As Designed Thank you for allowing Tor users!

[ourkansaw]

This isn't so much a question as some positive feedback. I use Tor for my cannabis-related browsing (for obvious privacy reasons), and there are some cannabis forums that use anti-spam filtering on IP addresses, which almost always also blocks Tor users.

So this is just a thank you for not blocking Tor users, and a request that you don't start doing so in the name of preventing spam! If there's any type of forum where Tor use is most justifiable, this is probably it, right?

 

[TECK]

We do what we can to make everyone happy, we will never block Tor users. :)
On top of that we have top of the line SSL installed, so feel free to access the site directly.
We also make sure that all external images are blocked, so nobody could trace your IP.

 

[ourkansaw]

Thank you for keeping our privacy in mind! For me, Tor is mostly about preventing my ISP from even knowing what sites I visit. As I understand it, SSL only prevents them from knowing what I'm saying on those sites, but not the IPs of the sites I visit.

 

[TECK]

From what I read, with the elliptic curve ciphers they cannot even get the traffic stats. That's probably why Google switched to this type of encryption.

 

[outwest]

Yep, google even prevents users of their tools (like analytics) from seeing certain types of data, like inbound keywords. This happened last year when they applied the same SSL used by the farm to all of their search requests.

outwest

 

[ourkansaw]

Nevertheless, using SSL, the ISP can still monitor which IP addresses you're connecting to, since you have to use a DNS server to resolve domain names (like thcfarmer.com) into IP addresses. When I type "https://www.thcfarmer.com/" into my browser, my browser asks my ISP to locate the IP address associated with that domain name. Then, I contact the server securely and my ISP cannot monitor anything else (such as which pages I visit on that server or what posts I submit, etc.). But the first step is still requesting that your ISP initiate that connection.

By using Tor, that step is eliminated. My request for thcfarmer.com is routed through multiple layers of encryption (and multiple Tor nodes) before it even reaches the stage of requesting to resolve the domain name into an IP address, and it's the Tor exit node that makes that request on my behalf.

However, that being said, Tor is extremely insecure if SSL is not also being used, since the Tor exit node can read all your packets unless they are encrypted using something like SSL. So even if the exit node cannot identify my IP address, it would be able to harvest my passwords or any sensitive information I send using Tor.

 

[TECK]

Nevertheless, using SSL, the ISP can still monitor which IP addresses you're connecting to, since you have to use a DNS server to resolve domain names (like thcfarmer.com) into IP addresses.

You could use instead the Google forwarders (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), to bypass your ISP checkup. Google it to see how you can set it in your computer.

 

[outwest]

You could use instead the Google forwarders (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4), to bypass your ISP checkup. Google it to see how you can set it in your computer.

Exactly. Using Google for DNS bypasses your ISP. There are also tons of proxy and vpn services you can use.

outwest

 

[TECK]

There are also tons of proxy and vpn services you can use.

No need for a proxy or VPN, you are behind SSL. :)

 

[ImNorml]

Pretty exclusive this site uses TOR, very thankful even though I'm not a user of it (for this... heh)