Frequently Asked Questions About Protesting Online

• How to stay anonymous during an online demonstration:

When you take part in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack organized by ANONYMOUS, by using the software Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC), your real IP address will be automatically added to the log of the attacked webserver. The same also happens with the ZDEMO Online Demonstration software by KELLERASSELN. Unfortunately, this makes it easy for police or whom else to find out who was involved in the attack. The use of IP hiding with the Tor network (http://www.torproject.org/index.html.en) makes no sense during an DDoS attack because the requests sent from your computer would first hit the Tor server and slow it down.

The only effective method to take part anonymously in a virtual protest using LOIC or another online demonstration software on your computer is to use an encrypted Virtual Private Network (VPN). Your external IP address will be hidden towards everyone in the internet and all your internet activity is channeled through the VPN once it is active on your computer. 

• What is a Virtual Private Network connection?

In a normal internet connection, all your traffic is routed from your computer through your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and out onto the internet and finally to its destinate (server). At every step of the way, your data is being recorded and is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks, e.g. conducted by your ISP or network operators in your local country. When using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) your data will appear together with the IP address of the VPN server, and not your real IP address. VPN is an enhancement to your existing internet connection and does not replace your ISP. You will need an existing connection (DSL, dial up, etc) to be able to use VPN.

Find a nice illustration of how a VPN works here.

Unless you choose to sign into a certain site with your personal data, you will be anonymous for your entire web session.

• How to install and use VPN:

We recommend the use of OpenVPN for Windows PCs. You can download the OpenVPN client for Windows here. If you have alraeady installed OpenVPN it could be a good idea to check here for the most recent version of the software. 

For Linux or iPhone/iPad, you may directly use PPTP without any client installation. However, PPTP may be vulnerable to attacs. It is therefore better to use L2TP/IPsec, which is available on all modern platforms and easy to set up. Sometimes, problems can arise because the L2TP protocol uses UDP port 500, which may be blocked when you are using a firewall on your device. L2TP is not as efficient as SSL based solutions and the connection might be slower.

Some VPN services come with their own client software, in this case the client from the VPN service should be installed.

Select one of the free VPN services from this list:

For some of these services it is necessary to first create an account for login.

Storing the VPN service password on the windows client is not a good idea. Many VPN clients do not store the password securely. Try to keep your password in mind. In case you forget it, the password can be reset or you create a new account.

Start OpenVPN or the selected client software, log into your account and connect to the VPN server. Now all internet activity, no matter if you're surfing in the browser or using Skype, ICQ, IRC, FTP or other protocols and programs, will be directed to the VPN server. Many VPN services use encryption (SSL), thus protecting the connection between your computer and the internet.

• How to use VPN behind a firewall:

If your computer is behind the router and firewall provided by your ISP, it might be necessary to open ports to connect to the VPN service. Many VPN services use port 443, the common SSL port. Port 443 should already be open because it is commonly used by other services such as Skype.

If you're connecting via PPTP VPN (such as on iPhone/iPad) you'll need to ensure that the router to which your mobile device is connected to has port 1723 (TCP) open and is allowing the GRE protocol.

• How to install Tor (torproject):

Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.

Download Tor Browser for Windows (XP, Windows 7,8,10, Vista), Linux or Mac here.

No extra configuration needed. Just run the Tor Browser after the installation was completed.

Read below for the use of other (not Tor) proxies with Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.

• How to configure Mozilla Firefox to use a proxy server

Use the add-on Foxy Proxy Standard to switch between multiple proxies.

Foxy Proxy Standard can be downloaded here.

The add-on requires a restart of the Firefox browser.

• How to configure Internet Explorer to use a proxy server:

Use add-on IE7pro to switch between multiple proxies.

Different internet connections do often require completely different proxy server settings and it's a real pain to change them manually. IE7Pro Proxy Switcher lets you manage and switch between multiple proxy configurations quickly and easily.

IE7pro can be downloaded here.

• How to configure Google Chrome to use a proxy server:

Read explanations from Google about proxy settings in Google Chrome.

Use add-on Proxy Switchy! to switch between multiple proxies. Proxy Switchy! is an advanced proxy manager for Google Chrome, it allows users to manage and switch between multiple proxy profiles quickly and easily.

Proxy Switchy! can be downloaded here.

• Here you get proxy IP adresses for use with the proxy add-ons:

1. http://freeproxylist.org/en/free-proxy-list.htm
2. http://www.samair.ru/proxy/
3. http://www.digitalcybersoft.com/ProxyList/fresh-proxy-list.shtml

• How to get involved in Anonymous Operations (AnonOps):

To come in contact with Anonymous Operations, you can connect to the AnonOps IRC network. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and is a way for people to chat in an area that is organized by „networks“. Servers or groups of servers working together, „channels“ which are like separate rooms, and „users“. There are users who enter the channels and may speak with each other in those rooms, enabling discussions. Users may also „private message“ each other to hold private conversations.

Connecting to the AnonOps IRC network works with the mIRC IRC client. The mIRC is shareware and can be obtained as trial version which is free for 30 days. Older versions do not have this limitation and you can get mIRC from our download page. mIRC does not have native SSL support, therefore you have to install SSL separately. AnonOps does not allow any non-SSL connections to their network. Instructions on how to set up mIRC with SSL for connecting to AnonOps can be found here.