5 ms·

I'm curious: how do they block Tor users? I don't know much about Tor, but I thought that the whole point was that one Tor user should be indistinguishable from

I'm curious: how do they block Tor users? I don't know much about Tor, but I thought that the whole point was that one Tor user should be indistinguishable from another and that they all should be indistinguishable from "normal" users.

runn1ng 15y ago
It is indisguishable in a sense that all Tor users share the same exit nodes, so you don't know who that was. However, list of exit nodes is available online and a lot of of sites auto-block it, because abusers like to use Tor.
ofashenaw8w3 15y ago
edit: see below Tor isn't indistinguishable from normal use, that's a big reason why they want as many people using it for everyday browsing as possible. They are trying as much as possible to minimize the distinctiveness, currently making it very similar to https traffic, and with Obfsproxy recently introduced. So they can know that you are using Tor if they try hard enough, but not what you are doing with it, which is the important part. edit: The previous comment was about what a state can determine about you. Websites can just download the list of exit nodes and block access from those IPs.
- CodeMage 15y ago
  Ah, so that's where I was wrong: I thought everyone would be an exit node, too. Thanks for clearing it up!
  - 98t9w3ha 15y ago
    Everyone could be if they wanted, but obviously it makes it look like someone else's traffic came from your home, so only a good idea if you're prepared for dealing with any complaints that could arise from that.
drostie 15y ago
This is actually something which the infographic gets wrong as well. At the very least the sysadmin at Site.com should have the line "Tor" when you're using Tor, and probably also the Lawyer and the Police (assuming that the sysadmin logs IP addresses for requests, which is not too uncommon).

5 ms·

I'm curious: how do they block Tor users? I don't know much about Tor, but I thought that the whole point was that one Tor user should be indistinguishable from

by CodeMage 15y ago

runn1ng 15y ago
It is indisguishable in a sense that all Tor users share the same exit nodes, so you don't know who that was. However, list of exit nodes is available online and a lot of of sites auto-block it, because abusers like to use Tor.
ofashenaw8w3 15y ago
edit: see below Tor isn't indistinguishable from normal use, that's a big reason why they want as many people using it for everyday browsing as possible. They are trying as much as possible to minimize the distinctiveness, currently making it very similar to https traffic, and with Obfsproxy recently introduced. So they can know that you are using Tor if they try hard enough, but not what you are doing with it, which is the important part. edit: The previous comment was about what a state can determine about you. Websites can just download the list of exit nodes and block access from those IPs.
- CodeMage 15y ago
  Ah, so that's where I was wrong: I thought everyone would be an exit node, too. Thanks for clearing it up!
  - 98t9w3ha 15y ago
    Everyone could be if they wanted, but obviously it makes it look like someone else's traffic came from your home, so only a good idea if you're prepared for dealing with any complaints that could arise from that.
drostie 15y ago
This is actually something which the infographic gets wrong as well. At the very least the sysadmin at Site.com should have the line "Tor" when you're using Tor, and probably also the Lawyer and the Police (assuming that the sysadmin logs IP addresses for requests, which is not too uncommon).