Anonymity, Tor, Peer Guardian, and Freenet's Limitations?

[MechanicalApe]

Hi All,

I recently added the Tor add-on to my Firefox browser and am really curious as to the limitations, and problems with using Tor and if there are any better alternatives to help me stay anonymous on the web?

Also, after reading this article (link), I downloaded Peer Guardian to aid in anonymity with P2P sharing.

Additionally, who uses Freenet? Pros and cons?

What programs do you use?
Advice for anonymity?

Thanks!

[cilpolir]

I also have TOR, but to be honest i almost never have it turned on.
why not? because it's really slow....
besides that i don't think there are more saver programms to hide your real IP than TOR(except for private proxies,but they're expensive most of the time).never heard about peer guardian before so can't give my opion 'bout that

[insomaniacal]

The only limitation that Peer-Guardian has is that it only blocks known computers from anti-p2p and Government computers. It's probably more than enough to keep you hidden from most of the systems they have that randomly try to gather information on p2p users, but probably won't help you if they targeted your system specifically.

As for TOR, it's just about the most anonymous you can get while being on the internet. Freenet may be more anonymous, but that's a totally different topic.

[Muskelmann098]

Tor i very anonymous and it's almost impossible to trace anything back to you. It uses encryption between the different nodes so that even if there is one node that tries to collect information, it is encrypted, and can't be traced back. I have never used Peer Guardian, but you can route applications like Skype, MSN, and many others through the Tor proxy.

By the way, what would you guys recommend between Tor and Freenet? Sorry, not meaning to hijack the thread, but since it is relevant to the OP, the question should be raised.

[insomaniacal]

Tor and Freenet are two totally different things.

Tor is meant to let you browse the Internet totally anonymously, while Freenet is a totally separate network from the internet. You can't access information on the internet through Freenet, and vice-versa. If you configure everything correctly, I'd say that Freenet is more anonymous than Tor, but Tor is pretty much fool-proof as it is. I only wish that it was a bit faster

[Muskelmann098]

^^^ Thanks for that Insomaniacal, a slight misunderstanding from my side then.

[MechanicalApe]

You can't access information on the internet through Freenet, and vice-versa.

So, there is no cross-over whatsoever?

[insomaniacal]

Well, technically, you need an internet connection to browse FreeNet, but it uses a different protocol, so you can't access things on FreeNet just by typing in a standard URL into your browser.

So basically you're correct, there isn't any crossover between the two.