Torpark

For those concerned about privacy, Torpark, a free, anonymous Internet browser based on Firefox 1.5 that does not require installation on a desktop, is a godsend. Released by an international group of security experts and human rights workers known as Hacktivismo, Torpark enables you to circumvent content filters and other restrictions imposed on your current Internet access by accessing a randomized, worldwide proxy network that hides your actual IP address. If you are already familiar with Firefox, Torpark should be easy to use, and you'll welcome the included security extensions. But use Torpark's anonymized network sparingly, say, for Internet searches only, then disable it when it's not needed; otherwise, you'll grow frustrated with Torpark's slow-loading Web pages.

Setup and installation
Our installation of Torpark from CNET Download.com was fast and caused no incidents. You cannot launch Torpark while Firefox is up and running; it's either one or the other. You can also launch Torpark from a USB drive, which is how we tested it, allowing use on computers that would not otherwise allow software installations.

The Torpark interface is basically a skinned version of Firefox 1.5 with a few added buttons, although you can change the skin back to the familiar orange Firefox theme if you want. There's the Tor Network button that allows you to enable or disable the anonymized Tor network, presumably for speed issues. Another way to improve speed is to use the Flush Circuit button, which automatically disables then reestablishes an anonymized Tor network.

Unfortunately, we were unable to find our current Firefox bookmarks within Torpark, nor could we import them (we could only import bookmarks from Internet Explorer). Perhaps this will be addressed in a future release.

Features
What's unique about Torpark is not the browser, which includes a few Firefox security extensions, such as Adblock and NoScript, but rather the network behind it. Whenever you log on to the Internet, your ISP assigns you an IP address, which can be recorded by every Web site you visit. Over the Tor server network, all Internet traffic bounces through what are called onion routers--hence the use of an onion as the desktop icon for Torpark--to create distributed, encrypted circuits with ever-changing IP addresses. What that means to you is that Torpark sends your browser's requests through an ad hoc proxy network of servers and routers located around the world, each knowing only where the message came from and where it was sent, but not the entire path of the connection, resulting in an IP address that's different from the one assigned by your ISP.

Sounds bad for law enforcement, right? Well, the bad guys already know how to cloak their Internet traffic, so any concerns that Tor circuits may be aiding criminals is a bit simplistic. Supported by the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) and other privacy rights organizations, Tor circuits are designed to promote free speech, allowing users in countries with oppressive censorship laws to search for alternative information by using IP addresses outside their own country. But use of Tor circuits is not without controversy. Recently, several Tor servers in Germany were seized as part of a child pornography investigation, and many college students, looking to circumvent university controls on downloading copyrighted material, have already discovered Torpark.

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