- What is Tor?
***** An Internet communication is based on a store-and-forward model that can be understood in analogy to postal mail: Data is transmitted in blocks called IP datagrams or packets. Every packet includes a source IP address (of the sender) and a destination IP address (of the receiver), just as ordinary letters contain postal addresses of sender and receiver. The way from sender to receiver involves multiple hops of routers, where each router inspects the destination IP address and forwards the packet closer to its destination. Thus, every router between sender and receiver learns that the sender is communicating with the receiver. Your ISP and anyone colaborating with your ISP is in a perfect position to build a complete profile of your Internet usage.

The main purpose of Tor is to improve your privacy by sending your traffic through a series of proxy servers. Your communication is encrypted in multiple layers and routed via multiple hops through the Tor network to the final receiving server. More details on this process can be found in the Tor overview. Note that all your local ISP can observe now is that you are communicating with Tor nodes. Similarly, servers in the Internet just see that they are being contacted by Tor nodes.

Generally speaking, Tor aims to solve three privacy problems:

First, Tor prevents websites and other services from learning your location, which they can use to build databases about your habits and interests. With Tor, your Internet connections don't give you away by default -- now you can have the ability to choose, for each connection, how much information to reveal.

Second, Tor prevents people watching your traffic locally (such as your ISP) from learning what information you're fetching and where you're fetching it from. It also stops them from deciding what you're allowed to learn and publish -- if you can get to any part of the Tor network, you can reach any site on the Internet.

Third, Tor routes your connection through more than one Tor relay so no single relay can learn what you're up to. Because these relays are run by different individuals or organizations, distributing trust provides more security than the old "one hop proxy" approach.

- What is the Tor Network?
***** Tor (Onion Routing Network) is an anonymity network. It protects your privacy on the internet. Tor uses a series of three proxies - computers (or nodes) which communicate on your behalf using their own identifying information - in such a way that none of them know both your identifying information and your destination. Tor can also help people get around restrictive firewalls which censor web content.
For an Overview of what Tor is, click this link: https://www.torproject.org/overview.html

- What makes access to the Tor Network such a good feature or benefit of Hide My IP 2008?
***** Tor is an advanced feature. Tor provides a large network of users who donate their bandwidth and IP addresses, creating a wide pool of IPs that will be continuously change as you browse the Internet. The downside of using Tor is you can not select what IP you would like to use, or your location, etc.

- Will I have to install the Tor Add-On in Firefox if I have Hide My IP 2008?
***** No

- Will the Premium Service still hide my ip with compatible 3rd party applications using the Tor Network?
***** No, if the Premium Service is enabled then Tor is automatically disabled. Tor can only be used to hide your IP in Internet Explorer and Firefox at this time.

- Why is the Tor Network slow. I have the Premium Service?
***** Tor is never going to be blazing fast. Your traffic is bouncing through participating computer networks in various parts of the world, thus bottlenecks and network latency will always be present. You shouldn't expect to see university-style bandwidth through Tor. But that doesn't mean that it can't be improved. The current Tor network is quite small compared to the number of people trying to use it, and many of these users don't understand or care that Tor can't currently handle file-sharing traffic load. PLEASE NOTE: the Premium Service is automatically turned off if you enable Tor.