Tag: Tor

Categories
Networking

Shellfire Box hides all your home Internet traffic from prying snoops

Censorship and other draconian tactics to keep the Internet anything but the free and expansive entity it should always be are unfortunately enforced in countries around the world to various degrees every single day. Luckily, the virtual denizens of the Internet are a sly bunch, employing tactics like VPNs and the use of the Tor network in order to skirt prohibition. VPNs can also be used to circumvent location restrictions around accessing certain Web sites such as the BBC iPlayer or Hulu if you’re not in their home countries.

Shellfire is a VPN service, has been operating out of Germany for the past 12 years. While its service works for computers and some smart devices, there are many other devices like consoles and Blu-ray players that can’t connect and be protected. As such, there are many people looking for a single solution that can securely connect any device on their home network. That’s the mission of the Shellfire Box.

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Categories
Smart Home

Tiny NUZii smart device micro-manages so you don’t have to

By no fault of their own, most of our homes are dumb. As a result, hoards of companies offer all-in-one solutions to take advantage of the opportunities that technology has to offer. Over the years, these smart home hubs have evolved from merely being control points for other connected objects to adding utility themselves. With all those additional features, though, their cost has gone up as well. The NUZii flips this idea on its head by offering a tiny smart device that not only helps automate the home, but also helps make the rest of a user’s life easier.

NUZii is small, really small. At four inches tall, the product is impressively packed with all sorts of functionality that will make most wonder how it’s all possible. The 2MP camera, air and humidity sensors, and Bluetooth connectivity all complement the device’s home automation functions, syncing up to other connected objects, learning the user’s habits, and setting custom profiles depending on the time of day. Apple TVs, Roku streaming boxes, VUE light bulbs, Jawbone activity trackers, and many other popular connected devices are all fair game.

NUZii can also connect to external storage with its two USB ports and, with the help of a Wi-Fi network, users will always have the ability to use that storage however they want from wherever they are with the help of an integrated download manager. NUZii is a triple threat in that it can also connect to your modem and offer VPN and Tor support to provide users with complete anonymity on the Internet, something that is becoming increasingly valuable as time goes on. The device clocks in at just $99, and provided the campaign reaches its $65,000 goal, backers will receive NUZii in June 2015.

NUZii isn’t the first of its kind nor is it the last, but it certainly makes a good impression. Similar products like the pēq, SherloQ, and the Neoji may execute some aspects of the NUZii much more successfully, but none offer its level of versatility, especially for its price or even size. The product’s app store stokes excitement as well, serving up the potential for vastly different uses than what the inventors have intended. Look for the NUZii to make a dent if properly funded.

Categories
Technology

Dark-Ingress Wi-Fi adapter keeps you anonymous online

We unfortunately live in a world where every single activity we engage in on the Internet is surveilled, recorded, and stored without restriction. As much domestic and international outrage this behavior stokes, no amount of it will affect what has been the norm for decades, especially when any new opportunity to augment its scale is immediately enacted without checks.

The Dark-Ingress is a portable Tor Wi-Fi adapter that allows anyone, anywhere to encrypt and anonymize the data coming in and out of their hardware over Wi-Fi. The adapter uses Tor, an Internet communication method to enable anonymity online, to change your IP address every five minutes. In addition, it is automatically configured never to use an exit address in one of the Five Eyes nations or Germany, a group of countries with an agreement between them to cooperatively spy on each other to get around strict domestic spying laws.

The open source software itself isn’t particularly user-friendly, but casual users need not install or configure anything themselves. This gives users the ability to bypass portals like those at coffee shops and airports, and access the Deep Web in confidence. In addition, the hardware-based design is USB powered and offers more security versus being strictly software-based. The Dark-Ingress is slated to be delivered by February 2015 for $120. The campaign is looking for $25,000 to help users stay hidden.

Most Tor hardware, like the recently covered anonabox, work by connecting themselves to a router directly, which eliminates portability. The Dark-Ingress is a lightweight, powerful solution that lets you take your digital safety blanket no matter where you go. There will always be an arms race for privacy on one side and complete surveillance on the other, but it doesn’t hurt to make it harder for them, does it?