Hardware based Tor

[AMD_Gamer]

This is pretty interesting, I think it would be a lot easier than having to setup Tor on your computer with that proxy crap and everything you need to do. It would be cool also if you could do something like select which port on the switch sends data over the tor network so when you want to use tor just move your Ethernet cable to that switch port or put a vlan on the tor network. Also at night or when you are away let your router/ internet connection be used as a tor relay.

What do you guys think?

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/26981/page1/

 

[InvisiBill]

If they released a package that I could install on my own router, I'd probably at least try it out. The downside is that everything routed through Tor is going to be slower, so I wouldn't want all traffic to use it by default. It'd be cool to have it limited to one port on a router (using OpenWrt or similar) so I could simply hook up both my NIC ports and just enable and disable as needed.

Part of the current problem with encryption and anonymity tools is that just having them makes you stand out. If they become a standard part of routers, you won't look like you're specifically trying to hide something (and maybe some clueless people will get some better privacy out of it too).

However, I'm still a little wary of acting as a Tor node. I understand the technical details, but I don't want to get arrested because I happened to pass along a few packets related to some pervert's kiddy porn. Tor adds more complexity to the picture, but the data still travels to and from your PC. If someone were able to get logs from each node along the way, they could theoretically link the traffic to the source. I don't want to be a link in the chain the first time they manage to track someone down.