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JanusVM: Testing Internet privacy through Tor

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As a security professional, I am concerned about the logs left with my ISP when I access the Internet. A couple of months ago, I heard about the "Tor" network.

Tor (short for The onion router) is a system intended to enable online anonymity. Tor client software routes Internet traffic through a worldwide volunteer network of servers in order to conceal a user's location or usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis..

I wanted to tunnel traffic for a TCP application such as Remote Desktop Client (RPD).

After researching on Google and the Tor wiki, I found a virtual appliance called JanusVM. I downloaded the 20 MB ZIP file and put it on my server running VMware Workstation 6.0. The appliance was running after two minutes.

I selected option 4 and created a VPN account. Back on my Windows XP machine, I created a VPN connection to JanusVM.

With the JanusVM VPN tunnel running, I opened Google in Internet Explorer and searched for my IP address. The lookup reported an address in Germany ;-)

For the final test, I used the Remote Desktop client to connect to a server on the Internet. I successfully signed in using a Tor IP address.