What is Tor used for?

Answer 1

The easiest way to configure Tor is to use the Vidalia front end (http://vidalia-project.net/).

You need to install Tor in order to use Vidalia. Vidalia can be used to start and stop Tor and to select certain specific network features. To configure your software to use Tor, you need to set up your computer to connect to a proxy at 127.0.0.1 (which is a special IP address that directs to your local computer) and to use SOCKS4 or SOCKS5.

Answer 2

TOR, or The Onion Router, is a distributed network of encrypted and layered services and connections. It was originally developed for military application, to be used as a safe networking method over unsafe networks (like the internet).

The methodology is simple: construct a path from point A to point B using randomly chosen computers hosting the service, and add layer after layer of encryption at each stop, like adding layers to an onion (hence the name), so that each computer at each stop doesn't know where the data has been to, where it's going, or what's inside, apart from the previous stop and the next stop.

Apart from a few security concerns, TOR is considered relatively safe and secure, and as such has gathered a relatively large following of the darker sort of people, mostly crackers and pedophiles. But that is not to say that TOR in itself is bad - it is a useful tool for anyone who wishes to maintain their privacy over the unsafe network, that is the Internet.

Always keep in mind that technology in itself isn't bad - it's just how people use it that could be.