Installing SwitchProxy for Tor
SwitchProxy is a Firefox plugin that makes it easy for you to switch between using a proxy and connecting to websites directly.
In this howto, you're going to set up SwitchProxy to let you change between using Tor and a direct connection. We assume you already have Firefox installed and working.
The screenshots here are oriented towards Windows users, but SwitchProxy works anywhere Firefox works. Hopefully everybody else can follow along just fine.
Step Zero: Download and Install Tor and Privoxy
Before you start, you need to make sure 1) Tor is up and running, 2) Privoxy is up and running, and 3) Privoxy is configured to point to Tor.
For Windows users, this means step one and step two of the Windows Tor installation howto. Mac OS X users just need to do step one of OS X Tor installation howto, since our OS X package includes Privoxy and configures it already.
Step One: Download and Install SwitchProxy
SwitchProxy is a Firefox plugin, so you need to go through the process of installing a new plugin. First, go to the SwitchProxy web page. It looks like this -- click on the "Install Now" button:
It will pop up a window asking for permission to install the plugin. Click on "Install Now":
Once the installer is finished, you should close all of your FireFox windows and restart the program.
Step Two: Configure SwitchProxy
When you restart Firefox, you'll notice there's a new toolbar that lets you control your proxies. Now we're going to set up a proxy configuration for Tor. Click on "Add" in the new Proxy toolbar:
It will ask you to select a proxy type. Choose "Standard." (There's also an "anonymous" proxy type that uses an ad hoc set of anonymous proxies out there. You don't want this, because those other "anonymous" proxies give you much weaker security than Tor.)
Now it will show you the standard proxy config window for Firefox. Give this configuration a proxy label of "tor". Then fill in "localhost" and "8118" for the first two entries, as shown here. (The first entry is HTTP, and the second one is typically called something like HTTPS, SSL, or Secure.) Then click "OK":
Now you've created the "tor" proxy label, but you're not using it yet. Click on the pull-down list and select tor, as shown here:
Almost done. Click "Apply" to make your change take effect:
Done! Firefox will reload your current page. In this example screenshot, it reloaded the page and happened to get a German exit node:
Step Three: Check if it works
In the above example, it was clear that it worked because the web page showed up in a different language. In other cases, though, you'll want to verify that your Tor is working. Do step four of the Windows Tor installation howto, or step three of the OS X Tor installation howto.
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