Tor Messenger - instant messaging, anonymized [offline]

Submit portable freeware that you find here. It helps if you include information like description, extraction instruction, Unicode support, whether it writes to the registry, and so on.
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webfork
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Tor Messenger - instant messaging, anonymized [offline]

#1 Post by webfork »

Synopsis: The Tor project is putting out a messenger as well as a browser. It looks like it was built from parts to have a multi-network IM program that goes through anonymizing network with required encryption. Essentially: InstantBird + Tor + OTR.

Unfortunately, despite what the Tor page says, InstantBird's development has slowed down quite a bit (their blog [http://blog.instantbird.org/] hasn't been updated in a year and a half) and I sort of doubt the IRC connection works as most servers decline TOR connections.

I'd like to highlight that the beta does NOT encrypt file transfers.

Website: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-me ... tor-easily
Other: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/C ... nger.shtml
Ghacks article: I swear I wrote something up before I saw the Ghacks article come out

According to the InstantBird FAQ, Instantbird itself is natively portable: http://www.instantbird.com/faq.html#portable ... but I haven't tested this. I'll wait for some evidence that the InstantBird project is back online and for this program to get out of beta before running anything.

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Re: Tor Messenger - instant messaging, anonymized

#2 Post by smaragdus »

I suppose I have missed something but I have never managed to run Instantbird in portable mode- it always writes settings to AppData (Local and Roaming). I am referring to the original Instantbird, not to the PortableApps version. I hope that Instantbird is not abandoned but more likely it is. I suppose that the main reason why Tor developers chose Instantbird is XUL. By the way there hasn't been a new release of Pidgin for almost a year too.

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Re: Tor Messenger - instant messaging, anonymized

#3 Post by webfork »

Version 0.2.0 Beta 2 is out:
http://www.softpedia.com/progChangelog/ ... 50774.html

Edit: the installer appears to be something you can open with 7zip. Just copy the contents of "Browser" to a folder of your choice and launch Instantbird.exe. It appears portable, writing to TorBrowser\Data but I haven't tested stealth status. The install runs about 115 megs.

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Re: Tor Messenger 0.3.0 Beta 1

#4 Post by smaragdus »

Tor Messenger at version 0.3.0 Beta 1, change log at Softpedia. Tor Messenger seemed portable and stealth but unfortunately I failed to connect to Jabber and Google Talk (I didn't experience such problems with Instantbird which connected immediately using the same accounts).
See this matrix to determine where the profile folder is stored on your platform.

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Re: Tor Messenger 0.3.0 Beta 1

#5 Post by webfork »

smaragdus wrote: ... unfortunately I failed to connect to Jabber and Google Talk (I didn't experience such problems with Instantbird which connected immediately using the same accounts).
Darn. Thanks for testing. I wonder if that's a decision made on Google's side to block Tor or that's just a symptom of this program's status as a Dev version where not all the parts work yet.

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Re: Tor Messenger 0.4.0 Beta 3

#6 Post by smaragdus »

Tor Messenger version 0.4.0 Beta 3 works fine for me and it seems to be portable and stealth.

Images

Tor Messenger - main window:

Image

Tor Messenger - context menu:

Image

Tor Messenger - chat window:

Image

Tor Messenger - new conversation:

Image

Tor Messenger - extensions window:

Image

It seems that chat logging is disabled and I do not know how to enable it.

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Re: Tor Messenger 0.4.0 Beta 3

#7 Post by webfork »

smaragdus wrote:It seems that chat logging is disabled and I do not know how to enable it.
I suspect thats intentional, if frustrating. Certainly it should be disabled by default but not completely unavailable.

Thanks for the screenshots.

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Re: Tor Messenger - instant messaging, anonymized

#8 Post by webfork »

Tor messenger update is out: 0.5.0 Beta 1
http://www.softpedia.com/progChangelog/ ... 50774.html
All Platforms:
Use the tor-browser-52.3.0esr-7.0-1-build1 tag on tor-browser
Use the THUNDERBIRD_52_3_0_RELEASE tag on comm-esr52
Update tor-browser to 7.0.5
Update tor-launcher to 0.2.12.3
Trac 22005: Move to ESR 52
Trac 16606: Temporary XMPP accounts
Trac 13855: Use known onions for XMPP servers
Windows:
Trac 17469: Tor Messenger is not working on Windows XP
Trac 10942: Deterministic builds for Instantbird

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Re: Tor Messenger is no more

#9 Post by smaragdus »

As of March 2018, Tor Messenger is NO LONGER MAINTAINED and you should NOT use it. Please see the ​announcement on the blog for more information.
Source
All downloads have been removed.
Sunsetting Tor Messenger
Tor Project announces end of Tor Messenger
Ricochet also seems abandoned, while unMessage is not available for Windows.

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Re: Tor Messenger is no more

#10 Post by webfork »

Sigh. I'll add a note to the thread title.

I certainly understand issues from a metadata standpoint -- that is pretty damning.

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