Surfing the Internet anonymously with JonDonym

Live System

In addition to the software for permanent installation on Linux systems, JonDo GmbH provides a Live DVD along with a Live CD for older computers. Both are based on Debian and come preconfigured with a completely secure communication environment. Apart from JonDonym and JonDoFox, you'll also find an Onion router and the Mixmaster remailer.

The Live DVD is rather slim, taking up only 1GB. Even the start menu shows that the distributions works with older machines. You can choose between 486 and 686 kernels, with the latter available only in a PAE version.

After the expected slow startup from the optical disk, a desktop based on Xfce 4.8 appears with the usual selection menu in a bottom left-hand corner of the desktop. The work area includes icons for major communication programs. Besides JonDonym and the JonDoBrowser, you'll find Mixmaster, Icedove, Pidgin, and the Vidalia graphical management interface for the Tor network.

The developers integrated programs into the menus that promise security one way or another. The Accessories submenu, for example, has TrueCrypt, Unison, Figaro's Password Manager 2, KeePassX, and the GNU Privacy Assistant. The System submenu includes additional applications for encrypting disks and partitions, with Cryptkeeper and especially USBCryptFormat, which is hidden in the entry Encrypt external disks . The System and Accessories submenus also include the Metadata Anonymization Toolkit (MAT) that maintains valuable metadata for numerous file formats.

The procedure to surf anonymously with the Live distribution is the same as with JonDonym installed on a regular system. To begin, start the JonDonym client by clicking the corresponding entry on the desktop. Then, activate the JonDoBrowser that consists of a preconfigured Firefox 17.0.2. The JonDonym client itself is fully configured and doesn't require any additional settings in the Live version.

Alternatively, you can surf the Internet anonymously from the Live version over the Tor network by clicking the Vidalia (Tor GUI) icon on the desktop. Vidalia starts the graphical interface and automatically establishes a connection to the Tor network without requiring manual configuration.

Note that you can surf over the Tor network to the Internet with the JonDonym client turned off only if you modify the proxy settings at the bottom right of the browser. Click the entry with the left mouse button and activate the Tor radio button in the context menu that pops up.

Use of the Live distribution isn't limited to anonymously surfing the Internet and the use of corresponding online services, however, because the developers have integrated many well-known applications in the system. Among them are LibreOffice, GIMP, and Calibra, which let you handle standard office tasks. ImageMagick, XSane, and Evince are also included for creative minds, and you can find the Parole media player in the Multimedia submenu.

No option to install the distribution on a hard disk is included, but you can back up personal data on a USB stick. If you don't have an optical drive, you can also use a USB stick as boot media. The website includes detailed instructions on making a data disk [6].

Conclusion

JonDonym provides anonymous surfing of the Internet without a major installation or configuration. Carefully prepared configuration options make for complete security – as long as you don't make any changes later.

The Live CD or DVD and the bootable USB stick (with some preparation) provide a good opportunity to use other computers without any modification as full-fledged computers for anonymous surfing. Using the JonDonym client and the corresponding browser, you can set up your own computer in the same way. The rather low transfer rate of the free mix cascades tends to tarnish the overall positive impression of the software. But, because the service provider offers many different data allocation, run-time, and payment models, you can find the appropriate cost option for any application with high-speed requirements.