Tor browser is a Firefox-based web browser that connects to the Tor networks, increasing our privacy while we browse the Internet. This is especially useful if you are in a country with a lot of censorship or if you are concerned about your safety while surfing.

When we refer to security and privacy, we mean that ISPs collect data from our browsing and we don’t know what they do with it. Besides this, you can avoid tracking and similar things.

Installing Tor Browser on Ubuntu 20.04 is not as complicated as it seems, but it can help us on more than one occasion. This is the goal of this tutorial.

So, let’s get started.

Install Tor Browser on Ubuntu 20.04

The Tor Browser has a launcher that will help us set up Tor correctly. Remember that Tor is not just any browser and you need some parameters to make it work, but thanks to this launcher everything is transparent.

To install it, just run the following command:

sudo apt install torbrowser-launcher
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
libdouble-conversion3 libpcre2-16-0 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 libqt5designer5 libqt5gui5 libqt5help5 libqt5network5 libqt5printsupport5
libqt5sql5 libqt5sql5-sqlite libqt5svg5 libqt5test5 libqt5widgets5 libqt5xml5 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-xinput0 python3-gpg python3-pyqt5
python3-sip python3-socks qt5-gtk-platformtheme qttranslations5-l10n tor tor-geoipdb torsocks
Suggested packages:
qt5-image-formats-plugins qtwayland5 python3-pyqt5-dbg mixmaster socat tor-arm apparmor-utils obfs4proxy
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libdouble-conversion3 libpcre2-16-0 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 libqt5designer5 libqt5gui5 libqt5help5 libqt5network5 libqt5printsupport5
libqt5sql5 libqt5sql5-sqlite libqt5svg5 libqt5test5 libqt5widgets5 libqt5xml5 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-xinput0 python3-gpg python3-pyqt5
python3-sip python3-socks qt5-gtk-platformtheme qttranslations5-l10n tor tor-geoipdb torbrowser-launcher torsocks
0 upgraded, 27 newly installed, 0 to remove and 484 not upgraded.
Need to get 18.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 84.3 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Once you enter your password the process will start and you will be able to run it from the main menu.

Once you open it, you will see a small screen where you can see that Tor Browser is not yet installed.

So, choose a mirror and click on Install Tor Browser

There you will start the process of downloading and checking the program.

Once you run it, click on the Connect button and wait for the settings to be made. In case you live in a country with censorship you can choose Configure and configure the networks yourself.

In my case, I choose Connect. Just wait a while and Tor Browser will be launched.

This method is quite simple and you don’t have any losses, but the package is not always updated. This can lead to some instabilities and security breaches you may not have available.

For that reason, there is another even more secure method and that is through Flatpak.

Alternative method: using flatpak

In Ubuntu 20.04 Flatpak is not available out-the-box but we can always install it with the following command:

sudo apt install flatpak

So quickly, we already have flatpak installed, now we just need to run it:

flatpak install flathub com.github.micahflee.torbrowser-launcher

To start the whole installation process.

After it finishes, you can run it from the main menu or by running the following command:

flatpak run com.github.micahflee.torbrowser-launcher

And proceed as before.

Conclusion

Thanks to the open-source we have an application that can be very important in difficult situations and to jump over the censorship. But not only that, but it also helps in privacy issues. And so you can have a little more security when surfing the Internet.

So, share this post and join our Telegram channel and our Facebook page. Also, buy us a coffee 😉

Tor browser website

The post How to install Tor Browser on Ubuntu 20.04? appeared first on Linux Windows and android Tutorials.

Websites ending with “.onion” aren’t normal websites. These domains use Tor hidden services and a part of the “deep web”.

What is deep web?

Let’s talk about the deep web on short. All the websites on the web – Facebook, Twitter, Nasa, CNET etc. – all make up the internet we know about. However, there are a lot more things that aren’t accessible through the normal search engines. That side of the WWW (World Wide Web) is called the deep web. The characteristics of this part are quite similar to the normal internet – emails, chat messages, social media sites, electronic banks etc.

These websites aren’t indexed by search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing or DuckDuckGo. These parts are visible by the normal internet. However, search engines do not crawl into these places. Experts estimate that the deep web consists about 90% (even 99%) of the entire internet. They are only accessible via Tor network.

How Tor network works

When you access, say, https://www.google.com, your request is bounced from one Tor relay to another Tor relay, until it reaches an exit node – a computer that sends the request to Google. Google catches the request, sends data accordingly. The return is again bounced in a long road of one Tor relay to another until it reaches you.

The entire data exchange on the road is encrypted so that no monitoring system can check the data. Moreover, Google only saw the end-point IP address, not yours. Thus, you’re browsing the internet with absolute anonymity. Tor hidden service is a server that’s only accessible to Tor network users. Thus, someone hosting a website can hide it from the surface web and no one can find it – in theory.

Deep web websites

Before we go deep into this section, I strongly recommend exercising caution. Some websites are really nasty and full of scams. We recommend you to stay out of browsing “.onion” websites unless you have A REALLY GOOD REASON. The websites are accessible by “the onion router”.

It’s an anonymizing computer network. It’s funded partially by the US government and designed for countries where internet access is banned or monitored. When you connect to the Tor network, only then you’re allowed to visit these sites. For example, Facebook has got its own “.onion” portal – https://facebookcorewwwi.onion. This is very useful if you’re in a country where Facebook’s banned.

How to access deep web sites?

In order to access, you need to configure Tor network and Tor browser in your system. Tor Browser is a modified version of Firefox that’s designed to connect Tor network.

Download the Tor Browser. It’s available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. For Android devices, use their official Orbot: Proxy with Tor or Orfox: Tor Browser for Android. Unfortunately, there’s no official app for iOS.

After installing the Tor browser on your system, type the “.onion” address on the address bar. Let’s say, we’re going to Facebook via Tor.

1. Enter the address: https://facebookcorewwwi.onion/
2. Hit “Enter”.

Done! Very simple, right?

Don’t use proxies like Tor2Web

There’re several proxies that will let you connect with Tor network via their own VPN. It’s strongly not recommended. If you’re concerned about your privacy, this is a big “NO, NO”.

The reason for using Tor network is anonymity. Tor directly anonymizes your identity through their network system. When using the proxy, they’re easily able to tap into your data. Tor won’t be able to protect your anonymity in such condition.

Exercise caution!!!!

Tor is a good media for hiding your identity on the web. Hiding your identity isn’t illegal. However, beware that many “.onion” websites are really nasty and a lot of them are scams. This technique is good if you need to visit specific “.onion” site.

For normal users like you and me, “.onion” websites are of no use. Until you know what you’re doing, it’s the best to stay away from them.

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