OK, but, is Flash installed on your PC ?

lol, sure, every day I'm watching on videos and working on websites with require java or flash. I'm working with flash dude

I guess then this is issue with browser for you. I'm not sure in your case. But it is working for us. I even tried opening java based site "processing.org" to check if it works with torpark. And i didn't find any issues. It was opening it without any problem. ISP issue with torpark perhaps ? Not sure about this.

I am going to look into Hidemyass once I get home. I’m not very certain of the VPN aspect of the service because I am used to using a SSH connection. From my understanding, a VPN is all or nothing. You can’t surf in Internet Explorer on your ISP connection and surf in Firefox with the VPN at the same time. This may be a problem as I would like to only use the proxy for certain applications (P2P) and then leave everything else, such as web browsing and IM, open to my regular connection.

I already use Tor but it has very limited bandwidth and is completely useless with P2P.

I would like to make a correction to yordan.



The whole purpose of Tor is to make the connections between the Tor nodes anonymous. Running straight HTTP will not show any personally identifiable information except for perhaps a few HTTP headers. In most cases, the Tor software will actually chance the HTTP headers to a standard format such as IE version 6. The danger with Tor is JavaScript, DNS and perhaps Flash.

JavaScript is a problem because it can run arbitrary code on your computer which can sidestep any Tor protection. As an example, a website can embed JavaScript which makes its own connection or sends the real IP back to the server. This is fixed by turning off all scripting in your browser. I recommend No Script (http://noscript.net/) for Firefox which you should use even if you don’t use Tor. The second problem is DNS because the DNS request usually goes to your ISP’s DNS servers. If an attacker is listening to your traffic at the ISP level, they cannot see the traffic but they can see the DNS request. This is fixed by using Torbutton for Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275) which is included in the Vidalia bundle.

If you really lock down your browser and take the appropriate precautions, Tor is completely anonymous. The downside is that you shouldn’t expect to get anywhere fast and any site that has scripting and Flash may not work.

Agree that it is not usable for p2p. Speed maybe low for some sites. Especially sites that take too much of resources (flash/java/silverlight). Don't know why tor is not working with flash/java site for one of member here. Coming back to topic, which service you selected for anonymous browsing ?

One of the main parts to Tor are exit nodes. This is the point at which your data is decrypted to a useable form and the request is made to the Internet. This is also the point that the content server (web server for example) sees the IP address the request is coming from. Since the exit node can see all of your information (but still not the original sender), they can filter what they want. The exit node may run its own surfing filter to get rid of p0rn or filter flash to keep the bandwidth down.

Running an exit node is tricky business because you get blamed for all the content coming from your IP and the bandwidth is huge. I hear news stories all the time about an exit node owner getting raided for any number of illegal activities. This is why many exit nodes are run by universities and large organizations. It has been speculated that almost half of tor exit nodes are actually run by governments (NSA, former KGB) for intelligence gathering.

In short, it may just be the exit node filtering flash. To make sure, switch to a different exit node. In the Vidalia bundle, open the user panel and click switch identity.