Running a Tor client is easy to do.
Configuring the Tor client
Enable the client by checking "Enable Tor" on the Tor configuration page on the IPFire web interface and hit "Save".
In most cases you are done, but in some cases, you may wish to allow or deny access to some hosts on your network or select the country your packets will leave the Tor network.
Advanced Settings
SOCKS port
The SOCKS port option defines the port your Tor proxy is listening for incoming connections from your local network. You may point your web browser or other tools to connect to that port and use the Tor proxy to send data through the Tor network.
Be aware, that this is not an HTTP proxy. The protocol that is used here is called SOCKS.
Access Control
You may define the hosts from your local networks that are allowed to use the Tor SOCKS proxy. Enter IP addresses or networks one per line.
Exit Nodes
You may select preferred Tor exit-nodes, either by entering them to the list of exit-nodes you only want to use or by selecting a country, the exit-node must be in. As an example: In the screenshot all traffic will leave the Tor network in Sweden.
Use the Tor proxy with your web browser
You can configure many network clients to use your new Tor IPFire router, but for web traffic we highly recommend the Tor Browser bundle for maximum security (see here). This package is specifically designed to minimize the amount of information you give away. When installed, simply point the proxy and SOCKS settings to your router, on whatever port you have configured.
When installed, you should disable the integrated Tor proxy because Tor-over-Tor is not advised.
Windows users can achieve this by using a self created batch/cmd/bat script like this one:
filename = TorBrowser.cmd
@echo off
REM disables the integrated Tor proxy
SET TOR_SKIP_LAUNCH=1
REM presets your routers Tor proxy as the new poxy
SET TOR_SOCKS_HOST=<YOUR IPFIRE IP HERE>
SET TOR_SOCKS_PORT=9050
start firefox.exe
Save this as "TorBrowser.cmd" in the same directory where your tor-browser "firefox.exe" is and modify it for your configuration. Make sure the file-extension is still ".cmd" or ".bat" and not ".txt" after saving the changes.
Now you can start your Tor brwoser with "TorBrowser.cmd". Remember to make sure your configuration is working by visiting https://check.torproject.org/. The Tor-button and the "about:tor" page won't help you there because they wont work with an external Tor proxy and will always tell you that you're not using Tor.
Explaining other ways to reach the same result (set TOR_SKIP_LAUNCH=1 as a global windows env-var and set proxy in FireFox config) is beyond the scope of this document.
Setting up other services to use the network is beyond the scope of this document. Visit the Tor project at https://www.torproject.org/ for some excellent documentation covering many topics.
What is SOCKS
A protocol named SOCKS (Socket Secure) is a networking protocol that predates NAT (Network Address Translation) used by most routers to connect an internal network to the "world." It is a simple protocol where you connect to the SOCKS proxy, telling that proxy where you want to connect to. See SOCKS for more information.
Basically, SOCKS is similar to an HTTP Connect. If you type the Tor proxy into your web browser settings, it is just as important to type into the SOCKS proxy setting and not as an HTTP proxy.