[tor-talk] To Toggle, or not to Toggle: The End of Torbutton

[Kraktus]

On 21 April 2011 17:50, Joe Btfsplk <joebtfsplk at gmx.com> wrote:
> On 4/21/2011 1:22 PM, Kraktus wrote:
>>
>> Well, if I had an 8-core machine with 4+GB RAM, or even a single-core
>> machine with over 1 GHz and at least 1GB RAM, I'd probably have four
>> browser profiles for Firefox alone: ...
>>
>> However, seeing has how my computer is single core, less than 1 GHz,
>> and has less than 1GB RAM, running one instance of a modern browser is
>> hard enough on the poor thing.
>>
> Don't know if you were replying to the earlier post (that I wasn't sure if
> he wanted to install 2 versions of FX on his machine).
>
> Why would you want to run several instances of Firefox - SIMULTANEOUSLY?
>  When I said it was easy to install multiple versions, or multiple instances
> of same version, didn't expect users would be running them at the same time.
>  If you are short on RAM / CPU & want different VERSIONS, of course have to
> install them in diff folders, & set them to use diff profiles (if desired).
>  But, other than needing to switch between running installations for a
> specific purpose, no need to have them running simultaneously.  Run one &
> when thru w/it, shut it down & start the other.
>
> I believe you can also run simultaneous instances of same FX version (most
> likely using different specified profiles).  Typically, one install will be
> the default.  Others can be started using specific profiles by adding the
> profile name (or full path incl profile name) in the shortcut target box,
> after the path & executable.  Like after C:\......\firefox.exe" -p
> myprofile4-21-11 -no-remote
>
> This assumes the profile name is already entered properly (or created) in
> Firefox's profile.ini file.  You can create a new profile name using the
> profile manager.  The firefox 4 [beta profile mgr] (not yet incl w/ the
> setup) has more options than one w/ FX v3.x.  I've used it - had a couple
> minor issues, but over all, allows specifying which installed version will
> use which profile.
> _______________________________________________
> tor-talk mailing list
> tor-talk at lists.torproject.org
> https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk

If I had a nice high CPU high RAM machine, you mean?

Envision the following scenario:
Alice wants to buy beeswax candles online. Because beeswax candles
burn so cleanly. However, she does not wish to transfer her credit
card information over Tor, or even JonDo, because she's heard of those
attacks against ssl, and it's not as if there's anything anonymous
about a typical credit card anyway. But while she is checking out
unanonymously, she also wants to do some last minute market research
to make sure she is getting top-of-the-line beeswax candles. Now, if
Alice can run multiple instances of Firefox or some other browser
simultaneously, then the unanonymous (or partially anonymized, with a
direct connection to the vendor but anonymous connections to third
party sites -- yes, I know if compare logs with the vendor, it's
probably not that anonymous) connection runs in one instance of the
browser, while her market research is conducted in a second totally
torified instance of the browser. This decreases the amount of
profiling information those advertisers get on her. Thus Alice can
switch back and forth between anonymous and unanonymous browsing
without having to go through the trouble of closing all her tabs and
the entire browser and restarting again, provided she has a decently
high CPU high RAM machine.

Now, I'm not on Windows, and, as the OS I'm in at the moment can't
even handle Firefox 4, I'm actually using a similar browser that's
close enough that it can still use Firefox 4 add-ons. Also, JonDoFox
makes running multiple instances of my non-Firefox quite easy: there's
a menu option for it. Anyway, that's not the problem. The problem is
that if I actually try to do it, this poor machine basically grinds to
a halt.

So instead, I get to play with the proxy switching interface. Or, if I
really want to browse anonymously on just one or two sites and
continue browsing anonymously elsewhere, I get to add said sites to
the "Global proxy exceptions", and remove them when I'm done.