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Making TOR Switch Identities Automatically

GTrends SE 1.6 has a new feature that, when used in conjunction with the TOR proxy, makes it much easier to get around Google bans. This tutorial will explain how to enable that feature.

First, set TOR’s authentication method to “Password”. If you have installed TOR as part of the Vidalia bundle you can find this option in the Advanced tab of the Settings window. Choose any password you like and make sure you memorize it. Note : don’t tick the box that says Randomly Generate (if you do the program won’t tell you what password it generated).

You need to restart TOR for the changes to take effect. In Vidalia you can do this by first clicking “Stop Tor”, followed by “Start Tor”.

Now all that is left is configuring GTrends SE to enable automatic identity switching. Head to Settings/Proxies and tick “Automatically switch to new identity when needed”. Enter the TOR password in the appropriate box. Also make sure that “Use a proxy” is checked and TOR’s proxy address (usually 127.0.0.1:8118) is in the proxy list. Finally, uncheck “Automatically pause if getting Forbidden results” in Settings/Speed.

Click OK. You’re set :)

Notes

  • I recommend removing all other proxies (except TOR) from the proxy list when enabling identity switching.
  • GTrends SE expects the TOR control port to be at 127.0.0.1:9051. At this time the address is hardcoded and can’t be changed. Automatic identity switching will not work if TOR is not running on localhost and/or the control port number is different.
  • If an identity doesn’t work , GTrends SE will wait 15 seconds before trying again and switching to a new one. This delay was added to account for slower network connections where it takes a while to get a new identity.
  • You can probably disable “Play sound if blocked by Google” now (if you wish).

Posted: 07|1|08 at 9:29 pm. Filed under: Tutorials.
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13 Responses to Making TOR Switch Identities Automatically

  1. Ant Brown
    July 2nd, 2008 at 9:55 pm

    Ok,

    This is possibly the most important update. EVER!

    I was playing around with Tor last night, and then all of a sudden I get an email saying GTrends SE has built-in Tor support.

    Brilliant!

  2. Janis Elsts
    July 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 pm

    Yay, thanks :)

  3. wart remover
    July 3rd, 2008 at 5:18 am

    I followed the instructions to the letter and am now getting “14″ as the search results for each term and forbidden or n/a for competition.

    I have never successfully done keyword research with this tool? aaaaahhhh!!

  4. Janis Elsts
    July 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 am

    The reason why you get many keywords with the same results is explained here.

    If you keep getting forbidden results, you need to use a proxy, like TOR that was mentioned in the post above.

  5. vlad
    July 4th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Can’t get TOR to work. Setup everything and get a Network error when trying to connect through it. Any hints?

  6. Janis Elsts
    July 4th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    Check that Privoxy is running (a blue icon “P” in system tray). Assuming you installed from the torproject.org, open the control panel and click “View Network”; maybe that’ll give you some hints.

  7. v3ad
    July 4th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    Privoxy is running. FF3 runs with TOR.
    gtrends – Network error.

    Set Proxy as
    127.0.0.1:9051

  8. Janis Elsts
    July 4th, 2008 at 2:23 pm

    The proxy is 127.0.0.1:8118. 127.0.0.1:9051 is the control port used for sending administrative commands to TOR, like “switch to a new identity”.

  9. v3ad
    July 4th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    Yes! thx

  10. vlad
    July 4th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    thanks a lot for that proxy explanation now works like a charm.

    <for the next version two request :
    + show status bar info for selected keyword (number selected, total searches)
    + option not to check really long tail keywords (cut by phrase length for example 30 chars)

  11. Janis Elsts
    July 4th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

    You’re welcome.

    As for the suggeestion… number of selected keywords is pretty easy to add, will do. Total searches – probably not.

    Length threshold – maybe…

  12. Exposed seo
    February 19th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    Janis,

    Is there any way to make TOR switch identities by itself, lets say every 5 minutes? I want to try this with some other applications that don’t work as well with TOR as GTrends does. Thanks!

  13. Janis Elsts
    February 19th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

    I’m afraid not. I did a few quick searches but found nothing suitable. However, it wouldn’t be hard to write a little application that sits in the system tray and switches the identity periodically.

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