TOR Browser: Download, Install and Execution

Linux Instructions

Download the architecture-appropriate file above, save it somewhere, then run one of the following two commands to extract the package archive:

tar -xvJf tor-browser-linux32-3.6.5_LANG.tar.xz

or (for the 64-bit version):

tar -xvJf tor-browser-linux64-3.6.5_LANG.tar.xz

(where LANG is the language listed in the filename).

Once that's done, switch to the Tor browser directory by running:

cd tor-browser_LANG

(where LANG is the language listed in the filename).

To run Tor Browser, execute the start-tor-browser script:

./start-tor-browser

This will launch Tor Launcher and once that connects to Tor, it will launch Firefox. 

The Onion Network (good reads)

Want Tor to really work?

You need to change some of your habits, as some things won't work exactly as you are used to.

1. Use the Tor Browser
   Tor does not protect all of your computer's Internet traffic when you run it. Tor only protects your applications that are properly configured to send their Internet traffic through Tor. To avoid problems with Tor configuration, we strongly recommend you use the Tor Browser. It is pre-configured to protect your privacy and anonymity on the web as long as you're browsing with the Tor Browser itself. Almost any other web browser configuration is likely to be unsafe to use with Tor.
2. Don't torrent over Tor
   Torrent file-sharing applications have been observed to ignore proxy settings and make direct connections even when they are told to use Tor. Even if your torrent application connects only through Tor, you will often send out your real IP address in the tracker GET request, because that's how torrents work. Not only do you deanonymize your torrent traffic and your other simultaneous Tor web traffic this way, you also slow down the entire Tor network for everyone else.
3. Don't enable or install browser plugins
   The Tor Browser will block browser plugins such as Flash, RealPlayer, Quicktime, and others: they can be manipulated into revealing your IP address. Similarly, we do not recommend installing additional addons or plugins into the Tor Browser, as these may bypass Tor or otherwise harm your anonymity and privacy. The lack of plugins means that Youtube videos are blocked by default, but Youtube does provide an experimental opt-in feature (enable it here) that works for some videos.
4. Use HTTPS versions of websites
   Tor will encrypt your traffic to and within the Tor network, but the encryption of your traffic to the final destination website depends upon on that website. To help ensure private encryption to websites, the Tor Browser includes HTTPS Everywhere to force the use of HTTPS encryption with major websites that support it. However, you should still watch the browser URL bar to ensure that websites you provide sensitive information to display a blue or green URL bar button, include https:// in the URL, and display the proper expected name for the website. Also see EFF's interactive page explaining how Tor and HTTPS relate.
5. Don't open documents downloaded through Tor while online
   The Tor Browser will warn you before automatically opening documents that are handled by external applications. DO NOT IGNORE THIS WARNING. You should be very careful when downloading documents via Tor (especially DOC and PDF files) as these documents can contain Internet resources that will be downloaded outside of Tor by the application that opens them. This will reveal your non-Tor IP address. If you must work with DOC and/or PDF files, we strongly recommend either using a disconnected computer, downloading the free VirtualBox and using it with a virtual machine image with networking disabled, or using Tails. Under no circumstances is it safe to use BitTorrent and Tor together, however.
6. Use bridges and/or find company
   Tor tries to prevent attackers from learning what destination websites you connect to. However, by default, it does not prevent somebody watching your Internet traffic from learning that you're using Tor. If this matters to you, you can reduce this risk by configuring Tor to use a Tor bridge relay rather than connecting directly to the public Tor network. Ultimately the best protection is a social approach: the more Tor users there are near you and the more diverse their interests, the less dangerous it will be that you are one of them. Convince other people to use Tor, too!

Be smart and learn more. Understand what Tor does and does not offer. This list of pitfalls isn't complete, and we need your help identifying and documenting all the issues.

Tor on BT5 (squeeze/sid)

Check your BT5 version: cat /etc/debian_version
You can also display the distribution version by: lsb_release -a

According to the author, the instructions are for the "squeeze" version of BT5.

C&P from http://www.binbert.com/blog/2011/06/how-to-install-tor-on-backtrack-5/
kudos to the writer, although I have not tested this on my own, it looks good.

Tor is an open source Anonymous Internet tool. It protects your personal identification from tracking systems by changing the source IP address frequently. Application will create many virtual tunnels through the tor network.

By default Tor is not integrated in BackTrack 5. Why use Tor on Backtrack ? Normally Tor is used to protect the browsing security but Tor can be used for network scanning tools and other information gathering tools, in my next article i will explain how to configure Tor for console applications.

Follow the installation steps:

Open /etc/apt/sources.list file and add following line
deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org squeeze main
if you have "lucid", you can try to enter: deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org lucid main

Open command prompt and run following commands
gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv 886DDD89
gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | sudo apt-key add -
apt-get update
apt-get install tor tor-geoipdb
apt-get install privoxy

After installing Privoxy, Open /etc/privoxy/config and append follwing line

forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050
/etc/init.d/privoxy start

Configure your clients with Ip address 127.0.0.1 and port 8118

To check if you are on the onion network, go to http://cmyip.com or http://www.whatismyip.com to know your current ip address.