There may be situations where you have to transfer files to computer-illiterate people without burdening them with
technicalty. Or as a whistleblower you may have to send someone a bigger amount of data unsuitable for anonymous mailing.
That's where the TorFile Hidden Service can help. As an anonymous web server it offers file downloads directly from your
computer to those who know the correct URL consisting of the server's .onion address and a file-specific identifier.
They only have to run the
Tor Browser
program, a modified Firefox web client made for surfing the Internet anonymously.
By transmitting your file's URL through the remailer network to the person you target nobody can uncover your identity.
To avoid frustration only make sure that your Hidden Service is online when your counterpart enters the URL into his Tor
Browser's address field to download your data.
Running TorFile isn't very hard. Make sure that the TorPlus HTTP server is active (tab 'TorPlus' > 'Server') and data
routing adjusted and activated (tab 'TorPlus' > 'FileCtrl') as explained in the
TorPlus chapter.
Then go to the 'TorPlus > 'FileList' tab, where you have to enter the files to be made available for download.
Click '+' to add a new file to the list.
Enter a download identifier or create a random term by clicking the '<' button, then enter the file's path directly or,
by clicking '...', select it from a file dialog box. With the 'Active' box checked click 'Accept' to exit the dialog
and create the list entry.
Now we're nearly done. It only remains to start the servers to make the updated file list available.
To test whether TorFile works select a file from the list, press the '*' button to copy the combined address / identifier
URL to the clipboard, then open a Tor Browser and paste the URL.
Send the request and wait for a file download window to pop up.
On the TorFile server side you can follow the download process at the log list.
In case a problem arises the log shows its specific cause, whereas for security reasons always only a simple 'Access denied!'
reply is sent to the client.
