please post them on the  support site. Don't forget to search through the bug reports first as most likely your question/bug report has already been reported or there is a workaround posted for it.

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