TOR advice needed

[Herbasaurus]

I recently installed TOR and can't get it to work. After days of trying to figure it out I finally installed the TOR button add on for Firefox.

Now i get the following message when I try to use TOR

"Firefox is configured to use a proxy server that is refusing connections.
* Check the proxy settings to make sure that they are correct.
* Contact your network administrator to make sure the proxy server is working."

I finally found the proxy settings in the Options > Advanced but I have no idea what they should be set to. I tried a couple of different things but then nothing happened when I tried to use Firefox - connections would not go through. After panicing that now I had really screwed things up, I checked off no proxy and get back onto the web.

I tried the TOR pages but they are beyond what I can understand so please keep the answer very very simple.

Thank You

 

[cyberwax]

will this help?

http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-web.html.en

and curious about one thing, aint the last node connected to the site non anonymous and when you join the tor network you computer becomes another node that other people use, so in fact someone could be using tor the same time as you and be surfing
child porn via your computer and be blaming you. Or even better be surfing icmag. As you would expect people using proxies to have questionable surfing habits.

 

[BorkBorkBork]

Just scrap what you have, and download THIS TOR BUNDLE

Running the installer simply extracts a Tor Browser folder.

You can keep this folder on your desktop, or even better, on a thumbdrive. No installation required.

Simply run "Start Tor Browser", it launches Tor, connects, then launches a pre-configured and self contained Firefox.

Ez breezy

 

[Herbasaurus]

Thank you BorkBorkBork and Cyberwax

took both of your advice. Redownlaoded the Tor bundle and it still required that I manually configure.

Got it working but it is sloooow. Heard it was slow but didn't think it would be that bad.

Cyberwax, I'm not positive but i don't think others can use my IPaddress as a proxy unless i specifically allow it. Need to get clear on that because as you say, some perv could end up getting me in hassle. Recently heard that a law firm in the UK sent out thousdands of letters claiming people were downloading copyrighted files and demanding a settlement. many didn't know what they were talking about and it turns out fairly easy for someone to use anothers IP address.

I'm not sure what the last node thing is all about. Does that mean the last connection from the proxy to the site or the last connection back to me.

And to think I was told computers would simplify my life.

Thanks again.

 

[BorkBorkBork]

Herb, that sucks, you shouldn't have to do ANY configuration. If you have to go mess with proxy settings or anything else, something is wrong.

Make sure you go to the control panel and REMOVE any installed Tor/Vidalia/Proxy type program. Nothing should be installed related to Tor.

The download I linked you to is self contained, requires no installation, and should not require any configuration at all (even when I'm at work, behind a corporate proxy that I can not surf past without setting up my browser proxy settings, Tor STILL somehow finds a way out without me configuring the proxy!)

And yes, Tor, most of the time, is slow as molasses.

But no way would I post without it. And absolutely no way would I post pics without it.

A lot of the time, you have to wait after initially launching it, it takes a while for the packets to work their way through the network, then it picks up.

Sometimes, if it's just not moving for shit, selecting "New Identity" may speed things up. This changes at least the last node on the network.

Other times, you just gotta sit back and relax. I tend to go to my profile, launch each of my interesting threads in new tabs, then browse the "regular" web in IE for a few minutes while those pages load.

But you do not know pain until you've tried to upload a large photoset to icmag through tor. ugh.

 

[BorkBorkBork]

Herb, that sucks, you shouldn't have to do ANY configuration. If you have to go mess with proxy settings or anything else, something is wrong.

Make sure you go to the control panel and REMOVE any installed Tor/Vidalia/Proxy type program. Nothing should be installed related to Tor.

The download I linked you to is self contained, requires no installation, and should not require any configuration at all (even when I'm at work, behind a corporate proxy that I can not surf past without setting up my browser proxy settings, Tor STILL somehow finds a way out without me configuring the proxy!)

And yes, Tor, most of the time, is slow as molasses.

But no way would I post without it. And absolutely no way would I post pics without it.

A lot of the time, you have to wait after initially launching it, it takes a while for the packets to work their way through the network, then it picks up.

Sometimes, if it's just not moving for shit, selecting "New Identity" may speed things up. This changes at least the last node on the network.

Other times, you just gotta sit back and relax. I tend to go to my profile, launch each of my interesting threads in new tabs, then browse the "regular" web in IE for a few minutes while those pages load.

But you do not know pain until you've tried to upload a large photoset to icmag through tor. Ugh!