Anonymous surfing with Mask Surf

Currently there are quite a few ways to use the Internet anonymously (anonymous surfing on the Internet). Most of these ways are not safe enough or they are not widely known.

Among publicly available technologies, the Tor anonymous network (The Onion Router) provides the highest privacy. This technology is not commonly used as well due to the following reasons:

1. Tor is a noncommercial project supported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation - a nonprofit organization that fights for freedom and against censorship on the Internet. So you will not find many publications about the Tor network in the press or on the Internet. You will not see extensive advertising similar to that used by the well known developers of commercial software. A nonprofit organization does not have enough funds for that. As a result, you will have to spend quite a lot of time finding the necessary information about Tor.


2. The Tor client (the program that redirects your information via encrypted channels of Tor anonymous servers) is difficult to configure and it is controlled from the command line. If you just install it, you will not make your browsing anonymous – you have to carefully configure both the client and each of your programs that you want to be anonymous on the Internet.


3. None of the existing graphical interfaces from third-party developers created for the Tor client is really simple and clear. You will have to carefully read huge manuals and learn principles of anonymous browsing.

That's why we have created Mask Surf. Our aim is to offer the opportunity to use the power of the Tor anonymous technology to a wide range of Internet users without the necessity to perform complicated configuration tasks or read multiple pages of technical manuals. Now you do not have to be an Internet expert in order to protect your private information from public access.

We decided that the maximum effect can be achieved when everyone does their own jobs. Mask Surf provides you with a simple and clear graphical interface. Improving Mask Surf, we are permanently preoccupied with the task of providing you with more comfort and functionality and keeping the program as easy to use as now. At the same time, the developers of Tor, who are professionals in the field of anonymous data transfer over computer networks, improve the technology of anonymous browsing day by day.

Let us see how information is transferred over the Tor network.

After you start the program, the Tor client builds a circuit of 3 random Tor servers. Tor servers are specifically designed for anonymous information transfer. Physically, they are distributed all over the world. Information between them is sent via an encrypted channel.

Each Tor server in this circuit knows only the address of the server it received data from and the address of the server it is to send it to. Thus, even if agencies interested in espionage set up their own Tor server, they will not be able to get information about the sender and the recipient of data at once.

Two fundamental problems of confidential data transfer are solved this way:

1. Your data is protected against being viewed from the outside.
2. It is impossible to ascertain from whom data comes from and to whom it is sent.
3. Nobody will get information about your geographical location. Your IP address, which can be used to trace your country, city and even address, is replaced with the IP address of the last Tor server in the circuit.

A more detailed network overview is available at the official Tor site:
http://tor.eff.org/overview.html.en

The Tor client is distributed free of charge. But you pay for it anyway – if not with your money, than with your time spent on learning how to use the program. So it's up to you to choose. If you still think that several dozens of hours of your time cost less than $20-$40, you can download Tor with the documentation from the official site. But if you want to work easily and with comfort, welcome to the club of Mask Surf users. Before using the program, just watch a short flash tutorial:
http://www.thanksoft.com/tutorials/masksurf/basics.htm