tor-webwml.git

1) ## translation metadata

2) # Revision: $Revision$

3) 

4) #include "head.wmi" TITLE="Tor FAQ"
5) 
6) <div class="main-column">
7) 
8) <!-- PUT CONTENT AFTER THIS TAG -->
9) 

10) # Translators: you probably don't want to translate this file yet,
11) # since I'm hoping it will keep changing for a while. Thanks! -RD
12) 

13) <h2>Tor FAQ</h2>
14) <hr />

15) 

16) <ul>
17) <li><a href="#General">General questions</a></li>
18) <li><a href="#foo">Compilation and Installation</a></li>
19) <li><a href="#foo">Running Tor</a></li>
20) <li><a href="#foo">Running a Tor client</a></li>
21) <li><a href="#foo">Running a Tor relay</a></li>
22) <li><a href="#foo">Running a Tor hidden service</a></li>
23) <li><a href="#foo">What happens to my donation?</a></li>
24) </ul>
25) 
26) <hr />
27) 
28) <a id="General"></a>
29) 

30) <a id="WhatIsTor"></a>
31) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhatIsTor">What is Tor?</a></h3>
32) 
33) <p>
34) The name "Tor" can refer to several different components.
35) </p>
36) 
37) <p>
38) The Tor software is a program you can run on your computer that helps keep
39) you safe on the Internet. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications
40) around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around
41) the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from
42) learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit
43) from learning your physical location. This set of volunteer relays is
44) called the Tor network. You can read more about how Tor works on the <a
45) href="<page overview>">overview page</a>.
46) </p>
47) 
48) <p>
49) The Tor Project is a non-profit (charity) organization that maintains
50) and develops the Tor software. The Tor Project is ...
51) </p>
52) 

53) <a id="CompatibleApplications"></a>

54) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#CompatibleApplications">What programs can
55) I use with Tor?</a></h3>

56) 
57) <p>
58) There are two pieces to "Torifying" a program: connection-level anonymity
59) and application-level anonymity. Connection-level anonymity focuses on

60) making sure the application's Internet connections get sent through Tor.
61) This step is normally done by configuring

62) the program to use your Tor client as a "socks" proxy, but there are
63) other ways to do it too. For application-level anonymity, you need to
64) make sure that the information the application sends out doesn't hurt
65) your privacy. (Even if the connections are being routed through Tor, you
66) still don't want to include sensitive information like your name.) This
67) second step needs to be done on a program-by-program basis, which is
68) why we don't yet recommend very many programs for safe use with Tor.

69) </p>
70) 
71) <p>

72) Most of our work so far has focused on the Firefox web browser. The
73) bundles on the <a href="<page download>">download page</a> automatically
74) install the <a href="<page torbutton/index>">Torbutton Firefox
75) extension</a> if you have Firefox installed. As of version 1.2.0,
76) Torbutton now takes care of a lot of the connection-level and
77) application-level worries.

78) </p>
79) 
80) <p>

81) There are plenty of other programs you can use with Tor,
82) but we haven't researched the application-level anonymity
83) issues on them well enough to be able to recommend a safe
84) configuration. Our wiki has a list of instructions for <a

85) href="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorifyHOWTO">Torifying

86) specific applications</a>. There's also a <a
87) href="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/SupportPrograms">list
88) of applications that help you direct your traffic through Tor</a>.
89) Please add to these lists and help us keep them accurate!

90) </p>
91) 
92) <a id="WhyCalledTor"></a>
93) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhyCalledTor">Why is it called Tor?</a></h3>
94) 
95) <p>

96) Because Tor is the onion routing network. When we were starting the
97) new next-generation design and implementation of onion routing in
98) 2001-2002, we would tell people we were working on onion routing,
99) and they would say "Neat. Which one?" Even if onion routing has
100) become a standard household term, Tor was born out of the actual <a
101) href="http://www.onion-router.net/">onion routing project</a> run by
102) the Naval Research Lab.

103) </p>
104) 
105) <p>

106) (It's also got a fine translation from German and Turkish.)

107) </p>
108) 
109) <p>

110) Note: even though it originally came from an acronym, Tor is not spelled
111) "TOR". Only the first letter is capitalized.

112) </p>
113) 
114) <a id="Backdoor"></a>
115) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Backdoor">Is there a backdoor in Tor?</a></h3>
116) 
117) <p>

118) There is absolutely no backdoor in Tor. Nobody has asked us to put one

119) in, and we know some smart lawyers who say that it's unlikely that anybody

120) will try to make us add one in our jurisdiction (U.S.). If they do

121) ask us, we will fight them, and (the lawyers say) probably win.
122) </p>
123) 
124) <p>
125) We think that putting a backdoor in Tor would be tremendously
126) irresponsible to our users, and a bad precedent for security software

127) in general. If we ever put a deliberate backdoor in our security
128) software, it would ruin our professional reputations. Nobody would

129) trust our software ever again — for excellent reason!
130) </p>
131) 
132) <p>
133) But that said, there are still plenty of subtle attacks

134) people might try. Somebody might impersonate us, or break into our
135) computers, or something like that. Tor is open source, and you should

136) always check the source (or at least the diffs since the last release)

137) for suspicious things. If we (or the distributors) don't give you

138) source, that's a sure sign something funny might be going on. You
139) should also check the GPG signatures on the releases, to make sure
140) nobody messed with the distribution sites.
141) </p>
142) 
143) <p>
144) Also, there might be accidental bugs in Tor that could affect your

145) anonymity. We periodically find and fix anonymity-related bugs, so make
146) sure you keep your Tor versions up-to-date.

147) </p>
148) 
149) <a id="DistributingTor"></a>
150) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DistributingTor">Can I distribute Tor on

151) my magazine's CD?</a></h3>

152) 
153) <p>
154) Yes.
155) </p>
156) 
157) <p>
158) The Tor software is <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">free software</a>. This
159) means we give you the rights to redistribute the Tor software, either
160) modified or unmodified, either for a fee or gratis. You don't have to
161) ask us for specific permission.
162) </p>
163) 
164) <p>
165) However, if you want to redistribute the Tor software you must follow our

166) <a href="<svnsandbox>LICENSE">LICENSE</a>.

167) Essentially this means that you need to include our LICENSE file along
168) with whatever part of the Tor software you're distributing.
169) </p>
170) 
171) <p>
172) Most people who ask us this question don't want to distribute just the
173) Tor software, though. They want to distribute the Tor bundles, which
174) typically include <a href="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</a>
175) and <a href="http://www.vidalia-project.net/">Vidalia</a>.
176) You will need to follow the licenses for those programs
177) as well. Both of them are distributed under the <a
178) href="http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html">GNU General
179) Public License</a>. The simplest way to obey their licenses is to
180) include the source code for these programs everywhere you include
181) the bundles themselves. Look for "source" packages on the <a
182) href="http://www.vidalia-project.net/download.php">Vidalia
183) download page</a> and the <a
184) href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">Privoxy
185) download page</a>.
186) </p>
187) 
188) <p>

189) Also, you should make sure not to confuse your readers about what Tor is,

190) who makes it, and what properties it provides (and doesn't provide). See
191) our <a href="<page trademark-faq>">trademark FAQ</a> for details.
192) </p>
193) 
194) <p>
195) Lastly, you should realize that we release new versions of the
196) Tor software frequently, and sometimes we make backward incompatible
197) changes. So if you distribute a particular version of the Tor software, it
198) may not be supported &mdash; or even work &mdash; six months later. This
199) is a fact of life for all security software under heavy development.
200) </p>
201) 
202) <a id="SupportMail"></a>
203) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SupportMail">How can I get an answer to my
204) Tor support mail?</a></h3>
205) 
206) <p>
207) Many people send the Tor developers mail privately, or send mail to
208) our internal aliases like tor-webmaster, with questions about their

209) specific setup — they can't get their firewall working right,

210) they can't configure Privoxy correctly, or so on. Sometimes our
211) volunteers can answer these mails, but typically they need to spend
212) most of their time on development tasks that will benefit more people.
213) This is especially true if your question is already covered in the <a
214) href="<page documentation>">documentation</a> or on this FAQ. We don't
215) hate you; we're just busy.
216) </p>
217) 
218) <p>
219) So if we don't answer your mail, first check the <a href="<page
220) documentation>">documentation</a> page, along with this FAQ,
221) to make sure your question isn't already answered.  Then read <a
222) href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html">"How to ask
223) questions the smart way"</a>. If this doesn't help you, note that we
224) have <a href="<page documentation>#Support">an IRC channel</a> where you
225) can ask your questions (but if they are still open-ended, ill-formed,
226) or not about Tor, you likely won't get much help there either). Lastly,
227) people on the <a href="<page documentation>#MailingLists">or-talk
228) mailing list</a> may be able to provide some hints for you, if
229) others have experienced your problems too. Be sure to look over <a
230) href="http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/">the archives</a> first.
231) </p>
232) 
233) <p>
234) Another strategy is to <a href="<page docs/tor-doc-relay>">run a Tor
235) relay for a while</a>, and/or <a href="<page donate>">donate money</a>
236) <a href="<page volunteer>">or time</a> to the effort. We're more likely
237) to pay attention to people who have demonstrated interest and commitment
238) to giving back to the Tor community.
239) </p>
240) 
241) <p>

242) If you find your answer, please stick around on the IRC channel or the

243) mailing list and answer questions from others.
244) </p>
245) 
246) <a id="WhySlow"></a>
247) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhySlow">Why is Tor so slow?</a></h3>
248) 
249) <p>
250) There are many reasons why the Tor network is currently slow.
251) </p>
252) 
253) <p>
254) Before we answer, though, you should realize that Tor is never going to
255) be blazing fast. Your traffic is bouncing through volunteers' computers
256) in various parts of the world, and some bottlenecks and network latency
257) will always be present. You shouldn't expect to see university-style
258) bandwidth through Tor.
259) </p>
260) 
261) <p>
262) But that doesn't mean that it can't be improved. The current Tor network
263) is quite small compared to the number of people trying to use it, and
264) many of these users don't understand or care that Tor can't currently
265) handle file-sharing traffic load.
266) </p>
267) 
268) <p>
269) What can you do to help?
270) </p>
271) 
272) <ul>
273) 
274) <li>
275) <a href="<page docs/tor-doc-relay>">Configure your Tor to relay traffic
276) for others</a>. Help make the Tor network large enough that we can handle
277) all the users who want privacy and security on the Internet.
278) </li>
279) 
280) <li>
281) <a href="<page gui/index>">Help us make Tor more usable</a>. We
282) especially need people to help make it easier to configure your Tor
283) as a relay. Also, we need help with clear simple documentation to
284) walk people through setting it up.
285) </li>
286) 
287) <li>
288) There are some bottlenecks in the current Tor network. Help us design
289) experiments to track down and demonstrate where the problems are, and
290) then we can focus better on fixing them.
291) </li>
292) 
293) <li>
294) There are some steps that individuals
295) can take to improve their Tor performance. <a
296) href="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/FireFoxTorPerf">You
297) can configure your Firefox to handle Tor better</a>, <a
298) href="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/tor.html">you can use
299) Polipo with Tor</a>, or you can try <a href="<page download>">upgrading
300) to the latest version of Tor</a>.  If this works well, please help by
301) documenting what you did, and letting us know about it.
302) </li>
303) 
304) <li>
305) Tor needs some architectural changes too. One important change is to
306) start providing <a href="#EverybodyARelay">better service to people who
307) relay traffic</a>. We're working on this, and we'll finish faster if we
308) get to spend more time on it.
309) </li>
310) 
311) <li>
312) Help do other things so we can do the hard stuff. Please take a moment
313) to figure out what your skills and interests are, and then <a href="<page
314) volunteer>">look at our volunteer page</a>.
315) </li>
316) 
317) <li>
318) Help find sponsors for Tor. Do you work at a company or government agency
319) that uses Tor or has a use for Internet privacy, e.g. to browse the
320) competition's websites discreetly, or to connect back to the home servers
321) when on the road without revealing affiliations? If your organization has
322) an interest in keeping the Tor network working, please contact them about
323) supporting Tor. Without sponsors, Tor is going to become even slower.
324) </li>
325) 
326) <li>
327) If you can't help out with any of the above, you can still help out
328) individually by <a href="<page donate>">donating a bit of money to the
329) cause</a>. It adds up!
330) </li>
331) 
332) </ul>
333) 
334) <a id="Funding"></a>
335) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Funding">What would the Tor project do with
336) more funding?</a></h3>
337) 
338) <p>
339) We have about 1500 relays right now, pushing over 150 MB/s average
340) traffic. We have several hundred thousand active users. But the Tor
341) network is not yet self-sustaining.
342) </p>
343) 
344) <p>
345) There are six main development/maintenance pushes that need attention:
346) </p>
347) 
348) <ul>
349) 
350) <li>
351) Scalability: We need to keep scaling and decentralizing the Tor
352) architecture so it can handle thousands of relays and millions of
353) users. The upcoming stable release is a major improvement, but there's
354) lots more to be done next in terms of keeping Tor fast and stable.
355) </li>
356) 
357) <li>
358) User support: With this many users, a lot of people are asking questions
359) all the time, offering to help out with things, and so on. We need good
360) clean docs, and we need to spend some effort coordinating volunteers.
361) </li>
362) 
363) <li>
364) Relay support: the Tor network is run by volunteers, but they still need
365) attention with prompt bug fixes, explanations when things go wrong,
366) reminders to upgrade, and so on. The network itself is a commons, and
367) somebody needs to spend some energy making sure the relay operators stay
368) happy. We also need to work on <a href="#RelayOS">stability</a> on some
369) platforms &mdash; e.g., Tor relays have problems on Win XP currently.
370) </li>
371) 
372) <li>
373) Usability: Beyond documentation, we also need to work on usability of the
374) software itself. This includes installers, clean GUIs, easy configuration
375) to interface with other applications, and generally automating all of
376) the difficult and confusing steps inside Tor. We've got a start on this
377) with the <a href="<page gui/index>">GUI Contest</a>, but much more work
378) remains &mdash; usability for privacy software has never been easy.
379) </li>
380) 
381) <li>
382) Incentives: We need to work on ways to encourage people to configure
383) their Tors as relays and exit nodes rather than just clients.
384) <a href="#EverybodyARelay">We need to make it easy to become a relay,
385) and we need to give people incentives to do it.</a>
386) </li>
387) 
388) <li>
389) Research: The anonymous communications field is full
390) of surprises and gotchas. In our copious free time, we
391) also help run top anonymity and privacy conferences like <a
392) href="http://petsymposium.org/">PETS</a>. We've identified a set of
393) critical <a href="<page volunteer>#Research">Tor research questions</a>
394) that will help us figure out how to make Tor secure against the variety of
395) attacks out there. Of course, there are more research questions waiting
396) behind these.
397) </li>
398) 
399) </ul>
400) 
401) <p>
402) We're continuing to move forward on all of these, but at this rate
403) <a href="#WhySlow">the Tor network is growing faster than the developers
404) can keep up</a>.
405) Now would be an excellent time to add a few more developers to the effort
406) so we can continue to grow the network.
407) </p>
408) 
409) <p>
410) We are also excited about tackling related problems, such as
411) censorship-resistance.
412) </p>
413) 
414) <p>
415) We are proud to have <a href="<page sponsors>">sponsorship and support</a>
416) from the Omidyar Network, the International Broadcasting Bureau, Bell
417) Security Solutions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, several government
418) agencies and research groups, and hundreds of private contributors.
419) </p>
420) 
421) <p>
422) However, this support is not enough to keep Tor abreast of changes in the
423) Internet privacy landscape. Please <a href="<page donate>">donate</a>
424) to the project, or <a href="<page contact>">contact</a> our executive
425) director for information on making grants or major donations.
426) </p>
427) 
428) 
429) <hr />
430) 
431) <a id="question"></a>
432) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#question">Question?</a></h3>

433) 
434)   </div><!-- #main -->

435) 
436) #include <foot.wmi>