Silk Road forums

Discussion => Security => Topic started by: OuterLimits on July 07, 2012, 12:02 am

Title: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: OuterLimits on July 07, 2012, 12:02 am
I am going to be writing a lot of tutorials for SR related software, security solutions, and more. It doesn't matter which OS (operating system) you are using (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS) I will write a tutorial for it!

Reply with the following info for your request:

OS: (Ex: Windows 7)
Issue:  Ex: "How do I use Bitcoin anonymously?"
Additional Info:

Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: dynastyxeram on July 07, 2012, 06:12 am
OS: Windows 7
Issue: The entire transaction process from a buyer's perspective.
I apologize, I realize this isn't really related to one piece of software or anything, but I'm attempting to learn about the transaction process and feel like other tutorials may be leaving out bits and pieces.
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: SexyWax on July 07, 2012, 10:37 am
OS: windows, Linux, Mac etc
Issue: People are not using PGP because there is no simple definitive guide
I have to walk a customer thru PGP at least once a day, there are guides, they dont cover it all and dont even talk about the different applications and OS's. If you could create an all in one guide that I can point my customers to, i would be very very grateful.
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: 7136214bradd on July 08, 2012, 06:01 pm
OS: windows, Linux, Mac etc
Issue: People are not using PGP because there is no simple definitive guide
I have to walk a customer thru PGP at least once a day, there are guides, they dont cover it all and dont even talk about the different applications and OS's. If you could create an all in one guide that I can point my customers to, i would be very very grateful.

What about PGP is it that people struggle with?  Is it setting up the software or understanding the concept of what PGP is?  I think it would be pretty easy to set up a guide on the general concepts of PGP and exactly how it works, even if you can't speak to each software setup. 
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: vlad1m1r on July 08, 2012, 06:04 pm
I am going to be writing a lot of tutorials for SR related software, security solutions, and more. It doesn't matter which OS (operating system) you are using (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS) I will write a tutorial for it!

Reply with the following info for your request:

OS: (Ex: Windows 7)
Issue:  Ex: "How do I use Bitcoin anonymously?"
Additional Info:

A great idea buddy, I've tried to write a couple myself but as Guru's said already there are a lot of X factors to take into account e.g you or I might say something along the lines of.

Sign up for a free VPN service, set up a VM to run through it and install your Bitcoin wallet software from there.

Only for someone to ask what a VPN or VM is, or indeed what we mean by MtGox.

As such for my own guides I assume that the person in question has only a basic knowledge of IT and is running Windows. No objections so far but many of you users have such an in depth knowledge of IT you'd probably find the way I write them patronising! :-D

V.

Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: SexyWax on July 08, 2012, 10:00 pm
Quote
There can never be any such thing as an "all in one" guide. There are just too many variables.  If you're finding these requests too much to handle, send 'em my way, and I'll do what I can to help.  I'm experienced with both Windows and Linux, and now that we've got a Mac, I’ve learned how to handle that one as well.
Yes, I am aware that there is no way to make a definitive guide as there are way too many different variables and such. But it would be nice to have one clear cut guide for mac, windows, linux in one place. it doesnt have to go over every single little thing. it just needs to to tell them what to do in a straight forward and easy to understand way. something that can be edited as well, eg if there is a follow up question from a user about the guide, edit the guide then to include the answer or make it more clear. sometimes its not the guide or technique but the words we choose to describe it that confuses people. anyway, cheers to everyone. thank you OuterLimits you're an asset to the community. and you know where to find me if you want any help on that
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: goofus on July 09, 2012, 12:21 am
thanks sexywax and vlad.

The pgp tutorials looked really good but I ran into a major roadblock early. still not sure what I was doing wrong but there was no "gpa.exe" anywhere on my computer after downloading gpg4win suite with and without kleopatra, then with, then without about 15 times. Looked for little things I might not have clicked on. I think the issue was that I had no ms word or libreoffice stuff loaded on my computer. Still don't know if that was it but I saw that others had a similar problem but couldn't help me fix it early. I spent 20 hours or so over 6wks trying to get it right. bought a bunch of stuff without encryption and realize that I was taking a bigger risk by doing that.
Have a different issue with setting up tormail and thunderbird.  may try that again if you guys post a tutorial about this. by the way, the tutorials with the screen shots are extraordinarily time consuming to follow: if there is a way to do it in one long post, I think that would be easier (unless there is a max word limit for posts?)
by the way, I finally got pgp up and running.

I owe so many +1's to you security guys. Can't wait till I can give that karma.

dagoof
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: goofus on July 09, 2012, 12:25 am
I am going to be writing a lot of tutorials for SR related software, security solutions, and more. It doesn't matter which OS (operating system) you are using (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, iOS) I will write a tutorial for it!

Reply with the following info for your request:

OS: (Ex: Windows 7)
Issue:  Ex: "How do I use Bitcoin anonymously?"
Additional Info:
Don't adjust your screen... and a big +1 for you OuterLimits
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: paranoia on July 09, 2012, 02:52 am
What is the best way to configure your client to be anonymous as possible?
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: OuterLimits on July 10, 2012, 07:23 pm
Here is the step-by-step Windows GPG guide that is very detailed and covers the installation of GPG4Win Lite, creating private keys, importing public keys, encrypting sensitive information, and exporting public keys.

http://x35jfacrznhhtrfr.onion/tutorials/pgp/windows/

Working on the Mac OS X and Linux guides now :)
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: SexyWax on July 10, 2012, 10:24 pm
Quote
Here is the step-by-step Windows GPG guide that is very detailed and covers the installation of GPG4Win Lite, creating private keys, importing public keys, encrypting sensitive information, and exporting public keys.

http://x35jfacrznhhtrfr.onion/tutorials/pgp/windows/

That is fantastic OL, thank you so much for your hard work. ill be pointing everyone to that tutorial now.
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: Spedly on July 11, 2012, 01:44 am
How many tutorial threads do we need?

OuterLimits, I respect what you're trying to do here. But the answer to every conceivable question is already on the forums or on the Wiki. There comes a point where the user themselves must hold themselves accountable for finding the answers for the questions they have.
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: SexyWax on July 11, 2012, 02:21 am
Quote
OuterLimits, I respect what you're trying to do here. But the answer to every conceivable question is already on the forums or on the Wiki. There comes a point where the user themselves must hold themselves accountable for finding the answers for the questions they have.

not everyone is as computer savvy as we might be... anyone willing to help others out with good easy to understand and trustworthy information without wanting anything in return is okay in my book. Obviously the existing tutorials arent good enough, I have had to help at least a dozen customers this week explaining the existing tutorials, which says a lot right there. thanks again OuterLimits
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: OuterLimits on July 24, 2012, 05:36 pm
I created a step-by-step guide on how to install Mobile Tor and configure everything in iOS. You must have a jailbroken iOS device for this to work. This allows you to route traffic for all applications over the Tor network. This can allow you to use other applications such as IRC client etc over Tor and not just a web browser like you are limited to with the Onion Browser application.

http://x35jfacrznhhtrfr.onion/tutorials/tor-ios/
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: OuterLimits on July 26, 2012, 08:38 pm
For all the Mac OS X users, I have created a very detailed step-by-step guide that includes screenshots for every step on how to configure Adium to connect to the Silk Road IRC chat through Tor.

Adium is basically the Mac version of Pidgin, it uses the same core "libpurple" that Pidgin uses for most protocols. This guide also covers how to configure the Tor Browser Bundle for Mac to use the same SOCKS port everytime you launch it instead of a random port, so that you only have to setup this configuration one time.

Check it out:

http://x35jfacrznhhtrfr.onion/tutorials/mac/chat/
Title: Re: THE Tutorial Thread
Post by: goofus on July 27, 2012, 12:57 am
How many tutorial threads do we need?

OuterLimits, I respect what you're trying to do here. But the answer to every conceivable question is already on the forums or on the Wiki. There comes a point where the user themselves must hold themselves accountable for finding the answers for the questions they have.
.
It must seem that there may be too many threads about how to maintain security for SR travelers and that they are too spread out to be useful from your perspective. I respectfully disagree and think that security tutorials in multiple places and pitched to multiple levels of computer expertise are essential and not overkill. I appreciate this thread and enjoy the high-end security expert flame threads that battle about codes, weird old languages, server vulnerabilities and the like are necessary too (to keep the guys on the other end of the learning curve sharp). I still need practice with the a b c's and appreciate those willing to figure out what it is that I don't understand and not flame me.