Silk Road: anonymous marketplace. Feedback requested :)

[hobojoe]

I just installed Tor and I have it running in Firefox but it's going incredibly slow, taking up to 30 seconds to load a single page.  I'm also getting a "Proxy error: 502 Server dropped connection" message when I try to connect to Silk Road.  I don't really care about running Tor outside of getting to Silk Road but if anyone can help with one/both of these issues I'd appreciate it, and if Tor normally runs this slowly then at least I know it's not just me.

P.S. if it matters I'm running at least 18mbps when I just checked on Chrome, so it's not just a slightly slowed connection.

Edit: never mind, it took about six tries but I managed to connect.  If anyone still wants to explain the slow Tor issue that's fine but not necessary

[MoonShadow]

I just installed Tor and I have it running in Firefox but it's going incredibly slow, taking up to 30 seconds to load a single page.  I'm also getting a "Proxy error: 502 Server dropped connection" message when I try to connect to Silk Road.  I don't really care about running Tor outside of getting to Silk Road but if anyone can help with one/both of these issues I'd appreciate it, and if Tor normally runs this slowly then at least I know it's not just me.

P.S. if it matters I'm running at least 18mbps when I just checked on Chrome, so it's not just a slightly slowed connection.

Two things.

1) At this particular moment, the entire Internet seems to be bogged down.

2) Tor does run slower than surfing normally, by it's nature.  That's unavoidable.  But you should still be able to get there if your tor client has reported that a circut has been established.  It can take a while for a new install to establish a first circut.

[Piff102287]

i cant really access silk road idk how to configure vidalia for my tor service please help, nor do i know how i can access the site

[mewantsbitcoins]

Trying to configure vidalia without some networking/security knowledge is asking for trouble. Download browser bundle and use that.
Site is at: http://ianxz6zefk72ulzz.onion/
But do yourself a favor - don't do anything stupid, like buying stuff, before you learn about anonymity online. Just because you downloaded a piece of software doesn't mean you are under the radar. I bet there will be arrests after these resent articles

Hidden wiki might be of interest too:
http://kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[coolnigh]

registering with Silk Road was the easy part.  I can't figure out how to buy bitcoins, and i've tried most of the recommended exchange sites.  there has to be a simple way for me to use paypal or my bank account for purchases, no?

[ron]

registering with Silk Road was the easy part.  I can't figure out how to buy bitcoins, and i've tried most of the recommended exchange sites.  there has to be a simple way for me to use paypal or my bank account for purchases, no?

ebay usually has one auction going. 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330568092684&category=169305&_trksid=p5197.c0.m619#ht_500wt_1156

[marcus_of_augustus]

registering with Silk Road was the easy part.  I can't figure out how to buy bitcoins, and i've tried most of the recommended exchange sites.  there has to be a simple way for me to use paypal or my bank account for purchases, no?

It is only when try to escape, that you will know you were not free.

[error]

registering with Silk Road was the easy part.  I can't figure out how to buy bitcoins, and i've tried most of the recommended exchange sites.  there has to be a simple way for me to use paypal or my bank account for purchases, no?

mtgox accepts bank wires and Dwolla.

[blap]

if you do not care about crypto, change .onion for .tor2web.com:
http://ianxz6zefk72ulzz.onion/
will be
http://ianxz6zefk72ulzz..tor2web.com/
with this change, you not need tor or anything else, but you loss the crypto.

[BitterTea]

if you do not care about crypto, change .onion for .tor2web.com:
http://ianxz6zefk72ulzz.onion/
will be
http://ianxz6zefk72ulzz..tor2web.com/
with this change, you not need tor or anything else, but you loss the crypto.

This is not recommended at all for anything other than browsing. You lose all privacy, as all data sent back from Silk Road as well as all data you enter is transmitted in clear text to the proxy. They would have your name, address, bitcoin address, items purchased, etc.

Do not use this if you are buying from Silk Road.

[error]

Seconded regarding use of Tor2web. It appears that anybody can set up a little VPS and become part of the tor2web thing, and then they can capture all the traffic passing through that node on the way into Tor.

Using tor2web is not recommended for anything that might be remotely sensitive.

[aspirant]

Thanks guys, very useful posts. I'm new to bitcoin and Thor.

I was wondering where I should go to study up on securing my internet and stuff.

[Marcus]

ebay usually has one auction going.  

Thanks, Ron, for posting link to that auction on eBay.  I was just in time, and won that auction.  So now am the proud owner of my first 10 Bitcoins.  

Perhaps it will help other newcomers (like myself), and to avoid getting off topic here, I posted some thoughts about a beginner (me) using eBay for Bitcoin on another thread: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=10982.0  

[caveden]

I can't figure out how to buy bitcoins, and i've tried most of the recommended exchange sites.  there has to be a simple way for me to use paypal or my bank account for purchases, no?

Not paypal, no. They've forbidden the selling of bitcoins. And even for those who don't care, selling bitcoins for paypal is somehow dangerous since paypal transfers are reversible while bitcoin transfers are not.

[Marcus]

Not paypal, no. They've forbidden the selling of bitcoins. And even for those who don't care, selling bitcoins for paypal is somehow dangerous since paypal transfers are reversible while bitcoin transfers are not.

Thank you, Caveden, for posting about that.  Important to know.  I see this thread topic is devoted to Silk Road feedback.  Is there a thread on this forum devoted to the PayPal situation?   Since I just used PayPal to pay for Bitcoins a few minutes ago -- via an eBay auction -- I would be most interested in such a thread topic.  

[caveden]

If you bought bitcoins with paypal you should be fine, it's the seller who take some risks.
You'll find many threads about paypal here.

[hans030390]

I recently found out about Silk Road through an article on Kotaku, which contained quite specific instructions on how to use it...then I realized that this "news" had spread to quite a few other websites. Is anyone else worried about the potential attention this might attract?

[MoonShadow]

I recently found out about Silk Road through an article on Kotaku, which contained quite specific instructions on how to use it...then I realized that this "news" had spread to quite a few other websites. Is anyone else worried about the potential attention this might attract?

Um, no?

[omey]

It seems like the site is down?

I'm running TOR fine, and could access the site yesterday, but now I get a:

'504 Connect to www.ianxz6zefk72ulzz.onion:80 failed: General SOCKS server failure'

[MoonShadow]

It seems like the site is down?

I'm running TOR fine, and could access the site yesterday, but now I get a:

'504 Connect to www.ianxz6zefk72ulzz.onion:80 failed: General SOCKS server failure'

I take it you run Windoze?  This is a local error.