This is a growing section of instructions about anonymity, proxies configuration and specific Cloakfish topics
Index
Installation of Cloakfish
Just download the automated installer
here and execute it
Configuration of Cloakfish
Cloakfish is very easy to use but still has got several advanced configuration options for your needs.
After starting Cloakfish you need to set your login (registration email) and password in the license window.
Next click the "Store License" button, Cloakfish will validate your license and display the current status within a second.
Cloakfish is now ready to use.
Start using Cloakfish
Please refer to the
screenshots to get an overview about the different windows.
Still in your "License" Tab/Window you can see the number of proxies you can activate and the number that are currently activated.
Switch to the "Cloak" Tab/Window, when starting Cloakfish for the first time the Proxylist is empty (white box).
- Choose your prefered anonymity mode (slider on the bottom left side)
In Cloakfish 1.01.00 you can choose "Anonymous" and "highly anonymous", just use "Anonymous" for the start.
You can read here about these modes.
- Click on the small (+) button, or press Ctrl+A to add a new Proxy process.
You now need to choose an IP for your proxy process.
- Select the process by clicking on the list item, then right click it or click on the "Choose IP" button
- A new window opens up, it may take a few seconds until you can use it as the window receives data from a Cloakfish server.
To choose a new IP you first have to activate it, do so by selecting your desired proxy IP and clicking the "Activate this Proxy" button.
- As soon as your chosen proxy has been activated it will be listed on the top of the Proxy IP-list colored in green.
Select the activated IP you wish to use and click on "Use this Proxy". The new window will close.
- You now have configured your proxy. Click on "Activate" to turn the proxy on.
Please note that the first time a proxy process starts up it can take up to half a minute because the process downloads about 2 Megabytes of data.
This data is stored on your harddisk for later use.
- The statusbar on the bottom part of your window shows the current bootup status of each activated proxy.
As soon as it reaches 100% the proxy is ready to use.
Usualy it takes a few seconds to boot a proxy up.
- Please refer to the next section how to setup your browser or Internet application to use this proxy.
Cloakfish usage notes
- Proxy connection slow?
Your connection is tunneled through several proxies depending on your chosen security mode.
In configuration step 3. you selected the IP you wish to use, but the first (or more) proxies within your connection are automatically chosen.
In some cases it might happen that one of the proxies in your route has got a bad connection to its destination.
In this case you can use the "Restart" button, this changes the auto-selected proxies to random new ones.
The status bar will show the current boot process, once it hits 100% the proxy is ready again.
If the boot is stuck at 0% then please verify your computer date and time to be correct.
- Your Proxy stopped working?
In the case a selected proxy is not working anymore your Cloakfish client will automatically notify the servers.
Please wait up to 10 minutes, the servers will test the proxy and remove it from the list. You will then be able to activate a new IP free of charge.
- Updating license
Your license is refreshed every 5 minutes. You can update a license without delay by pressing the "Store License" button in the License tab/window
Start using Cloakfish autorotation
For all owners of a Standardfish license or larger the recommended way of using Cloakfish is through autorotation.
Autorotation can take IPs for you from the pool, full automated and based in your choices (country, speed, sharedness).
Autorotation will greatly increase your performance through the built in route optimization.
Changing IPs has never been easier, to switch to your next IP you simply click the Cycle button. Works instantly.
Watch this screencast to get a quick start into autorotation.
After about 25 seconds two green lights were on, this means (in light mode) that the proxy is ready to be used.
Just set your browser or application to use the autorotation SOCKS proxy : 127.0.0.1:30000
To change your IP you click the Cycle button, it will work instantly.
Instructions on how to setup your browser for the SOCKS proxy can also be found in this howto page.
Command line support
Since release 1.06.00 Cloakfish supports a number of command line arguments!
By launching Cloakfish together with various arguments you can control the state it launches in.
This can be used to start or restart cloakfish at specific times or to make it even easier to get started!
These arguments are currently supported:
- -h : shows a parameter help screen
- -q : quiet mode, supresses (a few) possible warning or error messages. (to be extended)
- -a : autorotation: open the autorotation window
- -s : autorotation: open the autorotation window, and start autorotation
- -l : autorotation: use light mode autorotation
- --arot_autoactivate : autorotation: enable auto IP activation
- --arot_newsession : autorotation: forget about previous autorotation sessions
- --arot_onlynewips : autorotation: only use new IPs (only useful for the largest licenses!)
- --arot_countrycode [code] : autorotation: use a specific country code for the IP selection
- --arot_timeout [number] : autorotation: time based autorotation, specify the number of seconds to rotate automated
As example, if you'd like to start cloakfish into light autorotation and automatically change your IP every 14 seconds:
"c:\program files\Cloakfish\Cloakfish.exe" -s -q -l --arot_autoactivate --arot_newsession --arot_timeout=14
Proxy configuration for the Firefox Webbrowser
It is highly recommended that you use the Firefox Webbrowser for your browsing! The browser is much more secure than IE and helps to protect your identity.
To use a Cloakfish proxy process you need to configure the Internet application for the socks port.
Each Cloakfish proxy process is listed by its Domain, IP, Host, Anonymity and Port.
The default ports start at port number 20000 up to 20128.
To use one of the running proxies all you have to do is configure your browser to use the proxy on localhost
The IP to use is always 127.0.0.1 (your own computer) and the port is taken from the proxy line in your Cloakfish utility.
If your selected proxy process supports port 53 use Socks V5, otherwise use Socks V4. (see Hint: DNS Anonymity)
You can change the Proxy in your firefox configuration (Menu) -> Advanced (Tab) -> Network (Tab) -> Connection (Area) - Settings (Button)
Hint: Free Firefox addon to switch proxies and clear cookies
Info: We discovered a bug in this 3rd party tool. The switching of proxies only works when more than the port was changed.
As fix you can use proxy type alternating socks 4 and 5. We will update the link as soon as we receive a bugfix.
The free Multiprox Switch addon is a great help to switch between the different Cloakfish proxies and easy to use.
Install Version 1.29 by clicking here
To directly install click on the link, Firefox will ask you for acceptance because Cloakfish.com is no known distributor for Firefox Addons.
The warning usualy pops up as yellow line, on the upper part of your firefox window. Just click the "Allow" button.
Alternatively you can install this Addon directly from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/7330
After restarting Firefox you will have a small label on the bottom right. Click it with your mouse to add and switch your proxies.
This Addon also works for the Thunderbird email client to anonymously send and receive emails.
Hint: Free Firefox addon to switch your user-agent
To learn what the user agent exactly is and why it compromises your anonymity please read the front page.
To view your current User Agent click here.
The free User Agent Switcher addon allows you to change your user agent on the fly!
This is mainly interesting in combination with the proxy switcher addon, both utilities together will masquerade your identity very efficiently.
Install Version 0.6.11 by clicking here.
Alternatively you can install this Addon directly from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/59
The user agent switcher can import a long list of useragents (you can download and use this list (right click, save as)).
To use this Addon comfortable just put the UserAgent icon on your toolbar (Move the icon through the Menu: View -> Toolbars -> Customize).
Hint: Free Firefox addon to remove specific cookies on the fly
Delete cookies of a specific site: Remove Cookies from site
This free addon creates a toolbar icon (You need to move the icon into your toolbar through the View -> Toolbars -> Customize option.
When you click the icon session and normal cookies of the current website are removed automatically.
Simply keep one tab open with the craigslist (or similar) website. After changing your IP go to this Tab and click the toolbar button.
Hint: DNS anonymity through Firefox
Firefox 3 supports domain name resolution through Socks V5 proxies.
You should use this feature in two cases:
- You need real anonymity, encrypted proxies protect the data transfered but the hostnames reveal a lot of information.
- DNS is filtered by a firewall or specific websites are blocked.
To enable the remote dns resolution feature, enter this URL in firefox by hand : about:config
Browse to the variable called "network.proxy.socks_remote_dns" and configure it to be "true"
Firefox will now tunnel DNS requests through the configured proxy.
Make sure your Cloakfish proxy process supports the port "53" or "*", you can verify the ports by selecting a proxy process and clicking the "?" button.
The configuration options in the Cloakfish "Choose IP" dialog offers a way to filter all available proxies for port 53.
Read more about DNS anonymity here
Please notice: this setting might slow your connection down a bit, depending on the latency to the socks proxy.
Hint: Browser accept language on Firefox
Make sure you have your browser accept language as you require it.
This information is sent to every website you visit and it includes your favorite language and country.
The string looks like this: "en-us" or "de-at" which means english-usa and german-austria
To change the language, enter this URL in firefox by hand : about:config
Browse to the variable called "intl.accept_languages" and configure it to the desired value
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Screenshot - Firefox proxy configuration
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Proxy configuration for the Internet Explorer
We recommend the use of the free Webbrowser Firefox 3.0. Firefox offers a great range of features and extensions that help protecting your anonymity.
The Internet Explorer needs to be configured to use the specified Cloakfish proxy process.
You use the IP 127.0.0.1 (your own computer) and the correct proxy process port (20000 - 20128)
Enter Internet options (Menu) -> Connections (Tab) -> LAN Settings (Button) -> Proxyserver Advanced (Button)
Hint: How to change the User Agent for the Internet Explorer
To view your current User Agent click here. To change the User Agent you need to close all IE windows.
Next execute (Start -> Run...) the tool regedit and navigate to:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent] (note: "5.0" might be different)
You can modify the four different parameters:
- {Default}
- Compatible
- Version
- Platform
The final User Agent looks like: {Default} (Compatible; Version; Platform)
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Screenshot - IE proxy configuration
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Registering multiple accounts
To be successful in online business it is required to be listed high on search engines.
Optimizing a website to be more attractive to search engines is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
The most popular technique to receive a good position is to register on well known websites like Youtube, Facebook, Myspace or similar Web 2.0 portals.
Videos, blogs, forums and signatures are used to create content that links to the website, so called
backlinks.
This technique works very well to get a good "rank" but all those portals are commercial and they do not like to be used like this without paying for it.
For SEO it is essential to have a wide range of web 2.0 accounts, of course we can not suggest to do this, we only tell how to do it without getting caught.
It should also be noted that it can be illegal in some states to create web accounts based on wrong personal data (name, address etc).
The worst thing that usualy happens, is the termination of your account if you do not cause real trouble (as example spamming, harassment or copyright violations).
When registering multiple accounts it is most important to change the IP by using a different Cloakfish proxy process or by changing the IP of your active proxy.
It is important to remove all cookies, a new IP does not help much if the browsers transmits the previous account data to the webserver!
To truely masquerade the identity it is also required to change the User Agent. The User Agent is rarely verified by automated tools, but an experienced moderator or administrator might reveal your accounts if they all use the same User Agent.
In reality the User Agent is rarely verified.
Summary:
- Log out of the targeted social networks (to close active browser sessions)
- Close all tabs / windows (to avoid leaking information after changing your IP)
- Change the IP of your active proxy, or switch to another proxy process
- Remove all cookies (removing only the cookies of the specific domain is not always sufficient)
- Change your user agent (optional for perfection)
- Visit http://www.cloakfish.com and verify your IP and identity is correctly changed. (the first page analyzes your identity)
Removing Flash cookies
Flash cookies are "local shared objects" that can contain up to 100kb of data and are usually not removed by removing the browser cookies.
This "feature" of Adobes Macromedia Flash (a multimedia extension found in most browsers) are used to track information about you outside of typical browser paths.
Use the tool below to change your privacy settings and remove/view your flash cookies (left window) or permanently reject flash cookies (right window)
Sorry, macromedia built in protections to stop us from providing this service. They obviously do not want people to know about flash cookies.
Until the issue is solved you can disallow flash cookies here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html
View and remove your current cookies here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html
