Tor Was Not Slow, Now It Is, Anything I Can Do?

I have been using the Tor, Privoxy, and Vidalia bundle( http://tor.eff.org/download.html.en ) on my XP sp2 machine( http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/these-secur…ra-t165600.html ) for about 5 days. The last 18 hours or so my Internet surfing has been dramatically slower than when I first started using Tor. I am convinced that it is Tor that is slowing my Internet surfing because bandwidth speed tests( http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html ) run with Tor off return good download("surfing") speeds.

I understand that Tor may somewhat slow surfing speed(s); however, the extent to which it is presently slowing my surf speed is an impediment to my online activities. Again, I noticed Tor slowed my surfing as soon as I first used it and I was prepared to tolerate that level of slowing, but, after 3 or 4 days of it being tolerable, it has been at a consistent new low for almost 24 hours.

I thought I read in a number of places that Tor results(speed) go up and down(possibly way down) regularly, but, since I am not a technically advanced user I figured that there might be configuration issues that I can change which will get me some relief.

I am, of course, using Firefox(latest version) and my Proxy settings are manual, http 8118, ssl 8118, socks 9050(socks v5). I did not change these from the direct connection Firefox was using before Tor so I do assume the Tor bundle installation did so.

note: Right from the start I noticed that, after about an hour and a half of surfing behind Tor, my machine sometimes seems to "hang-up" or crash. When this Tor related hanging occurs usually I can not close Vidalia and when I open Windows Task Manager it shows applications that I am running as not responding. I try to end task for the affected applications, but eventually Windows Task Manager itself stops responding. I selected to run Tor as a service in the hope that doing so would positively affect this hanging, but I am not so sure it has. ( http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=181996 )

I am running Comodo firewall and I typically block svchost every chance I get unless, like Windows Updates, it must be allowed for a particular application to succeed. ( http://www.castlecops.com/modules.php?&…ic&t=196459 )

I am looking at Proxomitron, because I wonder if it will, "magically", make things faster, but I am unclear as to whether I replace Privoxy or Vidalia with Proxomitron or neither. It looks to me like Privoxy and Proxomitron do the same thing, but, then again, I am not a technically advanced user.

Hi, I have read your post with great interest and also all the other threads you have posted on this forum and many others as well that usually seem to be related to the installation and operation of "protective software" If you are running Win Xp, fully patched, with Anti virus, antispyware, all up to date, together with the other good programmes recommended on the malware removal forum, with a 2 way software firewall, and behind a hardware firewall (included in many routers) then you are way ahead of most folks, so well done. As you know the usual answer to an application that is having an adverse effect on your machine is to uninstall it and do a disc clean up and then consider carefully whether you want to persevere with it. If so, reinstall it, following all the usual recommendations. (Tor etc) Having secured your position with hardware/software, as far as is reasonable, (and only you can be the judge of that) the most important thing is the user's, knowledge, skills, habits and attitude to/appetite for risk. If you stay away from "bad" sites, be very conservative where you click, don't open attachments to emails (unless you are sure they are safe and don't use an account with Administrative priviliges for routine use of the Internet, then you should be happy that you have taken sensible precautions. You can of course provide layer upon layer of extra security, but each layer will have an effect on the performance of your machine…. so only you can decide if the "increase in security" outweighs any attendant slow down in performance/functionality of your system. As always it's your call as to how you secure your system… So Good luck but also, Enjoy Regards paws

Hi 072707,
I have just noticed the recent announcement about Tor from here:
http://forums.tomcoyote.org/Attacks_Prompt…tor_t82090.html
It might be part of the answer, see how you go with it.
Regards
paws

Thankyou very much for responding and thankyou for your advice. I am gratified.

Regards paws