How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

There has been a lot of talk about leaking your ip via javascript and other web languages/tools (flash, and so on.) Because of that I thought I would share with you one method that the more security aware people have been using lately.

The basic idea is this:

1) setup virtual machine
2) secure virtual machine
3) setup vpn connection. (yes you have to purchase this part)
4) usage guidelines.


First things first, you need to purchase a vpn service. I personally prefer http://www.perfect-privacy.com, but many others use SwissVPN - Surf the safer way!. You will of course want to purchase these anonymously. To do that you need to use a prepaid credit card to setup an anonymous paypal account.

Instructions for setting up an anonymous paypal.

1. You can go to just about any store and buy a pre-paid VISA card for various amounts. CVS and many other pharmacy style stores will have them.

2. Create a new email address, there are several websites that also specialize in temporary addresses. Clear your cookies if you've ever used the email site your going to use before. Use tor and register a new email.

3. Create an account on paypal using a made up name, address, etc using this new email address, and linking your prepaid CC as your primary form of payment. You will want to do this via tor as well. I will stress again that if you have used paypal before in the browser you are currently using you should clear your cookies before you do this.

4. Paypal will make a few transactions that you will need to verify. The giftcard will have a website address on it that you can use to view transaction information. Once these paypal charges arrive, verify your paypal account. Visit the prepaid site via tor as well.

5. You are now the owner of an Anonymous paypal account linked to that prepaid card.


So now you have an anonymous paypal account to purchase your vpn connection with. Go to swissvpn or perfect-privacy (or one of 20 others,) and get yourself setup. I know I shouldnt have to say it again, but use tor or some other proxy here too. If you go to swissvpn you will get an account setup nearly instantly. Perfect-privacy might take a day. Even with that I prefer it over swissvpn because of its other features (socks5, squid proxies, ssh tunneling, and more.)

The next step is getting your virtual machine setup. I recommend using VirtualBox. Its free and works great on windows, linux and mac. You can also download the user manual here. It should help you understand what your doing. There are many tutorials out there as well, this one is great (right click and save as.) You can search for other tutorials if you need more help. Or of course you can ask questions in this thread.

Once you have VirtualBox installed and working you need to install Windows XP in it. If you dont know how to obtain a copy of windows xp pro that is genuine then you probably shouldnt be reading this thread. So get a good copy of XP pro. Get it installed. Once the install is done get it updated. Make sure you do all the security updates. First thing is to make sure you get service pack 3 installed. After thats installed make sure to head on over to microsoft update and do the rest of the updates to your system. Once its completely up to date you need to install a good antivirus/antispyware tool. If you really dont trust your technical ability just go get AVG Free. If you actually think you can handle a proper security system that does a much better job but asks you more technical questions when it has to, then go get Blink Personal. Next up you will want to get Peer Guardian 2 installed and configured. It isnt just for anti-p2p efforts. Add in the standard lists that they have (all the bluetack ones.) Then go to this post from usenet and look at the 5th post down, you will see a nice list that you need to add (its scientology ips.)

Now I would get Firefox installed. After its up and running you will want to add some extensions: AdBlock Plus, NoScript, and FoxyProxy (you can add any others you want.) If you go with a service like perfect-privacy you can setup all the squid proxies in FoxyProxy and switch easily. Open op firefox and go to the edit->preferences menu. Click on the Privacy icon and make sure you check off the checkbox for clearing your data when you close firefox.

With your virtual machine running and secured you will want to setup your vpn connection. If you went with either of the services I mentioned they both have very simple tools you can download and install to do this. They also provide how-tos on getting it running.

In the end here you have a secure virtual machine with an anonymous vpn. If you go with perfect-privacy make sure to use the OpenVPN connections and not the PPTP. OpenVPN is much more secure than microsofts PPTP.

Using the virtual machine is real simple. Start the virtual machine, startup the vpn connection, begin using. Dont ever use accounts from any of your normal machines on it. Dont ever use accounts you have created and used in the virtual machine on any other computers. Keep them separate. Your virtual machine is a different person and should stay that way. NEVER log in to sites that have your personal information with this virtual machine and a login that namefags you. And here is the big one: never allow applications that make connections to the internet to auto-start with windows in the virtual machine. This means they will be connecting with your real ip, not through the VPN since it hasnt started yet. Whenever you are logging out/closing the virtual machine us a tool like ccleaner to clear away every temp file and trace of history on the system that it can before shutdown.


Questions?

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

no, thank you for breaking it down real fine

actually one, how do you get a copy of windows xp pro?

=D

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

For you, just buy it on Amazon.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Professional-Full-Version/dp/B00022PTI4]Amazon.com: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Full Version with SP2: Software[/ame]

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

:3

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

Why bother with acquiring (legal or not) XP when you can throw Ubuntu on your VM for free?

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

If you feel comfortable going with Ubuntu and using the OpenVPN tools in linux, then do it that way.

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

fixed

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

Haven't used the OpenVPN, was just suggesting Ubuntu as an alternative for CBB and others as an alternative to XP + patching.

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

It is an alternative and it works good. Using the built in VPN stuff from their NetworkManager doesnt seem to go so well, but you can do it all from the commandline using the OpenVPN client.

re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

There is a free VPN service - Hotspot Shield (Anchorfree.com), which also repackages OpenVPN. It's ad supported. You can get rid of the banner by using a free encrypted proxy on top - HS Shield can't insert banner on encrypted web pages (I'm doing it now and most of the time). It only supports Windows.

The alternative to VM is to scavenge for a wifi-box/router/firewall. A networked computer in a LAN knows only it's internal IP, and has no business to ask it's neighbor for their external IP's (but don't bet your life on it).

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

Can anybody recommend a vendor or method of obtaining an anonymous prepaid visa within the UK plz?

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

I know that this is old tech, but sdf.lonestar.org still runs unix shell accounts.

For those of you with Win Vista/Win7, you can use a free old school tool, called 'Putty' to telnet to it.

The unix shell has a free text site browser called 'lynx', so if you're not visiting the site (CoS) for the pretty pictures, it would be a useful, anonymous tool.

The unix shell account comes with an email account, as well.

...just a tid-bit for you: You can use SSH to remote to sdf, after you setup your account, then use lynx to go to the Co$ site or related site

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

ITT: hackers on steroids!

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

Introducing Freedom Eagle Cash Card Prepaid MasterCard, Load with cash use like a credit card and you'll be guaranteed approval

This costs a tenner to buy, and requires £25.00 as a minimum top up.

You can top it up at any PayPoint machine (available in most newsagents)

You can buy them online, but for our purposes (protection against a litigious cult), I'd recommend obtaining it from one of the numerous newsagents and post offices that stock them nationwide.

To locate one near you, go to Store locator

The PAYGo default option is probably the best for us, as there's no ongoing monthly charge. It's also not really extortianate to use, and is one of the few prepaid Credit Cards that provides the same Consumer Protection cover as a "real" CCard.

DO NOT GO TO FREEDOMCARD.CO.UK, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME COMPANY. (The real site has a the hyphen between the words "freedom" and "card" in the URL.

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

Not TLR, read the whole damn thing.

As stated, buy one from a legitimate sauce.

Here's a couple of pointers that should help you though: say you want to buy a copy of Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 - VL (x86) - CD (English) for your business.

[VL stands for Volume License, these allow you to install unlimited copies on your business' machines]

To stop dangerous copies being distributed, Microsoft publishes the Hashcodes for many of their products, e.g. e.g. here.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people selling pirated/and/or "rejigged" versions (rejigged as in filled to the gills with trojans). So, to verify that you've not bought one of these, click on it's Details button. For the example listed above, you'll find that the SHA1: is 66AC289AE27724C5AE17139227CBE78C01EEFE40

You can then use HASHCalc (or similar) to compare the copy you have adn confirm that it's 100% genuine, (Download.com seems to be partially down atm, otherwise I'd post a link to HashCalc)

Unfortunately this is also abused by pirate scum, who instead take the Hashcode, and search for it using forum search engine tools, that look for Megaupload, Rapidshare, and uploads to all the other sites; alternatively they may use Google, or even for those foolish enough to use torrents, sites such as isoHunt : the BitTorrent and P2P search engine or Torrent Search - ScrapeTorrent.com whatever...spoiling it for the rest of us that actually have to pay for this stuff.

Worse still, sites like Smart Serials The Ultimate Resource of Free Serials, instead of being full of malware and crap like most serial sites, allow them to obtain genuine license keys, volume license keys, and allsorts. It makes your brain boil.

I've even seen keys that I know to be genuine posted in the comments of web pages offering genuine MS Products. Unbelievable.

Don't get me wrong, Microsoft have their faults, but they don't deserve this.

Anyway, hope this helps you ensure that you don't get tricked by some shyster trying to palm you off with an illegal version of Windows.

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

If you're a college student, and you need free M$ products, try: https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx

I'm running Server 2008, WinXP Pro and Win7 at home... ...if you *can* sign up for the dreamspark program, you can buy Win7 for like 40 bux and other M$ products at extremely discounted prices; compared to normal retail or the danger of downloading warez... I mean, if you're gonna d/l warez to get XP to run... ...you might as well be getting *nix.

These are safer, genuine, alternatives - if you're a broke collegiate.

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

F

I totally agree with you. This is what's so infuriating: as the poster above you pointed out, the smarter Individuals are not downloading warez at all. They're downloading GENUINE Microsoft products, and they know that this is the case because they search for downloads featuring the hashcode that Microsoft themselves have published. Once they 've downloaded it, they cross check the hashcode (in this case SHA1), and when it matches MS's, they know that it's as untouched as a Nun. It's not just indistinguishable, it's identical in every meaningful sense.

Read what he/she says: it's scary. They end up with a 100% bona fide MS validated copy, They 're not downloading some script kiddy's botnet building infected OS's, or malware free, but hacked copies that need "cat and mouse" patching each time MS brings out their latest validation tools. This is the same as,the copy you and I pay for.

Maybe shooting's too harsh for these types, but something should be done.

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

I would suggest you to think twice before you send your money to these guys.
I've subscribed for them in less than two hours from the time of writing this comment.
I was using another VPN provider and put my French email while signing up for the service (I love my email address ending in .fr).
I am living in Bulgaria and my VISA is registered in Bulgaria.
My first payment was rejected because I had insufficient money to pay for two months of VPN service. Well, I paid for one month.

In less than an hour I got disconnected and my user login information has been rejected. I mailed back SwissVPN customer support and they told me that my money had been refund because of « discrepancy between the information you have entered and your registered card details ».
I mailed them back with a copy of my VISA Electron and my EU ID card. In a few minutes I had another reply that it was a mistake and they flagged my payment because of « French mailaddress, purchase in Luxembourg, usage in Bulgaria, first purchase attempt denied, second with lower amount passed ».

Be aware while sending your money to these guys, as they will probably not trust you and flag your account if you subscribe using email address hosted in France, while being connected from VPN server based in Luxembourg.

Re: How To: Increase your anonymity using a VM and VPN.

Hi Bulgaria. Will you stay with us and tell us what (if anything) is going on with Scientology or its front groups in your country?

Thank you about sharing this with us, I know about all of these anonymity techniques

The best VPN services of course paid, but some free not so bad, I use https://kebrum.com/ and here I feel the difference between two tipes of VPN free and paid

Your method don't protect your privacy 100% because most of VPN companies will share your connection logs with Police or other governmental agencies and you can be find after your IP. I recommend to use an free WI-FI connection (Starbucks, MacDonalds, etc.) with that tools. Sorry for my bad english.

Keep in mind that you'll be exposing your MAC address (unique to your device) to the operator of the WiFi access point, and they might be logging (more likely with larger organizations). There are tools to spoof the MAC address that the AP sees.

I have pretty good experience with Kryptotel, registered (anonymously) at Republic of Seychelles. Ring a bell? One of the cheapest at less than $6. It uses standard, secure openvpn. It doesn't seem to slow down my internet connection (10M cable) much. You can pay only for one month (3 month, or recurring monthly) so they can't grab your money and run. You pay and receive the config file shortly. You have a choice of servers at will all over the world, US, EU, Asia, India, Russia (speed varies). Anonymity of company officials are guaranteed by law. You can always run you fav proxy on top of it for double security. I have been using it for a few months and no complains so far.

And - Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista/Server 2008/7/Server 2008 R2/8 (Developer Preview) Little old, wouldn't you say?

I am current using Kryptotel. Best VPN is not a provider, but a referral service. That's why I reported it because he lied, twice.

Be very careful if you try to chain two VPN's as such using virtual machines. Normally, the VM will have direct access to the network card and use it as it's own. It doesn't matter what the host use or not use VPN. It's not easy to verify with simple tools like wireshark.

A fail safe to chain is to use a proxy on top of VPN. A free fast encrypted proxy is ultrasurf. You can easily verify that you have the proxy's IP, and all network traffic goes through the VPN first.

I used to have my TOR node in AWS. It speeds up TOR a lot to be very usable. But AWS charge after one year. But for a cup of coffee a month, all my troubles (for using freeware) seemed so far away.

Of course, the all important BT client works for all the servers in all the countries that I tried.

Nice. My replay was deleted . LIBERY OF SPEECH rulz.
If you don t know how to configure a VM with an external network card don t share your opinion.

Goodbye.

Sooo...what has happened to all the members that have posted here? Did this actually work? Please provide testimonials...kidding...seriously...Cheers!

Kryptotel is good. I brought 1 month initially, then 3 month, then a year. They actually have customer service. When I complained that my BT doesn't seem to accept incoming, they told me to use India or Russia as the other server operators chicken out. But that's not true, it just a row of bad torrents. It's working perfectly. I opted for Linux openvpn config files. And now Android have openvpn and BT too. I just uploaded the same config files and the vpn on my phone works immediately. I can do untraceable voip calls on top of vpn. Of course I can BT on my phone protected by VPN. They have servers all over the world so I can't imagine they can have any central logs (they guarantee not to have any logs). Those server providers don't have the central payment details to ID anybody.

And all this just to watch a couple of pigs fuck....

I play a game online...only 1 account is allowed from one ip at a time...is this possible to open 4-5 accounts all with different ips with the help of VPN and VM..if yes then tell me..so i may go through the installation...please guide me ..thanks

vpnarea.com - vpn in kyrgyzstan, malaysia, moldova, south africa, egypt, isle of man, if you are after anonymous no logs vpn i think they are the proper choice. They are hosted in switzerland and also cost only 7.90usd per month. also have free "socks5" and thousands of opendns servers list and free proxy chain/manager software

vpnarea.com supports multiple connections from 1 account

... for a cup of starbucks a month. And comes with it "untraceable" ip call on your smart phone, all your internet connections are "untraceable" and encrypted. Kryptotel allows you to pick the country, but no guarantee of availability. Within the same country, IP's may or may not be the same for a period. This is what you want to be anonymous. But you have to switch it off when connecting to your bank or facebook. Even google give you troubles when using different IP's all the time.

Thats so because s-he asked....<3

You know what's even better than ccclean for a vm? Set everything up perfectly, make a save state for your base, and revert to that. That will cover any hard to find, lingering stuff that may occur since you'll likely be taking liberties with the vm. NEVER EVER rely on software alone to do you cleaning for you. An easy revert will completely wipe anything away. Also, via a VM people can get to your main box through a multitude of ways if they own you so be aware of this and make sure and manually disconnect from the VPN network in your network config as well as stopping the services and program to retain complete anonymity. Obvious stuff, but worth mentioning since this is a tutorial.

Thanks for bumping this. Is relevant to interests.