You can get the latest releases here. Look for the highest version (most recent date) that includes "-win32.exe".
Our Tor installer should make everything pretty simple:
[screenshot for Tor installer that looks comforting]It will run Tor in a dos window so you can see its logs and errors. (You can minimize this window, but do not close it.)
Tor comes configured as a client by default. It uses a built-in default configuration file, and most people won't need to change any of the settings. Tor is now installed.
After installing Tor, you should install Privoxy (click on 'recent releases', then scroll down to the Win32 installer packages). Privoxy is a filtering web proxy that integrates well with Tor. It will appear in your system tray:
You need to configure Privoxy to use Tor. Open Privoxy's main config file:
Add the line
forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 .
(don't forget the dot) to privoxy's config file (you can just add it to the
top):
Then change your browser to http proxy at localhost port 8118. In Mozilla, this is in Edit|Preferences|Advanced|Proxies. In IE, it's Tools|Internet Options|Connections|LAN Settings|Advanced. You should also set your SSL proxy (IE calls it "Secure") to the same thing, to hide your SSL traffic:
Using privoxy is necessary because browsers leak your DNS requests when they use a socks proxy directly, which is bad for your anonymity. Privoxy also removes certain dangerous headers from your web requests, and also blocks obnoxious ad sites like Doubleclick.
To test if it's working, go to this site and see what IP it says you're coming from. (If it's down, you can try the junkbusters site instead.)
If you have a personal firewall, be sure to allow local connections to port 8118 and port 9050. If your firewall blocks outgoing connections, punch a hole so it can connect to TCP ports 80, 443, and 9001-9033. For more troubleshooting suggestions, see the FAQ.
To Torify an application that supports http, just point it at Privoxy. To use socks directly, point it at localhost port 9050. For applications that support neither socks nor http, take a look at either SocksCap or the Hummingbird SOCKS client. Let us know if you get them working so we can add better instructions here.
Tor allows clients and servers to offer hidden services. That is, you can offer an apache, sshd, etc, without revealing your IP to its users. This works via Tor's rendezvous point design: both sides build a Tor circuit out, and they meet in the middle.
Once you've installed Tor and Privoxy, you can go to the hidden wiki to see hidden services in action.
To set up a hidden service, edit your torrc:
[screenshot here of clicking on tor|torrc]Edit the middle part to enable your service. Then restart Tor. It will create each HiddenServiceDir you have configured, and it will create a 'hostname' file which specifies the url (xyz.onion) for that service. You can tell people the url, and they can connect to it via their Tor client, assuming they're also using Tor and Privoxy.