Local browser homepage for Tor Browser in Whonix

Awesome! Will be fixed in Whonix 15.0.1.3.5 and upgrades later.

(Not included in the soon upcoming Whonix 15.0.1.3.4.)

2 Likes

3 Likes

Its nice to have search engines added to whonix welcome page but there are some notices one them and better changes:

  • Qwant

When searching using https://www.qwant.com/ with safest TBB it will redirect user to https://lite.qwant.com/ and if you type anything for search it wont search for you. a plus+ its proprietary, centralized search engine

Doesnt has onion domain.

Exact same issues as Qwant but this one doesnt search at all without enabling JS.

This one is nice that you can search without JS. but its Proprietary and blocking Tor users to view their blog content (over cloudflare) e.g: (although cookies are enabled in TBB while browsing anyway)

Please enable cookies.

Error 1001 Ray ID:72dc65d21acclda2 • 2020-05-07 14:22:18 UTC

DNS resolution error

What happened?

You’ve requested a page on a website (blog.ecosia.org) that is on the Cloudflare network. Cloudflare is currently unable to resolve your requested domain (blog.ecosia.org). There are two potential causes of this:

  • Most likely: if the owner just signed up for Cloudflare it can take a few minutes for the website’s information to be distributed to our global network.
  • Less likely: something is wrong with this site’s configuration. Usually this happens when accounts have been signed up with a partner organization (e.g., a hosting provider) and the provider’s DNS fails.

Cloudflare Ray ID: 72dc65d21acclda2 • Your IP: 2615:8120:8040:6ca1::1d1:8d66 • Performance & security by Cloudflare

But this can be useful at least while using safest tbb security option.

This one is great , free software metasearch engine, only enhancement here switch its TLS link to Onion:

http://b7cxf4dkdsko6ah2.onion/

  • Replacement to peekier or qwant can be implemented to add Onion SearX, for e.g:

http://juy4e6eicawzdrz7.onion/

This instance maintained by Snopyta , Mentioned as well in SearX instances (then go to Online Tor).

Another enhancement to whonix welcome page:

  • Change Torproject website from TLS to Onion

http://expyuzz4wqqyqhjn.onion/

Why is Peekier added to the local homepage? It is hosted by Cloudflare and does not work without JavaScript. Its ownership is also undefined. This does not seem trustworthy to me.

I think it would be good to prefer onion services on the homepage. Metager’s onion service can be shown in English. Would that make it suitable to replace the clearnet link?

http://b7cxf4dkdsko6ah2.onion/en/

My arbitrary criteria:
It’s alternative search engines which provide less censored / more interesting search results. Whonix doesn’t receive payment for any listings. Considered candidates are those having good quality, less censored search results.

Privacy by policy / ownership / location / hosted by which data center is not considered. There is no escape from cloudshare / AWS:

Non-javascript support isn’t considered either. Impractical. Even these forums here require javascript.

High risk of law of triviality / bikeshed. There’s no way to optimize for all goals at once. I don’t intent to spend a lot time debating favorite colors (choice of search engines).

1 Like

Understood.

Whonix News Telegram
Archived News

These URLs doesnt look needed, Why telegram exist while we have forums/discourse news section? Even its more secure to make the user visit forums since its support onion connection.

DuckDuckGo

Not sure why its at the bottom of the page while its the default search engine of TB, I see no value point of having it again. (you can replace it with one of searx search engines similar to yacy or just remove it)

1 Like

In case whonix.org is down, notifications can be posted there.

In case telegram blocks connections from the Tor network it can be circumvented using web archive.

  • Doesn’t work anymore

https://search.yacy.net/

  • Heavily relied on cloudflare and need captcha sometimes very much useless over tor

https://www.ecosia.org/

  • Metager has an onion instance

http://metagerv65pwclop2rsfzg4jwowpavpwd6grhhlvdgsswvo6ii4akgyd.onion/en

  • DDG has onion (acutally its default TB search engine)

https://duckduckgogg42xjoc72x3sjasowoarfbgcmvfimaftt6twagswzczad.onion


good replacement to be added:

ahmia:

http://juhanurmihxlp77nkq76byazcldy2hlmovfu2epvl5ankdibsot4csyd.onion/

brave:

https://search.brave4u7jddbv7cyviptqjc7jusxh72uik7zt6adtckl5f4nwy2v72qd.onion/


Change TB link to onion services link:

http://2gzyxa5ihm7nsggfxnu52rck2vv4rvmdlkiu3zzui5du4xyclen53wid.onion/index.html

1 Like

Could you please pull request(s) for this?

For onions, we need to add evidence that the onion belongs to the official domain. For that, please add a comment to the html source code.

Syntax:

<!-- comment -->

Example:

<!-- Write some useful comment. Add web archived link to evidence the onion belong to the official domain. -->


For reference:

1 Like

Done:

For TPO only i will put here:

https://archive.ph/ANYXl


Brave logo:

Brave (web browser) - Wikipedia

or just the head

https://cryptoradar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Brave-logo.png

Ahmia logo:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ahmia/ahmia-site/master/ahmia-logotype.png

or only the A

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/ip3/ahmia.fi.ico

1 Like

Thank you for the pull request! Merged.

Ahmia logo is currently unresolved, broken.

This is too big.

Resolution is far too low.

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this one?

or any of these:

https://etc.usf.edu/presentations/extras/letters/varsity_letters/53/13/index.html

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https://www.whonix.org/wiki/File:Search-ahmia.png

1 Like

Image issue resolved.

These changes are now in the testers repository.

1 Like

Will reply soon.

Related, posted here an update regarding the 2022 end of year donation banner campaign:

To answer your suggestion, coincidentally, just a day earlier or so work was done to ship the same banner in Whonix Welcome Page in Tor Browser. An update to whonix-welcome-page will be pushed in the next few days.

The banner does not result in making any external connections. All contents are load locally unless the user clicks a link.

The 2022 end of year banner campaign will automatically end on 01.01.2023.

Related repositories:

Remove peekier from TB start page as its not anymore accessible for users to search without payment, and now redirecting to different company called kagi.

1 Like

I think i can see Mojeek good replacement for it:

logo: