Is a great boost to your anonimity when using Tor. Few downsides, lots of advantages.
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@@ -18,16 +18,16 @@ It's used either by clients only, or by Tor Onion servers and other Tor Onion se
These instructions and in greater part generally for Linux, and in minor part they are Debian/Ubuntu/... specific. Only minor changes for other distros are needed in some aspects below.
/your-chosen-dir/ can be /home/you/your-git-cloned-repos/ or somewhere else where you have privs as regular user.
{{{
```
$ cd /your-chosen-dir/
}}}
```
We'll get the repo with Tor, see: [https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/SupportPrograms/git Git]
We'll get the repo with Tor, see: [Git](https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/SupportPrograms/git)
(of course you can as well run "git clone" instead of "t_git clone" above, in clear non-anonymous deep web, not in dark web)
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@@ -36,27 +36,27 @@ First, you need to have stem package installed. The instructions below for Vangu
Also, there are other ways to install Vanguards, f.e. there is vanguards package in Debian/Ubuntu/... but I'll restrict myself to installing and then using Vanguards from source. One of the reasons, there is no --correct me if I'm wrong-- vanguards package for Tor Browser Bundle, and the Debian vanguards package is all set for the Debian System Tor (but do correct me if I'm wrong).
Another reason is the main authors writes:
{{{
```
$ grep -A1 -r safes vanguards/
vanguards/README.md:There are several ways to use this addon. At the moment, the safest is to run
Keep the sources in /your-chosen-dir/vanguards/, you may like to use them for TorBrowser as well, to install a separate vanguards install for TorBrowser too, later.
Debian stock Tor runs as user debian-tor. So you need to:
Because vanguards is written in Python, is made of python libraries, and while it is true that Debian stock Tor default and optional configuration (for an aditional Tor instance) are just fine in /usr/share/tor/, those are just config files (and geoip, if you install them), not libraries.
And python libraries are in /usr/lib . List those, you'll likely have a similar output:
{{{
```
# ls -1trd /usr/lib/python*
/usr/lib/python3
/usr/lib/python2.6
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@@ -94,13 +94,13 @@ And python libraries are in /usr/lib . List those, you'll likely have a similar
/usr/lib/python3.7
/usr/lib/python3.6
/usr/lib/python2.7
}}}
```
So /usr/lib/ is the most appropriate place. However, if you prefer, install them elsewhere, and modify these instructions accordingly.
Important: in case for some reason you need/decide you don't need/don't want it anymore, all you need to do to uninstall it is:
{{{
```
# rm -rf /usr/lib/vanguards/
}}}
```
Next, study the README's. These instructions are by no means a substitute for those, as well as the links given at top.
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@@ -109,13 +109,13 @@ They are very instructive. Vanguards is pretty much a completed program, its dev
You need to run the vanguards install for your System Tor like this (users of other Linuces need to modify here, of course) as user debian-tor.
Before you run vanguards, make sure the system Tor is running. Vanguards is just its Add-On.
{{{
```
# service tor status
[ ok ] tor is running.
}}}
```
You can then start vanguards by sudo'ing and as root running:
--disable_rendguard Disable rendezvous misuse checks (may help
performance)
--enable_cbtverify Enable Circuit Build Time monitoring
}}}
```
But that wasn't actually running it. I lied to you. For running vanguards in a client, you do need to first look with some attention to the --help that issued command can provide to you, so don't be angry at me :) .
Of the above, lots of those are for advanced configurations. and for services. If you are running just a client, this is a suggested way you can do it.
{{{
```
# cd /home/you
}}}
```
(or elsewhere, just know where your logs will be written to)
Now run (this is just one possible way you can do it):
$ ls -l /home/you/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/TorBrowser/vanguards/
total 124
-rw-r--r-- 1 you you 1989 2018-11-15 22:09 CHANGES.rst
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@@ -227,58 +227,58 @@ drwxr-xr-x 2 you you 4096 2018-11-15 22:09 tests
-rw-r--r-- 1 you you 870 2018-11-14 14:45 tox-systemonly.ini
-rw-r--r-- 1 you you 2002 2018-11-14 14:45 vanguards.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 you you 4279 2018-11-15 22:09 vanguards-example.conf
}}}
```
{{{
```
$ cd /home/you/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Tor/
}}}
```
You can edit the torrc file that is empty in vanilla Tor Browser Bundle install, if you know what you are doing... "man tor" is a long time reference for accomplished tor users :) .
"9151" is necessary. "9051" is the Debian default control port, so it's occupied. Of course, all can be configured differently, if you, say, know that you need to.
meaning that you successfully sent the running Vanguards to background. It won't be logging anywhere but in the logfile you gave it, and it could appear to you it wasn't running. Nope. It is running, if you correctly followed the instructions, and I didn't mess anything up.
And you can run:
{{{
```
$ tail -f vanguards.log
}}}
```
to read the log messages as they are being written.
== Concluding Notes ==
## Concluding Notes
What you get with Vanguards, is, and this is from the long time regular reference of any wanna-be accomplished Tor user:
{{{
```
C - G - L2 - L3 - Rend
C - G - L2 - L3 - M - HSDir
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@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@ What you get with Vanguards, is, and this is from the long time regular referenc
S - G - L2 - L3 - HSDir
S - G - L2 - L3 - Intro
}}}
```
But please read about that yourself there.
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@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ With vanguards you get a very much boosted anonymity, in case you don't make mis
And read the very useful links in Mike Perry's repo's README's, as well as: by no means allow yourself to skip the testimony of a leaked info how 3-hops only regular, non-vanguards-boosted Tor circuits can get sometimes even easily deanonymized (only 3 hops is the vanilla Tor, while Vanguards gives you 4 and 5 hops) in the link given at top, somewhere around here:
[https://blog.torproject.org/comment/276231#comment-276231 Announcing the Vanguards Add-On for Onion Services | Tor Blog]
[Announcing the Vanguards Add-On for Onion Services | Tor Blog](https://blog.torproject.org/comment/276231#comment-276231)
(but wasn't there more that it is now on it there? I remember some of the contributors there spoke of some leaker, that was the word... who reported to him how the big companies deanonymize Tor when the hops are too few... But maybe I misremembered...)
Some downsides to using Vanguards exist too, and Mike Perry wrote about those in his README's --it's you are being recognizable as Vanguards user, because of your using of, usually, two Entry nodes, regular Tor uses only one--, but they will all be neutralized once Vanguards is hopefully fully integrated in Tor. Till then, use Vanguards in simple ways described in this Howto. Because the advantages far outsurpass the downsides.
