How do I use Tor as system VPN and cut out some nodes? [closed]

Question

How can I configure Tor as a VPN and use it so that my system automatically connects to Tor and route all traffic through it?

I've found a couple of pieces of freeware, like FreeCap (forcing programs to use Sock server), but it doesn't really do what I want - I am more looking for a global solution to this problem.

I've also tried to powershell this command:

Netsh winhttp set proxy 127.0.0.1:9050

But in Firefox my IP remains the same :(

I think this will only be effective for winupdate and pure http requests.

Is it also possible to cut out nodes? I think 3 nodes max are pretty secure, is that correct?

Answer 1

https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TransparentProxy has instructions for transparently routing all traffic through Tor. But there is no solution for that on Windows as far as I know. I see two easy options. Put Windows behind another *nix computer that transparently proxy all traffic or run Windows emulated on a system that routes all traffic through Tor. You might also want to try https://tails.boum.org/

Reducing the number of nodes is neither easy or supported since it will reduce your anonymity and cause more problems for the volunteers who run the nodes.

Answer 2

Fo the number of middle nodes, the short answer is with the torrc file.

A TOR transparent Proxy is one way you can setup a router which will only connect to TOR. I often have a second router running wifi that is setup to be a TOR transparent proxy for quick complete protection. You can also achieve similar results with VirtualBox, or other virtualization software.

Here is a recent howto: http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-set-up-a-tor-middlebox-routing-all-virtualbox-virtual-machine-traffic-over-the-tor-network

As for Firefox, once you have a TOR router setup, you need to go into the network proxy settings, Preferences>Advanced>Network Tab>Settings. Then add the TOR relay IP/host, i.e., localhost or 127.0.0.1, and the port, i.e., 9050, as a socks host (leave others blank). This should route your web traffic through TOR. To prevent Firefox from doing DNS lookups from localhost enter about:config in the URL text field and double click on the network.proxy.socks_remote_dns to set it to true. Most network capable applications have a proxy feature.

For easy configuration of your TOR router, and if you are new to TOR, try vidalia (GUI configuration app) to setup and configure your TOR router. If you are on Linux, I also recommend proxychains.

I always have a TOR relay running on my network on a different server and I have setup my torrc file to allow machines on the local lan to hit the router. This is nice because then I do not need to run a TOR router on my primary desktops.