Connecting Tor Network Using Privoxy On Ubuntu 20.04

We can simplify using the Tor network on our applications and browsers by setting up an onion router with a proxy server which will work as an interface of the network.

In This tutorial on our Ubuntu 20.04 we will:

• Install Privoxy the proxy server
• Set up Onion router
• Forward All Privoxy request to the Onion router
• Use Provixy as a Proxy for our apps.

Step1: Update Our Ubuntu Server

# apt update
# apt upgrade

Step2: Installing Tor Network And Privoxy

# apt install tor
# apt install privoxy
# apt install net-tools
# systemctl enable privoxy
# systemctl enable tor

Check running daemons

# netstat -puntl
Active Internet connections (only servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.53:53           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      467/systemd-resolve
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:8118          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      35322/privoxy
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      709/sshd: /usr/sbin
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:9050          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      34789/tor
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:6010          0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      775/sshd: root@pts/
tcp6       0      0 ::1:8118                :::*                    LISTEN      35322/privoxy
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      709/sshd: /usr/sbin
tcp6       0      0 ::1:6010                :::*                    LISTEN      775/sshd: root@pts/
udp        0      0 127.0.0.53:53           0.0.0.0:*                           467/systemd-resolve

Step3: Forward All Requests To The Onion Router

As we can see from the output of the netstat command, Tor Damon listens to localhost port 9050, so we will forward all requests that come to the Privoxy server to the Tor.

Edit the Privoxy config file /etc/privoxy/config and set the listen-address to your server public IP-Address and add the forward to onion router line forward / 127.0.0.1:9050 . with a dot at the end of the line.

# vim /etc/privoxy/config

~~~~
# listen-address [::1]:8118
#
listen-address 85.159.213.192:8118
forward / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
#
~~~~

Step4: Testing Your Network

Testing using Firefox web browser, as you can add the Privoxy proxy address and port

And to check your current public IP-Address, you can make a google search with the “What is my IP”. The result will be the Onion Network IP address. not yours, or your ubuntu server.