Can my network administrator see if i'm using Tor?

[Blade of Grass]

If you are using any Cisco Router all traffic is still logged, and if they are flags the proxy will be seen and the https data will still be shown. And if they are using a proxy like Tor https is not directlly supported. Also Cisco routers will say https sites in plain text, and the keystrokes it true in the respect of the network, and you have to be dumb to actually believe that people like my self can't actually track everything that the users that we are administering.

So your telling me that a Cisco router will decrypt the network traffic and show you the URL? And it doesn't matter if https isn't supported because from my understanding they're using Socks.

TOR was designed by the navy to keep communications secure and secret, so I highly doubt you could do what your talking about since it defy the vary reason for the existence of TOR.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Sure. If the Tor Project can make a webpage detect it, then so can a network admin.

Those pages work by looking up the address you're connecting from in the list of exit nodes on the TOR network.

[lions240]

Would Tor set off these flags? The reason they cought us using vpn's is because somebody ratted, yes they have logs i know, but they told us not to install vpn's on friends laptops, this sets off my flag because that's exactly how this spread. We'd also been using vpn's for a long timeso why they catch us now?

 

Ps: Using Tor from school at the moment and no SWAT team :P

Yea, i would just be carefull of what you do.

[h264]

Would Tor set off these flags? The reason they cought us using vpn's is because somebody ratted, yes they have logs i know, but they told us not to install vpn's on friends laptops, this sets off my flag because that's exactly how this spread. We'd also been using vpn's for a long timeso why they catch us now?

 

Ps: Using Tor from school at the moment and no SWAT team :P

 

so does your school's network policy forbid all proxying and encrypted communications or were you just told to "quit screwing around with the computar!"?

 

cause if it's the later, you shouldn't worry.  If it's the former, your best bet is to make like the Chinese and use a bridge node, which you can find online on random sites, and use that instead of connecting directly to a KNOWN tor node, which is usually how they block this stuff.  Your admin, if he really cares that much and doesn't have TONS better things to do, would see you making a TCP connection to a random computer and the website address you're requesting UNLESS you use an http proxy like privoxy.  The tor bundle comes with everything you need, and even has a portable no admin version specifically for your situation you can install on a usb key, load tor and launch a pre-fabbed, locked down version of firefox.

 

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

[Darren]

Those pages work by looking up the address you're connecting from in the list of exit nodes on the TOR network.

 

What's stopping a NetAdmin from doing the same ;)

[bradscoolio]

so does your school's network policy forbid all proxying and encrypted communications or were you just told to "quit screwing around with the computar!"?

 

cause if it's the later, you shouldn't worry.  If it's the former, your best bet is to make like the Chinese and use a bridge node, which you can find online on random sites, and use that instead of connecting directly to a KNOWN tor node, which is usually how they block this stuff.  Your admin, if he really cares that much and doesn't have TONS better things to do, would see you making a TCP connection to a random computer and the website address you're requesting UNLESS you use an http proxy like privoxy.  The tor bundle comes with everything you need, and even has a portable no admin version specifically for your situation you can install on a usb key, load tor and launch a pre-fabbed, locked down version of firefox.

 

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

 

Cheers! so what settings do i need to enable inside of tor? i already use the tor firefox browser.

[h264]

https://www.torproject.org/docs/bridges.html.en

 

there's a fun video here.  You don't need to do this unless tor gets blocked, though.  It won't make you any harder to find on your network as a tor user, just harder for them to filter you.

[bradscoolio]

https://www.torproject.org/docs/bridges.html.en

 

there's a fun video here.  You don't need to do this unless tor gets blocked, though.  It won't make you any harder to find on your network as a tor user, just harder for them to filter you.

 

Oh, My tor isn't getting blocked. I should use a bridg though because there is a network contract at my school. though i haven't signed it.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

What's stopping a NetAdmin from doing the same ;)

Common sense.

[Darren]

Common sense.

 

So to answer OP's question, yes, if he wanted to.

[bradscoolio]

So to answer OP's question, yes, if he wanted to.

 

So how do make things unnoticeable?

[Darren]

So how do make things unnoticeable?

 

That should not be answered by anyone here. You should be following your network admin's policies and not circumvent any measures they put in place, whether you've signed an agreement or not. To be honest I'm not sure why a computer use policy is not in place which would include a network policy.

[bradscoolio]

That should not be answered by anyone here. You should be following your network admin's policies and not circumvent any measures they put in place, whether you've signed an agreement or not. To be honest I'm not sure why a computer use policy is not in place which would include a network policy.

 

Fair enough :( I'll not continue to use Tor at school. The network contract (even though i haven't signed it) has no rules on proxies, vpn's, tor etc. but rather ambiguously states there is to be no use of a program that can comprise network security. That can be interpreted from either mine or the schools point of view really :/ If it was from my point of view then I could use Tor because that's designed to keep me safe, but the school would probably see that differently.

[Darren]

Fair enough :( I'll not continue to use Tor at school. The network contract (even though i haven't signed it) has no rules on proxies, vpn's, tor etc. but rather ambiguously states there is to be no use of a program that can comprise network security. That can be interpreted from either mine or the schools point of view really :/ If it was from my point of view then I could use Tor because that's designed to keep me safe, but the school would probably see that differently.

 

Well that's different. I wouldn't rule Tor as breaking that. The most they could do is politely ask you to stop.

[bradscoolio]

Well that's different. I wouldn't rule Tor as breaking that. The most they could do is politely ask you to stop.

 

Did you wanna have a read of it? there is other don't access social networking, chat and porn site rules. I don't think they can prove my Tor traffic without catching me personally.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

The most they could do is politely ask you to stop.

They can do what ever they want. It is their network, they make the rules.

 

How come you're so keen to use a VPN at school? Don't you have work to do?

[Darren]

Did you wanna have a read of it? there is other don't access social networking, chat and porn site rules. I don't think they can prove my Tor traffic without catching me personally.

 

Nah. I'm sure you can make a sensible decision.

 

 

They can do what ever they want. It is their network, they make the rules.

 

How come you're so keen to use a VPN at school? Don't you have work to do?

 

 

Correct, but the appropriate thing for NetAdmin to do is inform him beforehand that they are going to change the policy or afterwards by politely letting him know said change was made and to cease usage. Sure he can be like "lol i changed, you didn't read, ban hammer olololol" but that is bad practice.

 

Also, you raise an excellent point about his schoolwork...

[bradscoolio]

They can do what ever they want. It is their network, they make the rules.

 

How come you're so keen to use a VPN at school? Don't you have work to do?

 

I used to use a VPN, I now want to avoid them. I use it for the forum, it's the only site I want to use at school. In regards to work, nope. All my subject where I have computer access are relatively bludge so meh.

[VxDoomxV]

We used to just use https, and if that didn't work Vtunnel? I think? Idk if it exists anymore though.

[Sheldon]

It shows up as TOR on the usage list or as an tor ip if you put that IP is a browser, So nothing is wrong about using it, they can not say that you going on sites that are blocked because they have no proof besides the log about the usage and the IP  

[lennyex59]

hm normally they should be able to see that you're using TOR but shouldn't be albe to encrypt the "links" because of the onion network etc.  but if they've installed a software where they can reflect your entire screen (which is pretty commom at schools)...pretty self explaining I think^^   
like some guy said before we also used to use https

[Wombo]

I think the title says it all

 

I needed to know whether or not I can use Tor at school to access blocked websites and have my network administrators not see whether or not I'm specifically using it.

 

Am I safe to use Tor?

 

It's really the only option I could think of because they've already sniffed out our VPN's.

 

I'm not doing anything illegal, just to be able to access YouTube, Facebook and the forum

 

Cheers!

Can they tell what you are Accessing? No

 

Can they tell that you are sending encrypted traffic using the TOR protocol? Absolutely.

 

Also never feel the need to justify your actions. When people come looking for answers their motives are their own and what they do with the information they receive is well, up to them. The only time you will ever get trouble from anyone is if you blatantly state you are wanting to do something that is obviously wrong or illegal. There is nothing wrong with wanting to use TOR, your reasons are your own.

[Blake]

I think the title says it all

 

I needed to know whether or not I can use Tor at school to access blocked websites and have my network administrators not see whether or not I'm specifically using it.

 

Am I safe to use Tor?

 

It's really the only option I could think of because they've already sniffed out our VPN's.

 

I'm not doing anything illegal, just to be able to access YouTube, Facebook and the forum

 

Cheers!

Yes. Maybe. it depends on the equipment you have and how good a network admin your network admin is. I'd assume a school has a caching server. Most sites use SSL, so why use a caching server then? because your proxy will take the certificate that your system was ment to authenticate against and will just issue you it's own for the site. Now you and every other student can download IOS9 and not make the network admin's netflix stream downgrade from 4k.

[Akolyte]

Tor should almost always work anyways.  Its designed to be used in almost any situation, the only time you couldn't use it is if you were on a 'school' computer.  This is because they could outright block it.  

 

While it will still be visible your doing something anonymous, they can't necessarily track you down.  P.S Tor hides your identity, not your data.  Don't expect tor to keep your facebook login safe. 

 

So, my advice is to either use a really good vpn, a proxy chain or if you really want to, you could put up a virtual machine, spoof the MAC address, use Tor (and a proxy chain, if its even possible). 

That would hide your laptop too, MAC addresses aren't amazingly useful in a WAN environment, but in a LAN environment can be very powerful.  So its a good idea to protect yourself by spoofing your mac address. 

[Blake]

Tor should almost always work anyways.  Its designed to be used in almost any situation, the only time you couldn't use it is if you were on a 'school' computer.  This is because they could outright block it.  

 

While it will still be visible your doing something anonymous, they can't necessarily track you down.  P.S Tor hides your identity, not your data.  Don't expect tor to keep your facebook login safe. 

 

So, my advice is to either use a really good vpn, a proxy chain or if you really want to, you could put up a virtual machine, spoof the MAC address, use Tor (and a proxy chain, if its even possible). 

That would hide your laptop too, MAC addresses aren't amazingly useful in a WAN environment, but in a LAN environment can be very powerful.  So its a good idea to protect yourself by spoofing your mac address. 

1. It is a simple task to block TOR, on a network level, if the device your using to connect to tor is on my network, I can stop it, doesn't matter who owns the device. you can still open up tor.exe on your system, it just wont connect to anything.

2. I'll get a automated email alerting me that device with MAC address, host name, current AP point connected to, and your network login details (your AD credentials, i.e. I know exactly who you are, you really think I would allow you on my network without knowing who you are?) has just made a request to the DNS server for a know tor network IP, and TOR not being an approved application would alert me that someone on the network might be getting hit by some variant of cryptolocker.

3.  It's not my job to make sure you are working, but i'd forward the alert to your direct manager, if you get your work done, i'd assume they'd not care, but if your already on a performance review... it just means they have more ammo. (replace manager with teacher in this setting).

 

Admittedly getting around the block on tor is easy, however it is pretty standard practice to make students/staff sign the IT policy. So if they really cared, they'd just cut your network connection.