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Revision as of 19:03, 13 December 2004 by 70.57.97.102 (talk) (add link for homepage)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Tor: an anonymous Internet communication system is a second generation Onion Routing network that allows people to communicate anonymously. Tor can be used as an outproxy to the regular Internet, or hidden services can be accessed inside the Tor network.
In outproxy mode, traffic on Tor is bounced around a centralized set of onion routing servers before leaving the Tor network and entering the regular Internet. This allows end users to access TCP services such as Web browsing, IRC, SSH, and instant messaging while maintaining their anonymity.
Hidden services on Tor allow servers to expose publically accessible locations while remaining anonymous. These locations are similar to an IP address, but instead use a cryptographic public key as a means of addressing. This allows Internet users to overcome government censorship laws, among other uses.
The Tor source code is published under a DFSG free license, and as of June 2004, there are about 20 publicly accessible onion routers.
See also:
- Onion Routing. See the Tor section for improvements of Tor over the original Onion Routing design.
- Anonymous P2P
- I2P - A similar anonymous communication system that is designed as less of an outproxy network and more as a replacement for the conventional Internet.