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Two years ago, I downloaded Incognito and subsequently Tails. Unfortunately, I rarely have gotten Tails started. Every hotel, internet cafe and restaurant in the United States that I attempted to use Tails at requires checking a box that I agree with the terms on their webpage.

Tails prohibits this by automatically going to the TOR home page. I attempted to turn off TOR so I could check the box to agree and then turn TOR back on. I do not know how to do this. Tails documentation on how to start TOR does not include this. It should. I could not find any discussion on how to start a browser and then TOR in any part of the documentation.

It took researching on the internet to find other privacy live CDs and liberte's link to Tails web page that discusses this problem. https://tails.boum.org/todo/add_support_for_free_wifi_hotspots/

Unfortunately, this discussion does not instruct how to turn off TOR, check I agree, and turn TOR back on. How can I use Tails?

I haven't used Liberte's live CD but anticipate problems because their documentation does not provide instructions on this either.

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comment 4
Since 0.12 you can ?use the "Unsafe Browser" to login on the captive portal.
Comment by Tails — Wed 20 Jun 2012 09:58:12 AM CEST
Newbie to Tails, computing and captive portals

Before I ask my question, I would like to state that I have gone through the relevant posts on this forum and the links to two articles: https://tails.boum.org/doc/anonymous_internet/unsafe_browser/index.en.html and https://tails.boum.org/misc/unsafe_browser_warning/

Scenario

Suppose I am in an internet cafe whose customers need to log in to its captive portal first before they can have internet access.

I do the following:

  1. I insert the Live USB into the PC's USB slot and boot the computer from the USB flash/thumb drive.

  2. To log in to the captive portal, I launch the "Unsafe Browser".

  3. I input the login details.

  4. I ensure that I have internet access.

  5. I exit the "Unsafe Browser".

  6. I launch Iceweasel to start my so-called anonymous web browsing.

Question: When the "Unsafe Browser" exits, won't the internet connection be lost as well? I mean, won't the computer lose its internet connection?

Comment by Anonymous — Mon 12 Nov 2012 03:35:34 AM CET
comment 6

It depends on the technology used to provide the captive portals. Most won't, but some might unfortunately require that you keep a small pop-up window opened to keep the access alive.

Rule of thumbs: always try without leaving the Unsafe Browser opened first.

Comment by Tails — Mon 12 Nov 2012 09:23:43 AM CET
Thanks, Tails, for your reply but......

but some might unfortunately require that you keep a small pop-up window opened to keep the access alive.

Rule of thumbs: always try without leaving the Unsafe Browser opened first.

Suppose I need to have a small pop-up window opened to keep the access alive, which means the "Unsafe Browser" is opened.

Next, I launch Iceweasel. I am able to tell the two open browsers apart.

I start using Iceweasel to surf the internet, use Pidgin for chat, I2P for mail, etc....

Questions:

  1. Are the communication packets on Iceweasel, Pidgin, I2P, WhisperBack, etc torrified?

  2. Are the communication packets on Iceweasel, Pidgin, I2P, WhisperBack, etc. leaked to/captured by the "Unsafe Browser"?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Comment by Anonymous — Mon 12 Nov 2012 10:51:40 AM CET
comment 8

Are the communication packets on Iceweasel, Pidgin, I2P, WhisperBack, etc torrified?

Yes.

Are the communication packets on Iceweasel, Pidgin, I2P, WhisperBack, etc. leaked to/captured by the "Unsafe Browser"?

The Unsafe Browser is a browser. If suddently it becomes able to capture packets, that would mean it would be affected by a major security issue.

Comment by Tails — Mon 12 Nov 2012 04:06:36 PM CET
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