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5) #include "head.wmi" TITLE="Tor Project: FAQ" CHARSET="UTF-8"
6) <div id="content" class="clearfix">
7)   <div id="breadcrumbs">

8)     <a href="<page index>">Home &raquo; </a>

9)     <a href="<page docs/documentation>">Documentation &raquo; </a>
10)     <a href="<page docs/faq>">FAQ</a>
11)   </div>
12)   <div id="maincol">
13)     <!-- PUT CONTENT AFTER THIS TAG -->
14)     <h1>Tor FAQ</h1>

15)     <hr>

16) 

17)     <p>General questions:</p>
18)     <ul>
19)     <li><a href="#WhatIsTor">What is Tor?</a></li>

20)     <li><a href="#Torisdifferent">How is Tor different from other
21) proxies?</a></li>

22)     <li><a href="#CompatibleApplications">What programs can I use with
23)     Tor?</a></li>
24)     <li><a href="#WhyCalledTor">Why is it called Tor?</a></li>
25)     <li><a href="#Backdoor">Is there a backdoor in Tor?</a></li>

26)     <li><a href="#DistributingTor">Can I distribute Tor?</a></li>

27)     <li><a href="#SupportMail">How can I get support?</a></li>

28)     <li><a href="#Forum">Is there a Tor forum?</a></li>

29)     <li><a href="#WhySlow">Why is Tor so slow?</a></li>

30)     <li><a href="#FileSharing">How can I share files anonymously through Tor?
31)     </a></li>
32)     <li><a href="#OutboundPorts">Do I have to open all these outbound ports 
33)     on my firewall?</a></li>

34)     <li><a href="#Funding">What would The Tor Project do with more
35)     funding?</a></li>

36)     <li><a href="#IsItWorking">How can I tell if Tor is working, and that my 
37)     connections really are anonymized?</a></li>

38)     <li><a href="#FTP">How do I use my browser for ftp with Tor?</a></li>

39)     <li><a href="#Metrics">How many people use Tor? How many relays or
40)     exit nodes are there?</a></li>

41)     <li><a href="#SSLcertfingerprint">What are your SSL certificate

42)     fingerprints?</a></li>

43)     </ul>

44) 

45)     <p>Compilation and Installation:</p>
46)     <ul>
47)     <li><a href="#HowUninstallTor">How do I uninstall Tor?</a></li>
48)     <li><a href="#PGPSigs">What are these "sig" files on the download
49)     page?</a></li>

50)     <li><a href="#GetTor">Your website is blocked in my country. How
51)     do I download Tor?</a></li>

52)     <li><a href="#CompileTorWindows">How do I compile Tor under
53) Windows?</a></li>
54)     <li><a href="#VirusFalsePositives">Why does my Tor executable appear
55) to

56)     have a virus or spyware?</a></li>

57)     <li><a href="#LiveCD">Is there a LiveCD or other bundle that
58) includes Tor?</a></li>

59)     </ul>

60) 

61)     <p>Tor Browser Bundle:</p>
62)     <ul>

63) 

64)     <li><a href="#TBBFlash">Why can't I view videos on YouTube and other
65)     Flash-based sites?</a></li>

66)     <li><a href="#Ubuntu">I'm using Ubuntu and I can't start Tor Browser
67)     </a></li>

68)     <li><a href="#TBBSocksPort">I want to

69)     run another application through the Tor launched by Tor Browser

70)     Bundle.</a></li>

71)     <li><a href="#TBBPolipo">I need an HTTP proxy. Where did Polipo
72)     go?</a></li>

73)     <li><a href="#TBBOtherExtensions">Can I install other Firefox

74)     extensions? Which extensions should I avoid using?</a></li>

75)     <li><a href="#TBBJavaScriptEnabled">Why is NoScript configured to
76) allow JavaScript by default in the Tor Browser Bundle?  Isn't that
77) unsafe?</a></li>

78)     <li><a href="#TBBOtherBrowser">I want to use Chrome/IE/Opera/etc
79)     with Tor.</a></li>

80)     <li><a href="#TorbuttonOtherBrowser">Will Torbutton be available for other browsers?</a></li>

81)     <li><a href="#TBBCloseBrowser">I want to leave Tor Browser Bundle
82)     running but close the browser.</a></li>
83) 

84)     <li><a href="#GoogleCAPTCHA">Google makes me solve a CAPTCHA or

85) tells

86)     me I have spyware installed.</a></li>

87)     <li><a href="#ForeignLanguages">Why does Google show up in foreign 
88)     languages?</li></a>

89)     <li><a href="#GmailWarning">Gmail warns me that my account may have
90)     been compromised.</a></li>
91)     </ul>
92) 
93)     <p>Advanced Tor usage:</p>

94)     <ul>
95)     <li><a href="#torrc">I'm supposed to "edit my torrc". What does
96)     that mean?</a></li>

97)     <li><a href="#Logs">How do I set up logging, or see Tor's

98)     logs?</a></li>

99)     <li><a href="#LogLevel">What log level should I use?</a></li>

100)     <li><a href="#DoesntWork">Tor is running, but it's not working
101)     correctly.</a></li>

102)     <li><a href="#TorCrash">My Tor keeps crashing.</a></li>

103)     <li><a href="#VidaliaPassword">Tor/Vidalia prompts for a password at
104)     start.</a></li>

105)     <li><a href="#ChooseEntryExit">Can I control which nodes (or
106) country)

107)     are used for entry/exit?</a></li>

108)     <li><a href="#FirewallPorts">My firewall only allows a few outgoing
109)     ports.</a></li>

110)     <li><a href="#ExitPorts">Is there a list of default exit ports?</a></li>

111)     <li><a href="#SocksAndDNS">How do I check if my application that uses 
112)     SOCKS is leaking DNS requests?</a></li>
113)     <li><a href="#DifferentComputer">I want to run my Tor client on a 
114)     different computer than my applications.</a></li>
115)     <li><a href="#ServerClient">Can I install Tor on a central server, and 
116)     have my clients connect to it?</a></li>
117)     <li><a href="#JoinTheNetwork">So I can just configure a nickname and 
118)     ORPort and join the network?</a></li>

119)     </ul>

120) 

121)     <p>Running a Tor relay:</p>
122)     <ul>

123) 
124)     <li><a href="#HowDoIDecide">How do I decide if I should run a relay?
125)     </a></li>

126)     <li><a href="#WhyIsntMyRelayBeingUsedMore">Why isn't my relay being 
127)     used more?</a></li>
128)     <li><a href="#HighCapacityConnection">How can I get Tor to fully 
129)     make use of my high capacity connection?</a></li>

130)     <li><a href="#RelayFlexible">How stable does my relay need to
131) be?</a></li>
132)     <li><a href="#ExitPolicies">I'd run a relay, but I don't want to
133) deal

134)     with abuse issues.</a></li>
135)     <li><a href="#RelayOrBridge">Should I be a normal relay or bridge
136)     relay?</a></li>

137)     <li><a href="#UpgradeOrMove">I want to upgrade/move my relay. How do I 
138)     keep the same key?</a></li>

139)     <li><a href="#MultipleRelays">I want to run more than one
140) relay.</a></li>

141)     <li><a href="#NTService">How do I run my Tor relay as an NT service?
142)     </a></li>
143)     <li><a href="#VirtualServer">Can I run a Tor relay from my virtual server 
144)     account?</a></li>

145)     <li><a href="#WrongIP">My relay is picking the wrong IP address.</a></li>
146)     <li><a href="#BehindANAT">I'm behind a NAT/Firewall</a></li>

147)     <li><a href="#RelayMemory">Why is my Tor relay using so much memory?
148)     </a></li>
149)     <li><a href="#BetterAnonymity">Do I get better anonymity if I run a relay?
150)     </a></li>

151)     <li><a href="#RelayDonations">Can I donate for a relay rather than
152)     run my own?</a></li>

153)     </ul>

154) 

155)     <p>Tor hidden services:</p>
156)     <ul>
157)     <li><a href="#AccessHiddenServices">How do I access hidden services?</a></li>
158)     <li><a href="#ProvideAHiddenService">How do I provide a hidden service</a></li>
159)     </ul>

160) 

161)     <p>Anonymity and Security:</p>
162)     <ul>

163)     <li><a href="#WhatProtectionsDoesTorProvide">What protections does Tor 
164)     provide?</a></li>
165)     <li><a href="#CanExitNodesEavesdrop">Can exit nodes eavesdrop on 
166)     communications? Isn't that bad? </a></li>
167)     <li><a href="#ExitEnclaving">What is Exit Enclaving?</a></li>

168)     <li><a href="#KeyManagement">Tell me about all the keys Tor
169) uses.</a></li>

170)     <li><a href="#EntryGuards">What are Entry Guards?</a></li>

171)     <li><a href="#ChangePaths">How often does Tor change its paths?</a></li>

172)     <li><a href="#CellSize">Tor uses hundreds of bytes for every IRC line. I 
173)     can't afford that!</a></li>
174)     <li><a href="#OutboundConnections">Why does netstat show these outbound 
175)     connections?</a></li>
176)     <li><a href="#PowerfulBlockers">What about powerful blocking mechanisms
177)     </a></li>
178)     <li><a href="#RemotePhysicalDeviceFingerprinting">Does Tor resist 
179)     "remote physical device fingerprinting"?</a></li>

180)     <li><a href="#VPN">What's safer, Tor or a VPN?</a></li>
181)     <li><a href="#Proxychains">Aren't 10 proxies (proxychains) better than 
182)     Tor with only 3 hops?</a></li>

183)     <li><a href="#AttacksOnOnionRouting">What attacks remain against onion 
184)     routing?</a></li>

185)     </ul>

186) 

187)     <p>Alternate designs that we don't do (yet):</p>
188)     <ul>
189)     <li><a href="#EverybodyARelay">You should make every Tor user be a
190)     relay.</a></li>

191)     <li><a href="#TransportIPnotTCP">You should transport all IP
192) packets,

193)     not just TCP packets.</a></li>

194)     <li><a href="#HideExits">You should hide the list of Tor relays,
195)     so people can't block the exits.</a></li>

196)     <li><a href="#ChoosePathLength">You should let people choose their path 
197)     length.</a></li>
198)     <li><a href="#SplitEachConnection">You should split each connection over 
199)     many paths.</a></li>
200)     <li><a href="#UnallocatedNetBlocks">Your default exit policy should block 
201)     unallocated net blocks too.</a></li>
202)     <li><a href="#BlockWebsites">Exit policies should be able to block 
203)     websites, not just IP addresses.</a></li>
204)     <li><a href="#BlockContent">You should change Tor to prevent users from 
205)     posting certain content.</a></li>

206)     <li><a href="#SendPadding">You should send padding so it's more secure.
207)     </a></li>
208)     <li><a href="#Steganography">You should use steganography to hide Tor 
209)     traffic.</a></li>

210)     <li><a href="#IPv6">Tor should support IPv6.</a></li>

211)     </ul>

212) 

213)     <p>Abuse:</p>

214)     <ul>

215)     <li><a href="#Criminals">Doesn't Tor enable criminals to do bad
216) things?</a></li>

217)     <li><a href="#RespondISP">How do I respond to my ISP about my exit
218)     relay?</a></li>

219)     <li><a href="#HelpPoliceOrLawyers">I have questions about
220)    a Tor IP address for a legal case.</a></li>

221)     </ul>

222) 

223)     <p>For other questions not yet on this version of the FAQ, see the
224) <a

225)     href="<wikifaq>">wiki FAQ</a> for now.</p>

226) 

227)     <hr>

228) 

229)     <a id="General"></a>

230) 

231)     <a id="WhatIsTor"></a>
232)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhatIsTor">What is Tor?</a></h3>

233) 

234)     <p>
235)     The name "Tor" can refer to several different components.
236)     </p>

237) 

238)     <p>

239)     The Tor software is a program you can run on your computer that
240) helps keep
241)     you safe on the Internet. Tor protects you by bouncing your
242) communications

243)     around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around

244)     the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection
245) from

246)     learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit

247)     from learning your physical location. This set of volunteer relays
248) is
249)     called the Tor network. You can read more about how Tor works on the
250) <a

251)     href="<page about/overview>">overview page</a>.
252)     </p>

253) 

254)     <p>

255)     The Tor Project is a non-profit (charity) organization that
256) maintains

257)     and develops the Tor software.
258)     </p>

259) 

260)     <hr>

261) 

262)     <a id="Torisdifferent"></a>

263)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Torisdifferent">How is Tor different
264) from other proxies?</a></h3>
265)     <p>
266)     A typical proxy provider sets up a server somewhere on the Internet
267) and
268) allows you to use it to relay your traffic.  This creates a simple, easy
269) to
270) maintain architecture.  The users all enter and leave through the same
271) server.
272) The provider may charge for use of the proxy, or fund their costs
273) through
274) advertisements on the server.  In the simplest configuration, you don't
275) have to
276) install anything.  You just have to point your browser at their proxy
277) server.
278) Simple proxy providers are fine solutions if you do not want protections
279) for
280) your privacy and anonymity online and you trust the provider from doing
281) bad
282) things.  Some simple proxy providers use SSL to secure your connection
283) to them.
284) This may protect you against local eavesdroppers, such as those at a
285) cafe with

286) free wifi Internet.
287)     </p>
288)     <p>

289)     Simple proxy providers also create a single point of failure.  The
290) provider
291) knows who you are and where you browse on the Internet.  They can see
292) your
293) traffic as it passes through their server.  In some cases, they can even
294) see

295) inside your

296) encrypted traffic as they relay it to your banking site or to ecommerce
297) stores.

298) You have to trust the provider isn't doing any number of things, such as

299) watching your traffic, injecting their own advertisements into your
300) traffic

301) stream, and recording your personal details.

302)     </p>
303)     <p>

304)     Tor passes your traffic through at least 3 different servers before
305) sending
306) it on to the destination. Because there's a separate layer of encryption
307) for
308) each of the three relays, Tor does not modify, or even know, what you
309) are
310) sending into it.  It merely relays your traffic, completely encrypted
311) through
312) the Tor network and has it pop out somewhere else in the world,
313) completely
314) intact.  The Tor client is required because we assume you trust your
315) local
316) computer.  The Tor client manages the encryption and the path chosen
317) through
318) the network.  The relays located all over the world merely pass
319) encrypted

320) packets between themselves.</p>

321)     <p>
322)     <dl>

323)     <dt>Doesn't the first server see who I am?</dt><dd>Possibly. A bad
324) first of
325) three servers can see encrypted Tor traffic coming from your computer.
326) It
327) still doesn't know who you are and what you are doing over Tor.  It
328) merely sees
329) "This IP address is using Tor".  Tor is not illegal anywhere in the
330) world, so
331) using Tor by itself is fine.  You are still protected from this node
332) figuring

333) out who you are and where you are going on the Internet.</dd>

334)     <dt>Can't the third server see my traffic?</dt><dd>Possibly.  A bad
335) third
336) of three servers can see the traffic you sent into Tor.  It won't know
337) who sent

338) this traffic.  If you're using encryption, such as visiting a bank or

339) e-commerce website, or encrypted mail connections, etc, it will only
340) know the
341) destination.  It won't be able to see the data inside the traffic
342) stream.  You

343) are still protected from this node figuring out who you are and if using
344) encryption, what data you're sending to the destination.</dd>

345)     </dl>
346)     </p>

347) 

348)     <hr>

349) 

350)     <a id="CompatibleApplications"></a>

351)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#CompatibleApplications">What programs
352) can I use with Tor?</a></h3>

353) 

354)     <p>

355)     If you want to use Tor with a web browser, we provide the Tor Browser 
356)     Bundle, which includes everything you need to browse the web safely using 
357)     Tor. If you want to use another web browser with Tor, see <a 
358)     href="#TBBOtherBrowser">Other web browsers</a>. 

359)     </p>
360)     <p>
361)     There are plenty of other programs you can use with Tor,
362)     but we haven't researched the application-level anonymity

363)     issues on all of them well enough to be able to recommend a safe

364)     configuration. Our wiki has a list of instructions for <a

365)     href="<wiki>doc/TorifyHOWTO">Torifying

366)     specific applications</a>.

367)     Please add to these lists and help us keep them accurate!
368)     </p>

369) 

370)     <hr>

371) 

372)     <a id="WhyCalledTor"></a>

373)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhyCalledTor">Why is it called
374) Tor?</a></h3>

375) 

376)     <p>
377)     Because Tor is the onion routing network. When we were starting the
378)     new next-generation design and implementation of onion routing in
379)     2001-2002, we would tell people we were working on onion routing,
380)     and they would say "Neat. Which one?" Even if onion routing has
381)     become a standard household term, Tor was born out of the actual <a
382)     href="http://www.onion-router.net/">onion routing project</a> run by
383)     the Naval Research Lab.
384)     </p>

385) 

386)     <p>
387)     (It's also got a fine translation from German and Turkish.)
388)     </p>

389) 

390)     <p>

391)     Note: even though it originally came from an acronym, Tor is not
392) spelled

393)     "TOR". Only the first letter is capitalized. In fact, we can usually

394)     spot people who haven't read any of our website (and have instead
395) learned
396)     everything they know about Tor from news articles) by the fact that
397) they

398)     spell it wrong.
399)     </p>

400) 

401)     <hr>

402) 

403)     <a id="Backdoor"></a>

404)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Backdoor">Is there a backdoor in
405) Tor?</a></h3>

406) 

407)     <p>

408)     There is absolutely no backdoor in Tor. Nobody has asked us to put
409) one
410)     in, and we know some smart lawyers who say that it's unlikely that
411) anybody

412)     will try to make us add one in our jurisdiction (U.S.). If they do
413)     ask us, we will fight them, and (the lawyers say) probably win.
414)     </p>

415) 

416)     <p>
417)     We think that putting a backdoor in Tor would be tremendously

418)     irresponsible to our users, and a bad precedent for security
419) software

420)     in general. If we ever put a deliberate backdoor in our security
421)     software, it would ruin our professional reputations. Nobody would
422)     trust our software ever again — for excellent reason!
423)     </p>

424) 

425)     <p>
426)     But that said, there are still plenty of subtle attacks
427)     people might try. Somebody might impersonate us, or break into our

428)     computers, or something like that. Tor is open source, and you
429) should
430)     always check the source (or at least the diffs since the last
431) release)

432)     for suspicious things. If we (or the distributors) don't give you
433)     source, that's a sure sign something funny might be going on. You
434)     should also check the <a href="<page docs/verifying-signatures>">PGP
435)     signatures</a> on the releases, to make sure nobody messed with the
436)     distribution sites.
437)     </p>

438) 

439)     <p>
440)     Also, there might be accidental bugs in Tor that could affect your

441)     anonymity. We periodically find and fix anonymity-related bugs, so
442) make

443)     sure you keep your Tor versions up-to-date.
444)     </p>

445) 

446)     <hr>

447) 

448)     <a id="DistributingTor"></a>

449)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DistributingTor">Can I distribute
450) Tor?</a></h3>

451) 

452)     <p>
453)     Yes.
454)     </p>

455) 

456)     <p>

457)     The Tor software is <a href="https://www.fsf.org/">free
458) software</a>. This
459)     means we give you the rights to redistribute the Tor software,
460) either
461)     modified or unmodified, either for a fee or gratis. You don't have
462) to

463)     ask us for specific permission.
464)     </p>

465) 

466)     <p>

467)     However, if you want to redistribute the Tor software you must
468) follow our

469)     <a href="<gitblob>LICENSE">LICENSE</a>.

470)     Essentially this means that you need to include our LICENSE file
471) along

472)     with whatever part of the Tor software you're distributing.
473)     </p>

474) 

475)     <p>

476)     Most people who ask us this question don't want to distribute just
477) the

478)     Tor software, though. They want to distribute the <a

479)     href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser</a>. This includes <a

480)     href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-aurora.html">Mozilla
481)     Aurora</a> and <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia</a>.

482)     You will need to follow the licenses for those programs
483)     as well. Both of them are distributed under the <a
484)     href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html">GNU General

485)     Public License</a>. The simplest way to obey their licenses is
486)     to include the source code for these programs everywhere you
487)     include the bundles themselves. Look for "source" packages on
488)     the <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia page</a> and <a
489)     href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-aurora.html">Mozilla
490)     Aurora</a> pages.

491)     </p>

492) 

493)     <p>

494)     Also, you should make sure not to confuse your readers about what
495) Tor is,
496)     who makes it, and what properties it provides (and doesn't provide).
497) See
498)     our <a href="<page docs/trademark-faq>">trademark FAQ</a> for
499) details.

500)     </p>

501) 

502)     <p>
503)     Lastly, you should realize that we release new versions of the
504)     Tor software frequently, and sometimes we make backward incompatible

505)     changes. So if you distribute a particular version of the Tor
506) software, it
507)     may not be supported — or even work — six months later.
508) This

509)     is a fact of life for all security software under heavy development.
510)     </p>

511) 

512)     <hr>

513) 

514)     <a id="SupportMail"></a>

515)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SupportMail">How can I get
516) support?</a></h3>

517) 

518)     <p>Your best bet is to first try the following:</p>

519)     <ol>
520)     <li>Read through this <a href="<page docs/faq>">FAQ</a>.</li>

521)     <li>Read through the <a href="<page
522) docs/documentation>">documentation</a>.</li>

523)     <li>Read through the <a

524) 
525) href="https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk">
526) tor-talk

527)     archives</a> and see if your question is already answered.</li>

528)     <li>Join our <a href="ircs://irc.torproject.org#tor">irc channel</a>
529) and

530)     state the issue and wait for help.</li>

531)     <li>Send an email to <a

532) 
533) href="mailto:help@rt.torproject.org">help@rt.torproject.org</a>.</li>
534)     <li>If all else fails, try <a href="<page about/contact>">contacting
535) us</a> directly.</li>

536)     </ol>

537) 

538)     <p>If you find your answer, please stick around on the IRC channel
539) or the

540)     mailing list to help others who were once in your position.</p>

541) 

542)     <hr>

543) 

544)     <a id="Forum"></a>
545)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Forum">Is there a Tor forum?</a></h3>
546) 

547)     <p>We have <a href="https://tor.stackexchange.com/">a StackExchange 
548)     page</a> that is currently in public beta.

549)     </p>
550) 
551)     <hr>
552) 

553)     <a id="WhySlow"></a>
554)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhySlow">Why is Tor so slow?</a></h3>

555) 

556)     <p>
557)     There are many reasons why the Tor network is currently slow.
558)     </p>

559) 

560)     <p>

561)     Before we answer, though, you should realize that Tor is never going
562) to
563)     be blazing fast. Your traffic is bouncing through volunteers'
564) computers
565)     in various parts of the world, and some bottlenecks and network
566) latency

567)     will always be present. You shouldn't expect to see university-style
568)     bandwidth through Tor.
569)     </p>

570) 

571)     <p>

572)     But that doesn't mean that it can't be improved. The current Tor
573) network
574)     is quite small compared to the number of people trying to use it,
575) and
576)     many of these users don't understand or care that Tor can't
577) currently

578)     handle file-sharing traffic load.
579)     </p>

580) 

581)     <p>
582)     For the much more in-depth answer, see <a

583)     href="<blog>why-tor-is-slow">Roger's blog

584)     post on the topic</a>, which includes both a detailed PDF and a
585) video

586)     to go with it.
587)     </p>

588) 

589)     <p>
590)     What can you do to help?
591)     </p>

592) 

593)     <ul>

594) 

595)     <li>

596)     <a href="<page docs/tor-doc-relay>">Configure your Tor to relay
597) traffic
598)     for others</a>. Help make the Tor network large enough that we can
599) handle

600)     all the users who want privacy and security on the Internet.
601)     </li>

602) 

603)     <li>

604)     <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Help us make Tor more usable</a>.
605) We

606)     especially need people to help make it easier to configure your Tor
607)     as a relay. Also, we need help with clear simple documentation to
608)     walk people through setting it up.
609)     </li>

610) 

611)     <li>

612)     There are some bottlenecks in the current Tor network. Help us
613) design
614)     experiments to track down and demonstrate where the problems are,
615) and

616)     then we can focus better on fixing them.
617)     </li>

618) 

619)     <li>
620)     Tor needs some architectural changes too. One important change is to

621)     start providing <a href="#EverybodyARelay">better service to people
622) who
623)     relay traffic</a>. We're working on this, and we'll finish faster if
624) we

625)     get to spend more time on it.
626)     </li>

627) 

628)     <li>

629)     Help do other things so we can do the hard stuff. Please take a
630) moment
631)     to figure out what your skills and interests are, and then <a
632) href="<page

633)     getinvolved/volunteer>">look at our volunteer page</a>.
634)     </li>

635) 

636)     <li>

637)     Help find sponsors for Tor. Do you work at a company or government
638) agency

639)     that uses Tor or has a use for Internet privacy, e.g. to browse the

640)     competition's websites discreetly, or to connect back to the home
641) servers
642)     when on the road without revealing affiliations? If your
643) organization has
644)     an interest in keeping the Tor network working, please contact them
645) about
646)     supporting Tor. Without sponsors, Tor is going to become even
647) slower.

648)     </li>

649) 

650)     <li>
651)     If you can't help out with any of the above, you can still help out

652)     individually by <a href="<page donate/donate>">donating a bit of
653) money to the

654)     cause</a>. It adds up!
655)     </li>

656) 

657)     </ul>

658) 

659)     <hr>

660) 

661)     <a id="FileSharing"></a>

662)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#FileSharing">How can I share files 
663)     anonymously through Tor?</a></h3>

664) 
665)     <p>

666)     File sharing (peer-to-peer/P2P) is widely unwanted in the Tor network, 
667)     and exit nodes are configured to block file sharing traffic by default. 
668)     Tor is not really designed for it, and file sharing through Tor slows 
669)     down everyone's browsing. Also, Bittorrent over Tor <a 
670)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea">
671)     is not anonymous</a>!

672)     </p>
673) 
674)     <hr>
675) 

676)     <a id="Funding"></a>

677)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Funding">What would The Tor Project do
678) with more funding?</a></h3>

679) 

680)     <p>

681)     The Tor network's <a

682) 
683) href="https://metrics.torproject.org/network.html#networksize">several

684)     thousand</a> relays push <a
685)     href="https://metrics.torproject.org/network.html#bandwidth">over
686)     1GB per second on average</a>. We have <a

687) 
688) href="https://metrics.torproject.org/users.html#direct-users">several

689)     hundred thousand daily users</a>. But the Tor network is not yet
690)     self-sustaining.

691)     </p>

692) 

693)     <p>

694)     There are six main development/maintenance pushes that need
695) attention:

696)     </p>

697) 

698)     <ul>

699) 

700)     <li>
701)     Scalability: We need to keep scaling and decentralizing the Tor
702)     architecture so it can handle thousands of relays and millions of

703)     users. The upcoming stable release is a major improvement, but
704) there's

705)     lots more to be done next in terms of keeping Tor fast and stable.
706)     </li>

707) 

708)     <li>

709)     User support: With this many users, a lot of people are asking
710) questions
711)     all the time, offering to help out with things, and so on. We need
712) good
713)     clean docs, and we need to spend some effort coordinating
714) volunteers.

715)     </li>

716) 

717)     <li>

718)     Relay support: the Tor network is run by volunteers, but they still
719) need

720)     attention with prompt bug fixes, explanations when things go wrong,

721)     reminders to upgrade, and so on. The network itself is a commons,
722) and
723)     somebody needs to spend some energy making sure the relay operators
724) stay
725)     happy. We also need to work on stability on some platforms —
726) e.g.,

727)     Tor relays have problems on Win XP currently.

728)     </li>

729) 

730)     <li>

731)     Usability: Beyond documentation, we also need to work on usability
732) of the
733)     software itself. This includes installers, clean GUIs, easy
734) configuration
735)     to interface with other applications, and generally automating all
736) of
737)     the difficult and confusing steps inside Tor. We've got a start on
738) this
739)     with the <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia GUI</a>, but much
740) more work

741)     remains — usability for privacy software has never been easy.
742)     </li>

743) 

744)     <li>
745)     Incentives: We need to work on ways to encourage people to configure
746)     their Tors as relays and exit nodes rather than just clients.

747)     <a href="#EverybodyARelay">We need to make it easy to become a
748) relay,

749)     and we need to give people incentives to do it.</a>
750)     </li>

751) 

752)     <li>
753)     Research: The anonymous communications field is full
754)     of surprises and gotchas. In our copious free time, we
755)     also help run top anonymity and privacy conferences like <a
756)     href="http://petsymposium.org/">PETS</a>. We've identified a set of

757)     critical <a href="<page getinvolved/volunteer>#Research">Tor
758) research questions</a>
759)     that will help us figure out how to make Tor secure against the
760) variety of
761)     attacks out there. Of course, there are more research questions
762) waiting

763)     behind these.
764)     </li>

765) 

766)     </ul>

767) 

768)     <p>
769)     We're continuing to move forward on all of these, but at this rate

770)     <a href="#WhySlow">the Tor network is growing faster than the
771) developers

772)     can keep up</a>.

773)     Now would be an excellent time to add a few more developers to the
774) effort

775)     so we can continue to grow the network.
776)     </p>

777) 

778)     <p>
779)     We are also excited about tackling related problems, such as
780)     censorship-resistance.
781)     </p>

782) 

783)     <p>

784)     We are proud to have <a href="<page about/sponsors>">sponsorship and
785) support</a>
786)     from the Omidyar Network, the International Broadcasting Bureau,
787) Bell
788)     Security Solutions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, several
789) government

790)     agencies and research groups, and hundreds of private contributors.
791)     </p>

792) 

793)     <p>

794)     However, this support is not enough to keep Tor abreast of changes
795) in the
796)     Internet privacy landscape. Please <a href="<page
797) donate/donate>">donate</a>
798)     to the project, or <a href="<page about/contact>">contact</a> our
799) executive

800)     director for information on making grants or major donations.
801)     </p>

802) 

803)     <hr>
804) 

805)      <a id="OutboundPorts"></a>

806)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#OutboundPorts">Do I have to open all these 
807)     outbound ports on my firewall?</a></h3>

808) 
809)     <p>

810)     Tor may attempt to connect to any port that is advertised in the 
811)     directory as an ORPort (for making Tor connections) or a DirPort (for 
812)     fetching updates to the directory). There are a variety of these ports, 
813)     but many of them are running on 80, 443, 9001, and 9030.

814)     </p>
815)     <p>

816)     So as a client, you could probably get away with opening only those four 
817)     ports. Since Tor does all its connections in the background, it will retry 
818)     ones that fail, and hopefully you'll never have to know that it failed, as 
819)     long as it finds a working one often enough. However, to get the most 
820)     diversity in your entry nodes -- and thus the most security -- as well as 
821)     the most robustness in your connectivity, you'll want to let it connect 
822)     to all of them.

823)     </p>
824)     <p>

825)     If you really need to connect to only a small set of ports, see the FAQ 
826)     entry on firewalled ports.

827)     </p>
828)     <p>

829)     Note that if you're running Tor as a relay, you must allow outgoing 
830)     connections to every other relay and to anywhere your exit policy 
831)     advertises that you allow. The cleanest way to do that is simply to allow 
832)     all outgoing connections at your firewall. If you don't, clients will try 
833)     to use these connections and things won't work. 

834)     </p>
835)     
836)     <hr>
837)     
838)     <a id="IsItWorking"></a>

839)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#IsItWorking">How can I tell if Tor is 
840)     working, and that my connections really are anonymized?</a></h3>

841) 
842)     <p>

843)     There are sites you can visit that will tell you if you appear to be 
844)     coming through the Tor network. Try the <a href="https://check.torproject.org">
845)     Tor Check</a> site and see whether it thinks you are using Tor or not.

846)     </p>
847)     <p>

848)     If that site is down, you can still test, but it will involve more effort. 
849)     Sites like <a href="http://ipid.shat.net">http://ipid.shat.net</a> and 
850)     <a href="http://www.showmyip.com/">http://www.showmyip.com/</a> will tell 
851)     you what your IP address appears to be, but you'll need to know your 
852)     current IP address so you can compare and decide whether you're using Tor 
853)     correctly.

854)     </p>
855)     <p>

856)     To learn your IP address on OS X, Linux, BSD, etc, run "ifconfig". On 
857)     Windows, go to the Start menu, click Run and enter "cmd". At the command 
858)     prompt, enter "ipconfig /a".

859)     </p>
860)     <p>

861)     If you are behind a NAT or firewall, though, your IP address will be 
862)     within the range of 10.XXX.XXX.XXX, 192.168.XXX.XXX, or 172.16.XXX.XXX - 
863)     172.31.XXX.XXX, which is not your public IP address. In this case, you 
864)     should check your IP address with one of the sites above without using 
865)     Tor, and then check again using Tor to see whether your IP address has 
866)     changed. 

867)     </p>
868)     
869)     <hr>
870)     
871)     <a id="FTP"></a>
872)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#FTP">How do I use my browser for ftp with Tor?
873)     </a></h3>
874) 

875)     <p>
876)     Use the Tor Browser Bundle. If you want a separate application for an 
877)     ftp client, we've heard good things about  FileZilla for Windows. You can 
878)     configure it to point to Tor as a "socks4a" proxy on "localhost" port 
879)     "9050". 
880)     </p>

881)     <hr>
882)     

883)     <a id="Metrics"></a>

884)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Metrics">How many people use Tor? How

885)     many relays or exit nodes are there?</a></h3>

886) 

887)     <p>
888)     All this and more about measuring Tor can be found at the <a

889)     href="https://metrics.torproject.org/">Tor Metrics Portal</a>.</p>

890)     <hr>

891) 

892)     <a id="SSLcertfingerprint"></a>

893)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SSLcertfingerprint">What are the SSL 
894)     certificate fingerprints for Tor's various websites?</a></h3>

895)     <p>

896)     <pre>

897)     *.torproject.org SSL certificate from Digicert:

898)     The serial number is:

899) 06:DE:97:E5:1D:C3:9D:C2:64:8D:AC:72:DD:41:01:FC
900)     The SHA-1 fingerprint is: 1f9d306e8bfccfcb03981a71a27a9f5d1e0876ce

901)     The SHA-256 fingerprint is:

902) 3613d2b22a750094760c41ad19db52a4f05bdea80172e2578761ad967f7ed9aa

903) 

904)     blog.torproject.org SSL certificate from RapidSSL:

905)     The serial number is: 00:EF:A3
906)     The SHA-1 fingerprint is: 50af43db8438e67f305a3257d8ef198e8c42f13f

907)     </pre>

908)     </p>
909)     <hr>
910) 

911)     <a id="HowUninstallTor"></a>

912)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#HowUninstallTor">How do I uninstall
913) Tor?</a></h3>
914) 
915)     <p>
916)     Tor Browser does not install itself in the classic sense of
917) applications. You just simply delete the folder or directory named "Tor
918) Browser" and it is removed from your system.
919)     </p>

920) 

921)     <p>

922)     If this is not related to Tor Browser, uninstallation depends
923) entirely on how you installed it and which operating system you
924)     have. If you installed a package, then hopefully your package has a
925) way to

926)     uninstall itself. The Windows packages include uninstallers. 

927)     </p>

928) 

929)     <p>
930)     For Mac OS X, follow the <a
931)     href="<page docs/tor-doc-osx>#uninstall">uninstall directions</a>.
932)     </p>

933) 

934)     <p>

935)     If you installed by source, I'm afraid there is no easy uninstall
936) method. But
937)     on the bright side, by default it only installs into /usr/local/ and
938) it should

939)     be pretty easy to notice things there.
940)     </p>

941) 

942)     <hr>

943) 

944)     <a id="PGPSigs"></a>

945)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#PGPSigs">What are these "sig" files on
946) the download page?</a></h3>

947) 

948)     <p>

949)     These are PGP signatures, so you can verify that the file you've
950) downloaded is

951)     exactly the one that we intended you to get.
952)     </p>

953) 

954)     <p>
955)     Please read the <a

956)     href="<page docs/verifying-signatures>">verifying signatures</a>
957) page for details.

958)     </p>

959) 

960) <hr>
961) 
962) <a id="GetTor"></a>
963) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#GetTor">Your website is blocked in my
964) country. How do I download Tor?</a></h3>
965) 
966) <p>
967) Some government or corporate firewalls censor connections to Tor's
968) website. In those cases, you have three options. First, get it from

969) a friend &mdash; the <a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser

970) Bundle</a> fits nicely on a USB key. Second, find the <a

971) href="https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=tor+mirrors">google
972) cache</a>

973) for the <a href="<page getinvolved/mirrors>">Tor mirrors</a> page
974) and see if any of those copies of our website work for you. Third,
975) you can download Tor via email: log in to your Gmail account and mail

976) '<tt>gettor@gettor.torproject.org</tt>'. If you include the word 'help'

977) in the body of the email, it will reply with instructions. Note that
978) only a few webmail providers are supported, since they need to be able
979) to receive very large attachments.
980) </p>
981) 
982) <p>

983) Be sure to <a href="<page docs/verifying-signatures>">verify the
984) signature</a>

985) of any package you download, especially when you get it from somewhere
986) other than our official HTTPS website.

987) </p>
988) 
989) <hr>

990) 

991)     <a id="CompileTorWindows"></a>

992)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#CompileTorWindows">How do I compile Tor
993) under Windows?</a></h3>

994) 

995)     <p>

996)     Try following the steps at <a
997) href="<gitblob>doc/tor-win32-mingw-creation.txt">

998)     tor-win32-mingw-creation.txt</a>.
999)     </p>

1000) 

1001)     <p>
1002)     (Note that you don't need to compile Tor yourself in order to use

1003)     it. Most people just use the packages available on the <a
1004) href="<page

1005)     download/download>">download page</a>.)
1006)     </p>

1007) 

1008)     <hr>

1009) 

1010)     <a id="VirusFalsePositives"></a>

1011)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#VirusFalsePositives">Why does my Tor
1012) executable appear to have a virus or spyware?</a></h3>

1013) 

1014)     <p>

1015)     Sometimes, overzealous Windows virus and spyware detectors trigger
1016) on some
1017)     parts of the Tor Windows binary. Our best guess is that these are
1018) false
1019)     positives — after all, the anti-virus and anti-spyware
1020) business is just a
1021)     guessing game anyway. You should contact your vendor and explain
1022) that you have
1023)     a program that seems to be triggering false positives. Or pick a
1024) better vendor.

1025)     </p>

1026) 

1027)     <p>
1028)     In the meantime, we encourage you to not just take our word for

1029)     it. Our job is to provide the source; if you're concerned, please do
1030) <a

1031)     href="#CompileTorWindows">recompile it yourself</a>.
1032)     </p>

1033) 

1034)     <hr>

1035) 

1036)     <a id="LiveCD"></a>

1037)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#LiveCD">Is there a LiveCD or other
1038) bundle that includes Tor?</a></h3>

1039) 

1040)     <p>

1041)     Yes.  Use <a href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito

1042)     Live System</a> or <a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">the Tor
1043) Browser

1044)     Bundle</a>.

1045)     </p>

1046) 
1047) <hr>
1048) 

1049) <a id="TBBFlash"></a>

1050) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBFlash">Why can't I view videos on
1051) YouTube

1052) and other Flash-based sites?</a></h3>

1053) 
1054) <p>

1055) YouTube and similar sites require third party browser plugins such as Flash.
1056) Plugins operate independently from Firefox and can perform
1057) activity on your computer that ruins your anonymity. This includes
1058) but is not limited to: <a href="http://decloak.net">completely disregarding
1059) proxy settings</a>, querying your <a

1060) href="http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5162138&messageID=9618376">
1061) local IP address</a>, and <a

1062) href="http://epic.org/privacy/cookies/flash.html">storing their own
1063) cookies</a>. It is possible to use a LiveCD solution such as

1064) or <a href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live System</a> 
1065) that creates a secure, transparent proxy to protect you from proxy bypass, 
1066) however issues with local IP address discovery and Flash cookies still remain. 
1067) </p>

1068) 
1069) <p>

1070) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/html5">YouTube offers experimental HTML5 video
1071) support</a> for many of their videos. You can use their Advanced Search to

1072) find HTML5 videos.
1073) </p>
1074) 

1075) <hr>
1076) 

1077) <a id="Ubuntu"></a>
1078) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Ubuntu">
1079) I'm using Ubuntu and I can't start Tor Browser</a></h3>
1080) <p>

1081) Ubuntu prevents its users from executing shell scripts by clicking them, 
1082) even when the file permissions are set correctly. For now you need to 
1083) start the Tor Browser from the command line by running </p>

1084) <pre>
1085) ./start-tor-browser
1086) </pre>
1087) <p>
1088) from inside the Tor Browser directory.
1089) </p>
1090) 
1091) <hr>
1092) 

1093) <a id="TBBSocksPort"></a>

1094) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBSocksPort">

1095) I want to run another application through the Tor launched by Tor

1096) Browser Bundle.</a></h3>

1097) 
1098) <p>

1099) Typically Tor listens for Socks connections on port 9050. TBB listens

1100) on port 9150.

1101) The goal is to avoid conflicting with a "system" Tor install,

1102) so you can run a system Tor and TBB at the same time. We're <a
1103) href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/3948">working on
1104) a feature</a> where Tor will try the usual ports first and then back

1105) off to a random choice if they're already in use.

1106) </p>
1107) 
1108) <hr>
1109) 
1110) <a id="TBBPolipo"></a>
1111) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBPolipo">I need an HTTP proxy. Where did
1112) Polipo go?</a></h3>
1113) 
1114) <p>
1115) In the past, Tor bundles included an HTTP proxy like Privoxy or Polipo,
1116) solely to work around a bug in Firefox that was finally fixed in Firefox
1117) 6. Now you don't need a separate HTTP proxy to use Tor, and in fact
1118) leaving it out makes you safer because Torbutton has better control over
1119) Firefox's interaction with websites.
1120) </p>
1121) 
1122) <p>
1123) If you are trying to use some external application with Tor, step zero

1124) should be to <a href="<page download/download>#warning">reread the set

1125) of warnings</a> for ways you can screw up. Step one should be to try

1126) to use a Socks proxy rather than an http proxy — Tor runs a Socks

1127) proxy on port 9050 on Windows, or <a href="#TBBSocksPort">see above</a>
1128) for OSX and Linux.
1129) </p>
1130) 
1131) <p>

1132) If that fails, feel free to install <a

1133) href="http://www.privoxy.org/">privoxy</a>.
1134) However, please realize that this approach is not recommended for novice
1135) users. Privoxy has an <a
1136) href="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/misc.html#TOR">example
1137) configuration</a> of Tor and Privoxy.

1138) </p>
1139) 
1140) <hr>
1141) 

1142) <a id="TBBOtherExtensions"></a>
1143) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBOtherExtensions">Can I install other
1144) Firefox extensions?</a></h3>
1145) 
1146) <p>

1147) The Tor Browser is free software, so there is nothing preventing you from 
1148) modifying it any way you like. However, we do not recommend installing any 
1149) additional Firefox add-ons with the Tor Browser Bundle. Add-ons can break 
1150) your anonymity in a number of ways, including browser fingerprinting and 
1151) bypassing proxy settings.

1152) </p>

1153) <p>

1154) Some people have suggested we include ad-blocking software or 
1155) anti-tracking software with the Tor Browser Bundle. Right now, we do not 
1156) think that's such a good idea. The Tor Browser Bundle aims to provide 
1157) sufficient privacy that additional add-ons to stop ads and trackers are 
1158) not necessary. Using add-ons like these may cause some sites to break, which 
1159) <a href="https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/#philosophy">
1160) we don't want to do</a>. Additionally, maintaining a list of "bad" sites that 
1161) should be black-listed provides another opportunity to uniquely fingerprint 
1162) users. 

1163) </p>

1164) 

1165) <hr>
1166) 

1167) <a id="TBBJavaScriptEnabled"></a>

1168) <a id="TBBCanIBlockJS"></a>

1169) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBJavaScriptEnabled">Why is NoScript
1170) configured to allow JavaScript by default in the Tor Browser Bundle?
1171) Isn't that unsafe?</a></h3>

1172) 
1173) <p>
1174) We configure NoScript to allow JavaScript by default in the Tor
1175) Browser Bundle because many websites will not work with JavaScript
1176) disabled.  Most users would give up on Tor entirely if a website
1177) they want to use requires JavaScript, because they would not know
1178) how to allow a website to use JavaScript (or that enabling
1179) JavaScript might make a website work).
1180) </p>
1181) 

1182) <p>
1183) There's a tradeoff here. On the one hand, we should leave
1184) JavaScript enabled by default so websites work the way
1185) users expect. On the other hand, we should disable JavaScript
1186) by default to better protect against browser vulnerabilities (<a

1187) href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-security-advisory-old-tor-browser-bundles-vulnerable">
1188) not just a theoretical concern!</a>). But there's a third issue: websites

1189) can easily determine whether you have allowed JavaScript for them,
1190) and if you disable JavaScript by default but then allow a few websites
1191) to run scripts (the way most people use NoScript), then your choice of
1192) whitelisted websites acts as a sort of cookie that makes you recognizable
1193) (and distinguishable), thus harming your anonymity.
1194) </p>

1195) 
1196) <p>

1197) Ultimately, we want the default Tor bundles to use
1198) a combination of firewalls (like the iptables rules
1199) in <a href="https://tails.boum.org/">Tails</a>) and <a
1200) href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/7680">sandboxes</a>
1201) to make JavaScript not so scary. In
1202) the shorter term, TBB 3.0 will hopefully <a
1203) href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9387">allow users
1204) to choose their JavaScript settings more easily</a> &mdash; but the
1205) partitioning concern will remain.

1206) </p>
1207) 
1208) <p>

1209) Until we get there, feel free to leave JavaScript on or off depending
1210) on your security, anonymity, and usability priorities.

1211) </p>
1212) 
1213) <hr>
1214) 

1215) <a id="TBBOtherBrowser"></a>
1216) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBOtherBrowser">I want to use
1217) Chrome/IE/Opera/etc with Tor.</a></h3>
1218) 
1219) <p>
1220) Unfortunately, Torbutton only works with Firefox right now, and without
1221) <a href="https://www.torproject.org/torbutton/en/design/">Torbutton's
1222) extensive privacy fixes</a> there are many ways for websites or other

1223) attackers to recognize you, track you back to your IP address, and so
1224) on.

1225) In short, using any browser besides Tor Browser Bundle with Tor is a
1226) really bad idea.
1227) </p>
1228) 
1229) <p>
1230) We're working with the Chrome team to <a

1231) href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/google-chrome-incognito-mode-tor-
1232) and-fingerprinting">fix
1233) some bugs and missing APIs in Chrome</a> so it will be possible to write
1234) a
1235) Torbutton for Chrome. No support for any other browser is on the
1236) horizon.

1237) </p>
1238) 
1239) <hr>
1240) 

1241) <a id="TorbuttonOtherBrowser"></a>

1242) <h3><a class="anchor" href="TorbuttonOtherBrowser">
1243) Will ​Torbutton be available for other browsers?</a></h3>

1244) 
1245) <p>

1246)  We don't support IE, Opera or Safari and never plan to. There are too many ways that your privacy can go wrong with those browsers, and because of their closed design it is really hard for us to do anything to change these privacy problems.

1247) </p>
1248) <p>

1249) We are working with the Chrome people to modify Chrome's internals so that we can eventually support it. But for now, Firefox is the only safe choice. 

1250) </p>
1251) 

1252) <hr>

1253) 

1254) <a id="TBBCloseBrowser"></a>

1255) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBCloseBrowser">I want to leave Tor
1256) Browser

1257) Bundle running but close the browser.</a></h3>
1258) 
1259) <p>
1260) We're working on a way to make this possible on all platforms. Please
1261) be patient.
1262) </p>
1263) 
1264) <hr>
1265) 

1266) <a id="GoogleCAPTCHA"></a>
1267) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#GoogleCAPTCHA">Google makes me solve a
1268) CAPTCHA or tells me I have spyware installed.</a></h3>

1269) 
1270) <p>
1271) This is a known and intermittent problem; it does not mean that Google
1272) considers Tor to be spyware.
1273) </p>
1274) 
1275) <p>

1276) When you use Tor, you are sending queries through exit relays that are
1277) also

1278) shared by thousands of other users. Tor users typically see this message

1279) when many Tor users are querying Google in a short period of time.
1280) Google

1281) interprets the high volume of traffic from a single IP address (the exit
1282) relay you happened to pick) as somebody trying to "crawl" their website,
1283) so it slows down traffic from that IP address for a short time.
1284) </p>
1285) <p>
1286) An alternate explanation is that Google tries to detect certain
1287) kinds of spyware or viruses that send distinctive queries to Google
1288) Search. It notes the IP addresses from which those queries are received
1289) (not realizing that they are Tor exit relays), and tries to warn any
1290) connections coming from those IP addresses that recent queries indicate
1291) an infection.
1292) </p>
1293) 
1294) <p>

1295) To our knowledge, Google is not doing anything intentionally
1296) specifically

1297) to deter or block Tor use. The error message about an infected machine
1298) should clear up again after a short time.
1299) </p>
1300) 
1301) <p>
1302) Torbutton 1.2.5 (released in mid 2010) detects Google captchas and can
1303) automatically redirect you to a more Tor-friendly search engine such as

1304) DuckDuckGo, ixquick, or Bing.

1305) </p>
1306) 
1307) <hr />
1308) 

1309) <a id="ForeignLanguages"></a>
1310) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ForeignLanguages">
1311) Why does Google show up in foreign languages?</a></h3>
1312) 
1313) <p>

1314)  Google uses "geolocation" to determine where in the world you are, so it 
1315)  can give you a personalized experience. This includes using the language 
1316)  it thinks you prefer, and it also includes giving you different results 
1317)  on your queries.

1318) </p>
1319) <p>

1320) If you really want to see Google in English you can click the link that 
1321) provides that. But we consider this a feature with Tor, not a bug --- the 
1322) Internet is not flat, and it in fact does look different depending on 
1323) where you are. This feature reminds people of this fact. The easy way to 
1324) avoid this "feature" is to use 
1325) <a href="https://google.com/ncr">https://google.com/ncr</a>.

1326) </p>
1327) <p>

1328) Note that Google search URLs take name/value pairs as arguments and one 
1329) of those names is "hl". If you set "hl" to "en" then Google will return 
1330) search results in English regardless of what Google server you have been 
1331) sent to. On a query this looks like: 
1332) </p>
1333) <pre>https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=online%20anonymity&hl=en

1334) </pre>

1335) <p>

1336) Another method is to simply use your country code for accessing Google. 
1337) This can be google.be, google.de, google.us and so on. 

1338) </p>
1339) <hr />

1340) <a id="GmailWarning"></a>

1341) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#GmailWarning">Gmail warns me that my

1342) account may have been compromised.</a></h3>

1343) 
1344) <p>
1345) Sometimes, after you've used Gmail over Tor, Google presents a
1346) pop-up notification that your account may have been compromised.
1347) The notification window lists a series of IP addresses and locations
1348) throughout the world recently used to access your account.
1349) </p>
1350) 
1351) <p>
1352) In general this is a false alarm: Google saw a bunch of logins from

1353) different places, as a result of running the service via Tor, and
1354) decided

1355) it was a good idea to confirm the account was being accessed by it's
1356) rightful owner.
1357) </p>
1358) 
1359) <p>
1360) Even though this may be a biproduct of using the service via tor,
1361) that doesn't mean you can entirely ignore the warning. It is
1362) <i>probably</i> a false positive, but it might not be since it is
1363) possible for someone to hijack your Google cookie.
1364) </p>
1365) 
1366) <p>
1367) Cookie hijacking is possible by either physical access to your computer
1368) or by watching your network traffic.  In theory only physical access
1369) should compromise your system because Gmail and similar services
1370) should only send the cookie over an SSL link. In practice, alas, it's <a

1371) href="http://fscked.org/blog/fully-automated-active-https-cookie-
1372) hijacking">

1373) way more complex than that</a>.
1374) </p>
1375) 
1376) <p>
1377) And if somebody <i>did</i> steal your google cookie, they might end
1378) up logging in from unusual places (though of course they also might
1379) not). So the summary is that since you're using Tor, this security
1380) measure that Google uses isn't so useful for you, because it's full of
1381) false positives. You'll have to use other approaches, like seeing if
1382) anything looks weird on the account, or looking at the timestamps for
1383) recent logins and wondering if you actually logged in at those times.
1384) </p>
1385) 
1386) <hr>
1387) 

1388) <a id="torrc"></a>

1389) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#torrc">I'm supposed to "edit my torrc".
1390) What does that mean?</a></h3>

1391) 
1392) <p>
1393) Tor installs a text file called torrc that contains configuration
1394) instructions for how your Tor program should behave. The default
1395) configuration should work fine for most Tor users. Users of Vidalia can
1396) make common changes through the Vidalia interface &mdash; only advanced
1397) users should need to modify their torrc file directly.
1398) </p>

1399) <p>

1400) Tor Browser Bundle users should edit your torrc through Vidalia. Open
1401) the
1402) Vidalia Control Panel. Choose Settings. Choose Advanced. Click the
1403) button

1404) labelled "Edit current torrc". Remember to make sure the checkbox for
1405) "Save Settings." is checked. Hit the Ok button and you are done.
1406) </p>

1407) <p>

1408) Otherwise, you will need to edit the file manually.

1409) The location of your torrc file depends on the way you installed Tor:
1410) </p>
1411) <ul>

1412) <li>If you installed Tor Browser Bundle, look for
1413) <code>Data/Tor/torrc</code> inside your Tor Browser Bundle directory.
1414) </li>

1415) <li>On Windows, if you installed a Tor bundle with Vidalia, you can
1416) find your torrc file in the Start menu under Programs -&gt; Vidalia
1417) Bundle -&gt; Tor, or you can find it by hand in <code>\Documents and
1418) Settings\<i>username</i>\Application Data\Vidalia\torrc</code>. If you
1419) installed Tor without Vidalia, you can find your torrc in the Start
1420) menu under Programs -&gt; Tor, or manually in either <code>\Documents
1421) and Settings\Application Data\tor\torrc</code> or <code>\Documents and
1422) Settings\<i>username</i>\Application Data\tor\torrc</code>.
1423) </li>
1424) <li>On OS X, if you use Vidalia, edit
1425) <code>~/.vidalia/torrc</code>. Otherwise, open your favorite text editor
1426) and load <code>/Library/Tor/torrc</code>.
1427) </li>
1428) <li>On Unix, if you installed a pre-built package, look for
1429) <code>/etc/tor/torrc</code> or <code>/etc/torrc</code> or consult your
1430) package's documentation.
1431) </li>
1432) <li>Finally, if you installed from source, you may not have a torrc
1433) installed yet: look in <code>/usr/local/etc/</code> and note that you

1434) may need to manually copy <code>torrc.sample</code> to
1435) <code>torrc</code>.

1436) </li>
1437) </ul>
1438) 
1439) <p>
1440) If you use Vidalia, be sure to exit both Tor and Vidalia before you edit

1441) your torrc file manually. Otherwise Vidalia might overwrite your
1442) changes.

1443) </p>
1444) 
1445) <p>
1446) Once you've changed your torrc, you will need to restart Tor for the
1447) changes to take effect. (For advanced users on OS X and Unix, note that

1448) you actually only need to send Tor a HUP signal, not actually restart
1449) it.)

1450) </p>
1451) 
1452) <p>
1453) For other configuration options you can use, look at the <a href="<page
1454) docs/tor-manual>">Tor manual page</a>. Remember, all lines beginning
1455) with # in torrc are treated as comments and have no effect on Tor's
1456) configuration.
1457) </p>
1458) 
1459) <hr>
1460) 

1461) <a id="Logs"></a>

1462) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Logs">How do I set up logging, or see Tor's
1463) logs?</a></h3>

1464) 
1465) <p>

1466) If you installed a Tor bundle that includes Vidalia, then Vidalia has a

1467) window called "Message Log" that will show you Tor's log messages. Click
1468) on "Advanced" to see more details. You can click on "Settings" to change
1469) your log verbosity or save the messages to a file. You're all set.

1470) </p>
1471) 
1472) <p>
1473) If you're not using Vidalia, you'll have to go find the log files by

1474) hand. Here are some likely places for your logs to be:

1475) </p>
1476) 
1477) <ul>
1478) <li>On OS X, Debian, Red Hat, etc, the logs are in /var/log/tor/
1479) </li>

1480) <li>On Windows, there are no default log files currently. If you enable
1481) logs in your torrc file, they default to <code>\username\Application
1482) Data\tor\log\</code> or <code>\Application Data\tor\log\</code>
1483) </li>
1484) <li>If you compiled Tor from source, by default your Tor logs to <a
1485) href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_streams">"stdout"</a>
1486) at log-level notice. If you enable logs in your torrc file, they
1487) default to <code>/usr/local/var/log/tor/</code>.

1488) </li>
1489) </ul>
1490) 
1491) <p>

1492) To change your logging setup by hand, <a href="#torrc">edit your
1493) torrc</a>

1494) and find the section (near the top of the file) which contains the
1495) following line:

1496) </p>
1497) 
1498) <pre>

1499) \## Logs go to stdout at level "notice" unless redirected by something
1500) \## else, like one of the below lines.

1501) </pre>

1502) 
1503) <p>

1504) For example, if you want Tor to send complete debug, info, notice, warn,

1505) and err level messages to a file, append the following line to the end
1506) of the section:
1507) </p>
1508) 
1509) <pre>
1510) Log debug file c:/program files/tor/debug.log
1511) </pre>
1512) 
1513) <p>

1514) Replace <code>c:/program files/tor/debug.log</code> with a directory
1515) and filename for your Tor log.

1516) </p>
1517) 
1518) <hr>
1519) 

1520) 
1521) <a id="LogLevel"></a>
1522) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#LogLevel">What log level should I use?</a></h3>
1523) 
1524) <p>

1525) There are five log levels (also called "log severities") you might see in 
1526) Tor's logs:

1527) </p>
1528) 
1529) <ul>

1530)     <li>"err": something bad just happened, and we can't recover. Tor will 
1531)     exit.</li>
1532)     <li>"warn": something bad happened, but we're still running. The bad 
1533)     thing might be a bug in the code, some other Tor process doing something 
1534)     unexpected, etc. The operator should examine the message and try to 
1535)     correct the problem.</li>

1536)     <li>"notice": something the operator will want to know about.</li>

1537)     <li>"info": something happened (maybe bad, maybe ok), but there's 
1538)     nothing you need to (or can) do about it.</li>

1539)     <li>"debug": for everything louder than info. It is quite loud indeed.</li> 
1540) </ul>
1541) 
1542) <p>

1543) Alas, some of the warn messages are hard for ordinary users to correct -- the 
1544) developers are slowly making progress at making Tor automatically react 
1545) correctly for each situation.

1546) </p>
1547) 
1548) <p>

1549) We recommend running at the default, which is "notice". You will hear about 
1550) important things, and you won't hear about unimportant things.

1551) </p>
1552) 
1553) <p>

1554) Tor relays in particular should avoid logging at info or debug in normal 
1555) operation, since they might end up recording sensitive information in 
1556) their logs. 

1557) </p>
1558) 

1559) <hr>
1560) 

1561) <a id="DoesntWork"></a>

1562) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DoesntWork">I installed Tor but it's not
1563) working.</a></h3>

1564) 
1565) <p>

1566) Once you've got the Tor bundle up and running, the first question to
1567) ask is whether your Tor client is able to establish a circuit.

1568) </p>
1569) 
1570) <p>If Tor can establish a circuit, the onion icon in

1571) Vidalia will turn green (and if you're running Tor Browser Bundle, it
1572) will
1573) automatically launch a browser for you). You can also check in the
1574) Vidalia

1575) Control Panel to make sure it says "Connected to the Tor
1576) network!" under Status. For those not using Vidalia, check your <a

1577) href="#Logs">Tor logs</a> for

1578) a line saying that Tor "has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like
1579) client functionality is working."
1580) </p>
1581) 
1582) <p>
1583) If Tor can't establish a circuit, here are some hints:
1584) </p>
1585) 
1586) <ol>
1587) <li>Are you sure Tor is running? If you're using Vidalia, you may have
1588) to click on the onion and select "Start" to launch Tor.</li>
1589) <li>Check your system clock. If it's more than a few hours off, Tor will

1590) refuse to build circuits. For Microsoft Windows users, synchronize your
1591) clock under the clock -> Internet time tab. In addition, correct the

1592) day and date under the 'Date & Time' Tab. Also make sure your time
1593) zone is correct.</li>

1594) <li>Is your Internet connection <a href="#FirewallPorts">firewalled
1595) by port</a>, or do you normally need to use a <a

1596) href="<wikifaq>#MyInternetconnectionrequiresanHTTPorSOCKSproxy.">proxy</a>?

1597) </li>

1598) <li>Are you running programs like Norton Internet Security or SELinux
1599) that

1600) block certain connections, even though you don't realize they do? They
1601) could be preventing Tor from making network connections.</li>
1602) <li>Are you in China, or behind a restrictive corporate network firewall
1603) that blocks the public Tor relays? If so, you should learn about <a

1604) href="<page docs/bridges>">Tor bridges</a>.</li>

1605) <li>Check your <a href="#Logs">Tor logs</a>. Do they give you any hints
1606) about what's going wrong?</li>

1607) </ol>
1608) 
1609) <hr />
1610) 

1611) <a id="TorCrash"></a>
1612) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TorCrash">My Tor keeps crashing.</a></h3>
1613) <p>
1614)  We want to hear from you! There are supposed to be zero crash bugs in Tor. 
1615)  This FAQ entry describes the best way for you to be helpful to us. But even 
1616)  if you can't work out all the details, we still want to hear about it, so 
1617)  we can help you track it down. 
1618) </p>
1619) <p>
1620) First, make sure you're using the latest version of Tor (either the latest 
1621) stable or the latest development version). 
1622) </p>
1623) <p>
1624) Second, make sure your version of libevent is new enough. We recommend at 
1625) least libevent 1.3a. 
1626) </p>
1627) <p>
1628) Third, see if there's already an entry for your bug in the <a 
1629) href="https://bugs.torproject.org/">Tor bugtracker</a>. If so, 
1630) check if there are any new details that you can add. 
1631) </p>
1632) <p>
1633) Fourth, is the crash repeatable? Can you cause the crash? Can 
1634) you isolate some of the circumstances or config options that 
1635) make it happen? How quickly or often does the bug show up? 
1636) Can you check if it happens with other versions of Tor, for 
1637) example the latest stable release? 
1638) </p>
1639) <p>
1640) Fifth, what sort of crash do you get? 
1641) </p>
1642) <ul>
1643) <li>
1644) Does your Tor log include an "assert failure"? If so, please 
1645) tell us that line, since it helps us figure out what's going on. 
1646) Tell us the previous couple of log messages as well, especially 
1647) if they seem important. 
1648) </li>
1649) <li>
1650) If it says "Segmentation fault - core dumped" then you need to 
1651) do a bit more to track it down. Look for a file like "core" or 
1652) "tor.core" or "core.12345" in your current directory, or in your 
1653) Data Directory. If it's there, run "gdb tor core" and then "bt", 
1654) and include the output. If you can't find a core, run "ulimit -c 
1655) unlimited", restart Tor, and try to make it crash again. (This core 
1656) thing will only work on Unix -- alas, tracking down bugs on Windows 
1657) is harder. If you're on Windows, can you get somebody to duplicate 
1658) your bug on Unix?)
1659) </li>
1660) <li>
1661) If Tor simply vanishes mysteriously, it probably is a segmentation 
1662) fault but you're running Tor in the background (as a daemon) so you 
1663) won't notice. Go look at the end of your log file, and look for a 
1664) core file as above. If you don't find any good hints, you should 
1665) consider running Tor in the foreground (from a shell) so you can 
1666) see how it dies. Warning: if you switch to running Tor in the foreground, 
1667) you might start using a different torrc file, with a different default 
1668) Data Directory; see the <a href="#UpgradeOrMove">relay-upgrade FAQ entry</a> 
1669) for details. 
1670) </li>
1671) <li>
1672) If it's still vanishing mysteriously, perhaps something else is killing it? 
1673) Do you have resource limits (ulimits) configured that kill off processes 
1674) sometimes? (This is especially common on OpenBSD.) On Linux, try running 
1675) "dmesg" to see if the out-of-memory killer removed your process. (Tor will 
1676) exit cleanly if it notices that it's run out of memory, but in some cases 
1677) it might not have time to notice.) In very rare circumstances, hardware 
1678) problems could also be the culprit. 
1679) </li>
1680) </ul>
1681) <p>
1682) Sixth, if the above ideas don't point out the bug, consider increasing your 
1683) log level to "loglevel debug". You can look at the log-configuration FAQ 
1684) entry for instructions on what to put in your torrc file. If it usually 
1685) takes a long time for the crash to show up, you will want to reserve a whole 
1686) lot of disk space for the debug log. Alternatively, you could just send 
1687) debug-level logs to the screen (it's called "stdout" in the torrc), and then 
1688) when it crashes you'll see the last couple of log lines it had printed. 
1689) (Note that running with verbose logging like this will slow Tor down 
1690) considerably, and note also that it's generally not a good idea security-wise 
1691) to keep logs like this sitting around.) 
1692) </p>
1693) 
1694) <hr />
1695) 

1696) <a id="VidaliaPassword"></a>

1697) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#VidaliaPassword">Tor/Vidalia prompts for a
1698) password at start.</a></h3>

1699) 
1700) <p>
1701) Vidalia interacts with the Tor software via Tor's "control port". The
1702) control port lets Vidalia receive status updates from Tor, request a new
1703) identity, configure Tor's settings, etc. Each time Vidalia starts Tor,
1704) Vidalia sets a random password for Tor's control port to prevent other
1705) applications from also connecting to the control port and potentially
1706) compromising your anonymity.
1707) </p>
1708) 
1709) <p>
1710) Usually this process of generating and setting a random control password
1711) happens in the background. There are three common situations, though,
1712) where Vidalia may prompt you for a password:
1713) </p>
1714) 
1715) <ol>
1716) <li>You're already running Vidalia and Tor. For example, this situation
1717) can happen if you installed the Vidalia bundle and now you're trying to
1718) run the Tor Browser Bundle. In that case, you'll need to close the old
1719) Vidalia and Tor before you can run this one.
1720) </li>
1721) <li>Vidalia crashed, but left Tor running with the last known random
1722) password. After you restart Vidalia, it generates a new random password,

1723) but Vidalia can't talk to Tor, because the random passwords are
1724) different.

1725) <br />

1726) If the dialog that prompts you for a control password has a Reset
1727) button,

1728) you can click the button and Vidalia will restart Tor with a new random
1729) control password.
1730) <br />
1731) If you do not see a Reset button, or if Vidalia is unable to restart
1732) Tor for you, you can still fix the problem manually. Simply go into your
1733) process or task manager, and terminate the Tor process. Then use Vidalia
1734) to restart Tor and all will work again.
1735) </li>
1736) <li>You had previously set Tor to run as a Windows NT service. When Tor
1737) is set to
1738) run as a service, it starts up when the system boots. If you configured
1739) Tor to start as a service through Vidalia, a random password was set
1740) and saved in Tor. When you reboot, Tor starts up and uses the random
1741) password it saved. You login and start up Vidalia. Vidalia attempts to
1742) talk to the already running Tor. Vidalia generates a random password,
1743) but it is different than the saved password in the Tor service.
1744) <br />
1745) You need to reconfigure Tor to not be a service. See the FAQ entry on

1746) <a href="#NTservice">running Tor as a

1747) Windows NT service</a>

1748) for more information on how to remove the Tor service.
1749) </li>
1750) </ol>
1751) 

1752)     <hr>

1753) 

1754)     <a id="ChooseEntryExit"></a>

1755)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ChooseEntryExit">Can I control which
1756) nodes (or country) are used for entry/exit?</a></h3>

1757) 

1758)     <p>

1759)     Yes. You can set preferred entry and exit nodes as well as
1760)     inform Tor which nodes you do not want to use.

1761)     The following options can be added to your config file <a
1762)     href="#torrc">"torrc"</a> or specified on the command line:

1763)     </p>
1764)     <dl>
1765)       <dt><tt>EntryNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

1766)         <dd>A list of preferred nodes to use for the first hop in the
1767) circuit, if possible.

1768)         </dd>
1769)       <dt><tt>ExitNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

1770)         <dd>A list of preferred nodes to use for the last hop in the
1771) circuit, if possible.

1772)         </dd>
1773)       <dt><tt>ExcludeNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

1774)         <dd>A list of nodes to never use when building a circuit.

1775)         </dd>
1776)       <dt><tt>ExcludeExitNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

1777)         <dd>A list of nodes to never use when picking an exit.

1778)             Nodes listed in <tt>ExcludeNodes</tt> are automatically in
1779) this list.

1780)         </dd>
1781)     </dl>
1782)     <p>

1783)     <em>We recommend you do not use these</em>

1784)     — they are intended for testing and may disappear in future
1785) versions.

1786)     You get the best security that Tor can provide when you leave the
1787)     route selection to Tor; overriding the entry / exit nodes can mess
1788)     up your anonymity in ways we don't understand.

1789)     </p>
1790)     <p>

1791)     Note also that not every circuit is used to deliver traffic outside of 
1792)     the Tor network. It is normal to see non-exit circuits (such as those 
1793)     used to connect to hidden services, those that do directory fetches, 
1794)     those used for relay reachability self-tests, and so on) that end at 
1795)     a non-exit node. To keep a node from being used entirely, see 
1796)     <tt>ExcludeNodes</tt> and <tt>StrictNodes</tt> in the 
1797)     <a href="<page docs/tor-manual>">manual</a>.

1798)     </p>
1799)     <p>

1800)     Instead of <tt>$fingerprint</tt> you can also specify a <a

1801) 
1802) href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2"
1803) >2

1804)     letter ISO3166 country code</a> in curly braces (for example <tt>{de}</tt>),

1805)     or an ip address pattern (for example 255.254.0.0/8), or a node
1806)     nickname. Make sure there are no spaces between the commas and the
1807)     list items.

1808)     </p>
1809)     <p>

1810)     If you want to access a service directly through Tor's Socks
1811) interface

1812)     (eg. using ssh via connect.c), another option is to set up an

1813)     internal mapping in your configuration file using
1814) <tt>MapAddress</tt>.

1815)     See the manual page for details.
1816)     </p>

1817) 

1818)     <hr>

1819) 

1820) <a id="FirewallPorts"></a>

1821) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#FirewallPorts">My firewall only allows a
1822) few outgoing ports.</a></h3>

1823) 
1824) <p>
1825) If your firewall works by blocking ports, then you can tell Tor to only

1826) use the ports that your firewall permits by adding "FascistFirewall 1"
1827) to

1828) your <a href="<page docs/faq>#torrc">torrc

1829) configuration file</a>, or by clicking "My firewall only lets me connect
1830) to certain ports" in Vidalia's Network Settings window.
1831) </p>
1832) 
1833) <p>
1834) By default, when you set this Tor assumes that your firewall allows only
1835) port 80 and port 443 (HTTP and HTTPS respectively). You can select a
1836) different set of ports with the FirewallPorts torrc option.
1837) </p>
1838) 
1839) <p>
1840) If you want to be more fine-grained with your controls, you can also
1841) use the ReachableAddresses config options, e.g.:
1842) </p>
1843) 
1844) <pre>
1845)   ReachableDirAddresses *:80
1846)   ReachableORAddresses *:443
1847) </pre>
1848) 
1849) <hr>

1850) 

1851)     <a id="ExitPorts"></a>

1852)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ExitPorts">Is there a list of default exit 
1853)     ports?</a></h3>

1854)     <p>

1855) The default open ports are listed below but keep in mind that, any port or 
1856) ports can be opened by the relay operator by configuring it in torrc or 
1857) modifying the source code. But the default according to src/or/policies.c 
1858) from the source code release tor-0.2.4.16-rc is: 

1859)     </p>
1860)     <pre>
1861)   reject 0.0.0.0/8
1862)   reject 169.254.0.0/16
1863)   reject 127.0.0.0/8
1864)   reject 192.168.0.0/16
1865)   reject 10.0.0.0/8
1866)   reject 172.16.0.0/12
1867)   reject *:25
1868)   reject *:119
1869)   reject *:135-139
1870)   reject *:445
1871)   reject *:563
1872)   reject *:1214
1873)   reject *:4661-4666
1874)   reject *:6346-6429
1875)   reject *:6699
1876)   reject *:6881-6999
1877)   accept *:*
1878)     </pre>
1879)     <p>

1880)     A relay will block access to its own IP address, as well local network 
1881)     IP addresses. A relay always blocks itself by default. This prevents 
1882)     Tor users from accidentally accessing any of the exit operator's local 
1883)     services. 
1884)     </p>
1885) 
1886)     <hr>
1887) 
1888)     <a id="SocksAndDNS"></a>
1889)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SocksAndDNS">How do I check if my application that uses 
1890)     SOCKS is leaking DNS requests?</a></h3>
1891) 
1892)     <p>
1893)     These are two steps you need to take here. The first is to make sure 
1894)     that it's using the correct variant of the SOCKS protocol, and the 
1895)     second is to make sure that there aren't other leaks. 
1896)     </p>
1897) 
1898)     <p>
1899)     Step one: add "TestSocks 1" to your torrc file, and then watch your 
1900)     logs as you use your application. Tor will then log, for each SOCKS 
1901)     connection, whether it was using a 'good' variant or a 'bad' one. 
1902)     (If you want to automatically disable all 'bad' variants, set 
1903)     "SafeSocks 1" in your <a href="#torrc">torrc</a> file.) 
1904)     </p>
1905) 
1906)     <p>
1907)     Step two: even if your application is using the correct variant of 
1908)     the SOCKS protocol, there is still a risk that it could be leaking 
1909)     DNS queries. This problem happens in Firefox extensions that resolve 
1910)     the destination hostname themselves, for example to show you its IP 
1911)     address, what country it's in, etc. These applications may use a safe 
1912)     SOCKS variant when actually making connections, but they still do DNS 
1913)     resolves locally. If you suspect your application might behave like 
1914)     this, you should use a network sniffer like <a 
1915)     href="https://www.wireshark.org/">Wireshark</a> and look for 
1916)     suspicious outbound DNS requests. I'm afraid the details of how to look 
1917)     for these problems are beyond the scope of a FAQ entry though -- find 
1918)     a friend to help if you have problems. 

1919)     </p>
1920) 
1921)     <hr>
1922) 

1923)     <a id="HowDoIDecide"></a>
1924)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#HowDoIDecide">How do I decide if I should 
1925)     run a relay?</a></h3>
1926)     <p>
1927)     We're looking for people with reasonably reliable Internet connections, 
1928)     that have at least 20 kilobytes/second each way. If that's you, please 
1929)     consider <a href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-relay-debian">helping 
1930)     out</a>. 
1931)     </p>
1932)     
1933)     <hr>
1934)     
1935)     <a id="WhyIsntMyRelayBeingUsedMore"></a>
1936)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhyIsntMyRelayBeingUsedMore">Why isn't my 
1937)     relay being used more?</a></h3>
1938)     <p>
1939)     If your relay is relatively new then give it time. Tor decides which 
1940)     relays it uses heuristically based on reports from Bandwidth 
1941)     Authorities. These authorities take measurements of your relay's 
1942)     capacity and, over time, directs more traffic there until it reaches 
1943)     an optimal load. The lifecycle of a new relay is explained in more 
1944)     depth in <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/lifecycle-of-a-new-relay">
1945)     this blog post</a>.
1946)     </p>
1947)     <p>
1948)     If you've been running a relay for a while and still having issues 
1949)     then try asking on the <a href=
1950)     "https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays/">
1951)     tor-relays list</a>. 
1952)     </p>
1953)     
1954)     <hr>
1955) 

1956)     <a id="HighCapacityConnection"></a>    
1957)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#HighCapacityConnection">How can I get Tor to fully 
1958)     make use of my high capacity connection?</a></h3>
1959)     
1960)     <p>
1961)     See <a href="http://archives.seul.org/or/relays/Aug-2010/msg00034.html">this 
1962)     tor-relays thread</a>.
1963)     </p>
1964)     
1965)     <hr>    
1966)     

1967)     <a id="RelayFlexible"></a>

1968)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RelayFlexible">How stable does my relay
1969) need to be?</a></h3>

1970) 

1971)     <p>
1972)     We aim to make setting up a Tor relay easy and convenient:
1973)     </p>

1974) 

1975)     <ul>
1976)     <li>Tor has built-in support for <a

1977)     href="<wikifaq>#WhatbandwidthshapingoptionsareavailabletoTorrelays">

1978)     rate limiting</a>. Further, if you have a fast
1979)     link but want to limit the number of bytes per
1980)     day (or week or month) that you donate, check out the <a

1981) 
1982) href="<wikifaq>#HowcanIlimitthetotalamountofbandwidthusedbymyTorrelay">
1983) hibernation

1984)     feature</a>.
1985)     </li>

1986)     <li>Each Tor relay has an <a href="#ExitPolicies">exit policy</a>
1987) that
1988)     specifies what sort of outbound connections are allowed or refused
1989) from
1990)     that relay. If you are uncomfortable allowing people to exit from
1991) your
1992)     relay, you can set it up to only allow connections to other Tor
1993) relays.

1994)     </li>
1995)     <li>It's fine if the relay goes offline sometimes. The directories
1996)     notice this quickly and stop advertising the relay. Just try to make
1997)     sure it's not too often, since connections using the relay when it
1998)     disconnects will break.
1999)     </li>
2000)     <li>We can handle relays with dynamic IPs just fine &mdash; simply
2001)     leave the Address config option blank, and Tor will try to guess.
2002)     </li>
2003)     <li>If your relay is behind a NAT and it doesn't know its public
2004)     IP (e.g. it has an IP of 192.168.x.y), you'll need to set up port

2005)     forwarding. Forwarding TCP connections is system dependent but

2006)     <a href="<wikifaq>#ImbehindaNATFirewall">this FAQ entry</a>

2007)     offers some examples on how to do this.
2008)     </li>
2009)     <li>Your relay will passively estimate and advertise its recent

2010)     bandwidth capacity, so high-bandwidth relays will attract more users
2011) than
2012)     low-bandwidth ones. Therefore having low-bandwidth relays is useful
2013) too.

2014)     </li>
2015)     </ul>

2016) 

2017)     <hr>

2018) 

2019)     <a id="ExitPolicies"></a>

2020)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ExitPolicies">I'd run a relay, but I
2021) don't want to deal with abuse issues.</a></h3>

2022) 

2023)     <p>
2024)     Great. That's exactly why we implemented exit policies.
2025)     </p>

2026) 

2027)     <p>
2028)     Each Tor relay has an exit policy that specifies what sort of

2029)     outbound connections are allowed or refused from that relay. The
2030) exit

2031)     policies are propagated to Tor clients via the directory, so clients
2032)     will automatically avoid picking exit relays that would refuse to
2033)     exit to their intended destination. This way each relay can decide
2034)     the services, hosts, and networks he wants to allow connections to,

2035)     based on abuse potential and his own situation. Read the FAQ entry
2036) on
2037)     <a href="<page docs/faq-abuse>#TypicalAbuses">issues you might
2038) encounter</a>

2039)     if you use the default exit policy, and then read Mike Perry's

2040)     <a href="<blog>tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment">tips

2041)     for running an exit node with minimal harassment</a>.
2042)     </p>

2043) 

2044)     <p>

2045)     The default exit policy allows access to many popular services

2046)     (e.g. web browsing), but <a
2047) href="<wikifaq>#Istherealistofdefaultexitports">restricts</a>

2048)     some due to abuse potential (e.g. mail) and some since
2049)     the Tor network can't handle the load (e.g. default
2050)     file-sharing ports). You can change your exit policy

2051)     using Vidalia's "Sharing" tab, or by manually editing your

2052)     <a href="<page docs/faq>#torrc">torrc</a>

2053)     file. If you want to avoid most if not all abuse potential, set it
2054) to
2055)     "reject *:*" (or un-check all the boxes in Vidalia). This setting
2056) means
2057)     that your relay will be used for relaying traffic inside the Tor
2058) network,

2059)     but not for connections to external websites or other services.
2060)     </p>

2061) 

2062)     <p>

2063)     If you do allow any exit connections, make sure name resolution
2064) works

2065)     (that is, your computer can resolve Internet addresses correctly).

2066)     If there are any resources that your computer can't reach (for
2067) example,

2068)     you are behind a restrictive firewall or content filter), please

2069)     explicitly reject them in your exit policy — otherwise Tor
2070) users

2071)     will be impacted too.
2072)     </p>

2073) 

2074)     <hr>

2075) 

2076)     <a id="DifferentComputer"></a>

2077)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DifferentComputer">I want to run my 
2078)     Tor client on a different computer than my applications.</a></h3>

2079)     <p>

2080)     By default, your Tor client only listens for applications that 
2081)     connect from localhost. Connections from other computers are 
2082)     refused. If you want to torify applications on different computers 
2083)     than the Tor client, you should edit your torrc to define 
2084)     SocksListenAddress 0.0.0.0 g and then restart (or hup) Tor. If you 
2085)     want to get more advanced, you can configure your Tor client on a 
2086)     firewall to bind to your internal IP but not your external IP.  

2087)     </p>
2088) 
2089)     <hr>
2090) 
2091)     <a id="ServerClient"></a>

2092)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ServerClient">Can I install Tor on a 
2093)     central server, and have my clients connect to it?</a></h3>
2094)     <p>
2095)      Yes. Tor can be configured as a client or a relay on another 
2096)      machine, and allow other machines to be able to connect to it 
2097)      for anonymity. This is most useful in an environment where many 
2098)      computers want a gateway of anonymity to the rest of the world. 
2099)      However, be forwarned that with this configuration, anyone within 
2100)      your private network (existing between you and the Tor 
2101)      client/relay) can see what traffic you are sending in clear text. 
2102)      The anonymity doesn't start until you get to the Tor relay. 
2103)      Because of this, if you are the controller of your domain and you 
2104)      know everything's locked down, you will be OK, but this configuration 
2105)      may not be suitable for large private networks where security is 
2106)      key all around.
2107)     </p>
2108)     <p>
2109) Configuration is simple, editing your torrc file's SocksListenAddress 
2110) according to the following examples:

2111)     </p>
2112)     <pre>

2113) 
2114)   #This provides local interface access only, 
2115)   #needs SocksPort to be greater than 0
2116)   SocksListenAddress 127.0.0.1 
2117) 
2118)   #This provides access to Tor on a specified interface
2119)   SocksListenAddress 192.168.x.x:9100 
2120) 
2121)   #Accept from all interfaces
2122)   SocksListenAddress 0.0.0.0:9100
2123)    </pre>

2124)     <p>

2125) You can state multiple listen addresses, in the case that you are 
2126) part of several networks or subnets.

2127)     </p>
2128)     <pre>
2129)   SocksListenAddress 192.168.x.x:9100 #eth0
2130)   SocksListenAddress 10.x.x.x:9100 #eth1
2131)     </pre>
2132)     <p>

2133) After this, your clients on their respective networks/subnets would specify 
2134) a socks proxy with the address and port you specified SocksListenAddress 
2135) to be. 

2136)     </p>
2137)     <p>

2138) Please note that the SocksPort configuration option gives the port ONLY for 
2139) localhost (127.0.0.1). When setting up your SocksListenAddress(es), you need 
2140) to give the port with the address, as shown above.

2141)     <p>

2142) If you are interested in forcing all outgoing data through the central Tor 
2143) client/relay, instead of the server only being an optional proxy, you may find 
2144) the program iptables (for *nix) useful. 

2145)     </p>
2146) 
2147)     <hr>
2148) 

2149)     <a id="JoinTheNetwork"></a>

2150)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#JoinTheNetwork">So I can just configure a 
2151)     nickname and ORPort and join the network?</a></h3>

2152) 
2153)     <p>

2154)      Yes. You can join the network and be a useful relay just by configuring 
2155)      your Tor to be a relay and making sure it's reachable from the outside.

2156)     </p>
2157)     <p>
2158) 30 Seconds to a Tor Relay:
2159)     </p>
2160)     <ul><li>
2161)     Configure a Nickname: 
2162)     </li></ul>
2163)     <pre>
2164) Nickname ididnteditheconfig
2165)     </pre>

2166)     <ul><li>

2167)     Configure ORPort: 

2168)     </li></ul>

2169)     <pre>
2170) ORPort 9001
2171)     </pre>

2172)     <ul><li>

2173)     Configure Contact Info: 

2174)     </li></ul>

2175) 
2176)     <pre>
2177) ContactInfo human@…

2178)     </pre>
2179)     <ul><li>

2180)     Start Tor. Watch the log file for a log entry that states: "Self-testing 
2181)     indicates your ORPort is reachable from the outside. Excellent. Publishing 
2182)     server descriptor."

2183)     </li></ul>

2184) 
2185)     <hr />

2186) 

2187)     <a id="RelayOrBridge"></a>

2188)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RelayOrBridge">Should I be a normal
2189) relay or bridge relay?</a></h3>

2190) 

2191)     <p><a href="<page docs/bridges>">Bridge relays</a> (or "bridges" for
2192) short)
2193)     are <a href="<page docs/tor-doc-relay>">Tor relays</a> that aren't

2194)     listed in the public Tor directory.

2195)     That means that ISPs or governments trying to block access to the

2196)     Tor network can't simply block all bridges.

2197)     </p>

2198) 

2199)     <p>Being a normal relay vs being a bridge relay is almost the same
2200)     configuration: it's just a matter of whether your relay is listed

2201)     publicly or not.

2202)     </p>

2203) 

2204)     <p>

2205)     So bridges are useful a) for Tor users in oppressive regimes,

2206)     and b) for people who want an extra layer of security

2207)     because they're worried somebody will recognize that it's a public
2208)     Tor relay IP address they're contacting.

2209)     </p>

2210) 

2211)     <p>
2212)     Several countries, including China and Iran, have found ways to

2213)     detect and block connections to Tor bridges.

2214)     <a href="<page projects/obfsproxy>">Obfsproxy</a> bridges address

2215)     this by adding another layer of obfuscation.

2216)     </p>
2217) 

2218)     <p>So should you run a normal relay or bridge relay? If you have
2219) lots

2220)     of bandwidth, you should definitely run a normal relay.
2221)     If you're willing

2222)     to <a href="#ExitPolicies">be an exit</a>, you should definitely
2223)     run a normal relay, since we need more exits. If you can't be an
2224)     exit and only have a little bit of bandwidth, be a bridge. Thanks
2225)     for volunteering!

2226)     </p>

2227) 

2228)     <hr>

2229) 

2230) <a id="UpgradeOrMove"></a>

2231) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#UpgradeOrMove">I want to upgrade/move my relay. 
2232) How do I keep the same key?</a></h3>

2233) 
2234) <p>

2235)  When upgrading your Tor relay, or running it on a different computer, 
2236)  the important part is to keep the same nickname (defined in your torrc 
2237)  file) and the same identity key (stored in "keys/secret_id_key" in 
2238)  your DataDirectory).

2239) </p>
2240) <p>

2241) This means that if you're upgrading your Tor relay and you keep the same 
2242) torrc and the same DataDirectory, then the upgrade should just work and 
2243) your relay will keep using the same key. If you need to pick a new 
2244) DataDirectory, be sure to copy your old keys/secret_id_key over. 

2245) </p>
2246) 
2247)     <hr>
2248) 
2249) <a id="NTService"></a>

2250) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#NTService">How do I run my Tor relay as an NT 
2251) service?</a></h3>

2252) 
2253) <p>

2254)  You can run Tor as a service on all versions of Windows except Windows 
2255)  95/98/ME. This way you can run a Tor relay without needing to always have 
2256)  Vidalia running.

2257) </p>
2258) <p>

2259) If you've already configured your Tor to be a relay, please note that when 
2260) you enable Tor as a service, it will use a different DatagDirectory, and 
2261) thus will generate a different key. If you want to keep using the old key, 
2262) see the Upgrading your Tor relay FAQ entry for how to restore the old 
2263) identity key.

2264) </p>
2265) <p>
2266) To install Tor as a service, you can simply run:
2267) </p>
2268) <pre>
2269) tor --service install
2270) </pre>
2271) <p>

2272) A service called Tor Win32 Service will be installed and started. This 
2273) service will also automatically start every time Windows boots, unless 
2274) you change the Start-up type. An easy way to check the status of Tor, 
2275) start or stop the service, and change the start-up type is by running 
2276) services.msc and finding the Tor service in the list of currently 
2277) installed services.

2278) </p>
2279) <p>

2280) Optionally, you can specify additional options for the Tor service using 
2281) the -options argument. For example, if you want Tor to use C:\tor\torrc, 
2282) instead of the default torrc, and open a control port on port 9151, you 
2283) would run:

2284) </p>
2285) <pre>
2286) tor --service install -options -f C:\tor\torrc ControlPort 9151
2287) </pre>
2288) <p>
2289) You can also start or stop the Tor service from the command line by typing:
2290) </p>
2291) <pre>
2292)  tor --service start
2293) </pre>
2294) <p>
2295) or
2296) </p>
2297) <pre>
2298)  tor --service stop
2299) </pre>
2300) <p>
2301) To remove the Tor service, you can run the following command:
2302) </p>
2303) <pre>
2304) tor --service remove
2305) </pre>
2306) <p>

2307) If you are running Tor as a service and you want to uninstall Tor entirely, 
2308) be sure to run the service removal command (shown above) first before 
2309) running the uninstaller from "Add/Remove Programs". The uninstaller is 
2310) currently not capable of removing the active service.

2311) </p>
2312) 
2313) <hr>
2314) 
2315) <a id="VirtualServer"></a>

2316) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#VirtualServer">Can I run a Tor relay from my 
2317) virtual server account?</a></h3>

2318) 
2319) <p>

2320) Some ISPs are selling "vserver" accounts that provide what they call a 
2321) virtual server -- you can't actually interact with the hardware, and 
2322) they can artificially limit certain resources such as the number of file 
2323) descriptors you can open at once. Competent vserver admins are able to 
2324) configure your server to not hit these limits. For example, in SWSoft's 
2325) Virtuozzo, investigate /proc/user_beancounters. Look for "failcnt" in 
2326) tcpsndbuf, tcprecvbuf, numothersock, and othersockbuf. Ask for these to 
2327) be increased accordingly. Some users have seen settings work well as follows: 

2328) <p>

2329) <table border="1">

2330) <tr>
2331) <td>
2332) <i>resource</i>
2333) </td>
2334) <td>
2335) <i>held</i>
2336) </td>
2337) <td>
2338) <i>maxheld</i>
2339) </td>
2340) <td>
2341) <i>barrier</i>
2342) </td>
2343) <td>
2344) <i>limit</i>
2345) </td>
2346) <td>
2347) <i>failcnt</i>
2348) </td>
2349) </tr>
2350) <tr>
2351) <td>
2352) tcpsndbuf
2353) </td>
2354) <td>
2355) 46620
2356) </td>
2357) <td>
2358) 48840
2359) </td>
2360) <td>
2361) 3440640
2362) </td>
2363) <td>
2364) 5406720
2365) </td>
2366) <td>
2367) 0
2368) </td>
2369) </tr>
2370) <tr>
2371) <td>
2372) tcprcvbuf
2373) </td>
2374) <td>
2375) 0
2376) </td>
2377) <td>
2378) 2220
2379) </td>
2380) <td>
2381) 3440640
2382) </td>
2383) <td>
2384) 5406720
2385) </td>
2386) <td>
2387) 0
2388) </td>
2389) </tr>
2390) <tr>
2391) <td>
2392) othersockbuf
2393) </td>
2394) <td>
2395) 243516
2396) </td>
2397) <td>
2398) 260072
2399) </td>
2400) <td>
2401) 2252160
2402) </td>
2403) <td>
2404) 4194304
2405) </td>
2406) <td>
2407) 0
2408) </td>
2409) </tr>
2410) <tr>
2411) <td>
2412) numothersock
2413) </td>
2414) <td>
2415) 151
2416) </td>
2417) <td>
2418) 153
2419) </td>
2420) <td>
2421) 720
2422) </td>
2423) <td>
2424) 720
2425) </td>
2426) <td>
2427) 0
2428) </td>
2429) </tr>
2430) </table>
2431) <p>
2432)  Xen, Virtual Box and VMware virtual servers have no such limits normally.
2433) </p>
2434) <p>

2435) If the vserver admin will not increase system limits another option is 
2436) to reduce the memory allocated to the send and receive buffers on TCP 
2437) connections Tor uses. An experimental feature to constrain socket buffers 
2438) has recently been added. If your version of Tor supports it, set 
2439) "ConstrainedSockets 1" in your configuration. See the tor man page for 
2440) additional details about this option.

2441) </p>
2442) <p>

2443) Unfortunately, since Tor currently requires you to be able to connect to 
2444) all the other Tor relays, we need you to be able to use at least 1024 file 
2445) descriptors. This means we can't make use of Tor relays that are crippled 
2446) in this way.

2447) </p>
2448) <p>

2449) We hope to fix this in the future, once we know how to build a Tor network 
2450) with restricted topologies -- that is, where each node connects to only a 
2451) few other nodes. But this is still a long way off.

2452) </p>
2453) 

2454) <hr>
2455) 

2456) <a id="MultipleRelays"></a>

2457) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#MultipleRelays">I want to run more than one
2458) relay.</a></h3>

2459) 
2460) <p>
2461) Great. If you want to run several relays to donate more to the network,
2462) we're happy with that. But please don't run more than a few dozen on
2463) the same network, since part of the goal of the Tor network is dispersal
2464) and diversity.
2465) </p>
2466) 
2467) <p>
2468) If you do decide to run more than one relay, please set the "MyFamily"

2469) config option in the <a href="#torrc">torrc</a> of each relay, listing
2470) all the relays (comma-separated) that are under your control:

2471) </p>
2472) 
2473) <pre>
2474)     MyFamily $fingerprint1,$fingerprint2,$fingerprint3
2475) </pre>
2476) 
2477) <p>
2478) where each fingerprint is the 40 character identity fingerprint (without

2479) spaces). You can also list them by nickname, but fingerprint is safer.
2480) Be

2481) sure to prefix the digest strings with a dollar sign ('$') so that the
2482) digest is not confused with a nickname in the config file.
2483) </p>
2484) 
2485) <p>
2486) That way clients will know to avoid using more than one of your relays
2487) in a single circuit. You should set MyFamily if you have administrative
2488) control of the computers or of their network, even if they're not all in
2489) the same geographic location.
2490) </p>
2491) 
2492)     <hr>
2493) 

2494)     <a id="WrongIP"></a>

2495)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WrongIP">My relay is picking the wrong 
2496)     IP address.</a></h3>

2497)     <p>

2498)  Tor guesses its IP address by asking the computer for its hostname, and 
2499)  then resolving that hostname. Often people have old entries in their 
2500)  /etc/hosts file that point to old IP addresses.

2501)     </p>
2502)     <p>

2503) If that doesn't fix it, you should use the "Address" config option to 
2504) specify the IP you want it to pick. If your computer is behind a NAT and 
2505) it only has an internal IP address, see the following FAQ entry on <a 
2506) href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#RelayFlexible">dynamic 
2507) IP addresses</a>.

2508)     </p>
2509)     <p>

2510) Also, if you have many addresses, you might also want to set 
2511) "OutboundBindAddress" so external connections come from the IP you intend 
2512) to present to the world. 

2513)     </p>
2514) 
2515)     <hr>
2516) 
2517)     <a id="BehindANAT"></a>
2518)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#BehindANAT">I'm behind a NAT/Firewall.</a></h3>
2519) 
2520)     <p>

2521) See <a>​http://portforward.com/</a> for directions on how to port forward with 
2522) your NAT/router device.

2523) </p>
2524) <p>

2525) If your relay is running on a internal net you need to setup port forwarding. 
2526) Forwarding TCP connections is system dependent but the firewalled-clients FAQ 
2527) entry offers some examples on how to do this.

2528) </p>
2529) <p>

2530) Also, here's an example of how you would do this on GNU/Linux if you're using 
2531) iptables:

2532) </p>
2533) <pre>
2534) /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --destination-port 9001 -j ACCEPT
2535) </pre>
2536) <p>

2537) You may have to change "eth0" if you have a different external interface 
2538) (the one connected to the Internet). Chances are you have only one (except 
2539) the loopback) so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. 

2540)     </p>
2541)     <hr>
2542) 

2543)     <a id="RelayMemory"></a>

2544)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RelayMemory">Why is my Tor relay using
2545) so much memory?</a></h3>

2546) 

2547)     <p>If your Tor relay is using more memory than you'd like, here are
2548) some

2549)     tips for reducing its footprint:
2550)     </p>

2551) 

2552)     <ol>
2553)     <li>If you're on Linux, you may be encountering memory fragmentation

2554)     bugs in glibc's malloc implementation. That is, when Tor releases
2555) memory
2556)     back to the system, the pieces of memory are fragmented so they're
2557) hard
2558)     to reuse. The Tor tarball ships with OpenBSD's malloc
2559) implementation,
2560)     which doesn't have as many fragmentation bugs (but the tradeoff is
2561) higher
2562)     CPU load). You can tell Tor to use this malloc implementation
2563) instead:

2564)     <tt>./configure --enable-openbsd-malloc</tt></li>

2565) 

2566)     <li>If you're running a fast relay, meaning you have many TLS
2567) connections

2568)     open, you are probably losing a lot of memory to OpenSSL's internal
2569)     buffers (38KB+ per socket). We've patched OpenSSL to <a

2570) 
2571) href="https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2008-June/001519.
2572) html">release

2573)     unused buffer memory more aggressively</a>. If you update to OpenSSL

2574)     1.0.0 or newer, Tor's build process will automatically recognize and
2575) use

2576)     this feature.</li>

2577) 

2578)     <li>If you're running on Solaris, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or
2579)     old FreeBSD, Tor is probably forking separate processes
2580)     rather than using threads. Consider switching to a <a
2581)     href="<wikifaq>#WhydoesntmyWindowsorotherOSTorrelayrunwell">better
2582)     operating system</a>.</li>

2583) 

2584)     <li>If you still can't handle the memory load, consider reducing the

2585)     amount of bandwidth your relay advertises. Advertising less
2586) bandwidth

2587)     means you will attract fewer users, so your relay shouldn't grow
2588)     as large. See the <tt>MaxAdvertisedBandwidth</tt> option in the man
2589)     page.</li>

2590) 

2591)     </ol>

2592) 

2593)     <p>

2594)     All of this said, fast Tor relays do use a lot of ram. It is not
2595) unusual

2596)     for a fast exit relay to use 500-1000 MB of memory.
2597)     </p>

2598) 

2599)     <hr>

2600) 

2601)     <a id="BetterAnonymity"></a>

2602)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#BetterAnonymity">Do I get better anonymity 
2603)     if I run a relay?</a></h3>

2604) 

2605)     <p>

2606) Yes, you do get better anonymity against some attacks.
2607)     </p>
2608)     <p>

2609) The simplest example is an attacker who owns a small number of Tor relays. 
2610) He will see a connection from you, but he won't be able to know whether 
2611) the connection originated at your computer or was relayed from somebody else.

2612)     </p>
2613)     <p>

2614) There are some cases where it doesn't seem to help: if an attacker can 
2615) watch all of your incoming and outgoing traffic, then it's easy for him 
2616) to learn which connections were relayed and which started at you. (In 
2617) this case he still doesn't know your destinations unless he is watching 
2618) them too, but you're no better off than if you were an ordinary client.)

2619)     </p>
2620)     <p>

2621) There are also some downsides to running a Tor relay. First, while we 
2622) only have a few hundred relays, the fact that you're running one might 
2623) signal to an attacker that you place a high value on your anonymity. 
2624) Second, there are some more esoteric attacks that are not as 
2625) well-understood or well-tested that involve making use of the knowledge 
2626) that you're running a relay -- for example, an attacker may be able to 
2627) "observe" whether you're sending traffic even if he can't actually watch 
2628) your network, by relaying traffic through your Tor relay and noticing 
2629) changes in traffic timing.

2630)     </p>
2631)     <p>

2632) It is an open research question whether the benefits outweigh the risks. 
2633) A lot of that depends on the attacks you are most worried about. For 
2634) most users, we think it's a smart move. 

2635)     </p>

2636) 

2637)     <hr>

2638) 

2639)     <a id="RelayDonations"></a>

2640)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RelayDonations">Can I donate for a
2641)     relay rather than run my own?</a></h3>

2642) 
2643)     <p>

2644)     Sure! We recommend these non-profit charities that are happy to turn

2645)     your donations into better speed and anonymity for the Tor network:
2646)     </p>
2647)     <ul>
2648)     <li><a href="https://www.torservers.net/">torservers.net</a>
2649)     is a German charitable non-profit that runs a wide variety of

2650)     exit relays worldwide. They also like donations of bandwidth from
2651)     ISPs.</li>

2652)     <li><a

2653) href="https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisebridge_Tor">Noisebridge</a>

2654)     is a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit that collects donations and turns

2655)     them into more US-based exit relay capacity.</li>
2656)     <li><a href="https://nos-oignons.net/">Nos Oignons</a> is a French
2657)     charitable non-profit that runs fast exit relays in France.</li>

2658)     </ul>
2659) 
2660)     <p>
2661)     These organizations are not the same as <a href="<page
2662)     donate/donate>">The Tor Project, Inc</a>, but we consider that a

2663)     good thing. They're both run by nice people who are part of the
2664)     Tor community.

2665)     </p>
2666) 
2667)     <p>
2668)     Note that there can be a tradeoff here between anonymity and

2669)     performance. The Tor network's anonymity comes in part from
2670) diversity,

2671)     so if you are in a position to run your own relay, you will be

2672)     improving Tor's anonymity more than by donating. At the same time
2673)     though, economies

2674)     of scale for bandwidth mean that combining many small donations into

2675)     several larger relays is more efficient at improving network

2676)     performance. Improving anonymity and improving performance are both
2677)     worthwhile goals, so however you can help is great!
2678)     </p>
2679) 
2680)     <hr>
2681) 

2682)     <a id="AccessHiddenServices"></a>
2683)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#AccessHiddenServices">How do I access 
2684)     hidden services?</a></h3>
2685)     
2686)     <p>
2687)     Tor hidden services are named with a special top-level domain (TLD) 
2688)     name in DNS: .onion. Since the .onion TLD is not recognized by the 
2689)     official root DNS servers on the Internet, your application will not 
2690)     get the response it needs to locate the service. Currently, the Tor 
2691)     directory server provides this look-up service; and thus the look-up 
2692)     request must get to the Tor network. 
2693)     </p>
2694) 
2695) <p>
2696)  Therefore, your application <b>needs</b> to pass the .onion hostname to 
2697)  Tor directly. You can't try to resolve it to an IP address, since there 
2698)  <i>is</i> no corresponding IP address: the server is hidden, after all! 
2699) </p>
2700)     
2701)     <p>
2702)     So, how do you make your application pass the hostname directly to Tor? 
2703)     You can't use SOCKS 4, since SOCKS 4 proxies require an IP from the 
2704)     client (a web browser is an example of a SOCKS client). Even though 
2705)     SOCKS 5 can accept either an IP or a hostname, most applications 
2706)     supporting SOCKS 5 try to resolve the name before passing it to the 
2707)     SOCKS proxy. SOCKS 4a, however, always accepts a hostname: You'll need 
2708)     to use SOCKS 4a. 
2709)     </p>
2710)     
2711)     <p>
2712)     Some applications, such as the browsers Mozilla Firefox and Apple's 
2713)     Safari, support sending DNS queries to Tor's SOCKS 5 proxy. Most web 
2714)     browsers don't support SOCKS 4a very well, though. The workaround is 
2715)     to point your web browser at an HTTP proxy, and tell the HTTP proxy 
2716)     to speak to Tor with SOCKS 4a. We recommend Polipo as your HTTP proxy.
2717)     </p>
2718)     
2719)     <p>
2720)     For applications that do not support HTTP proxy, and so cannot use 
2721)     Polipo, <a href="http://www.freecap.ru/eng/">FreeCap</a> is an 
2722)     alternative. When using FreeCap set proxy protocol  to SOCKS 5 and under 
2723)     settings set DNS name resolving to remote. This 
2724)     will allow you to use almost any program with Tor without leaking DNS 
2725)     lookups and allow those same programs to access hidden services. 
2726)     </p>
2727)     
2728)     <p>
2729)     See also the <a href="#SocksAndDNS">question on DNS</a>. 
2730)     </p>    
2731)     
2732)     <hr>
2733) 
2734)     <a id="ProvideAHiddenService"></a>
2735)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ProvideAHiddenService">How do I provide a 
2736)     hidden service?</a></h3>
2737)     
2738)     <p>

2739)     See the <a href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-hidden-service.html.en">

2740)     official hidden service configuration instructions</a>.
2741)     </p>
2742) 
2743)     <hr>
2744)     

2745)     <a id="WhatProtectionsDoesTorProvide"></a>
2746)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhatProtectionsDoesTorProvide">What 
2747)     protections does Tor provide?</a></h3>
2748)     
2749)     <p>
2750)      Internet communication is based on a store-and-forward model that 
2751)      can be understood in analogy to postal mail: Data is transmitted in 
2752)      blocks called IP datagrams or packets. Every packet includes a source 
2753)      IP address (of the sender) and a destination IP address (of the 
2754)      receiver), just as ordinary letters contain postal addresses of sender 
2755)      and receiver. The way from sender to receiver involves multiple hops of 
2756)      routers, where each router inspects the destination IP address and 
2757)      forwards the packet closer to its destination. Thus, every router 
2758)      between sender and receiver learns that the sender is communicating 
2759)      with the receiver. In particular, your local ISP is in the position to 
2760)      build a complete profile of your Internet usage. In addition, every 
2761)      server in the Internet that can see any of the packets can profile your 
2762)      behaviour. 
2763)     </p>
2764)     
2765)     <p>
2766)     The aim of Tor is to improve your privacy by sending your traffic through 
2767)     a series of proxies. Your communication is encrypted in multiple layers 
2768)     and routed via multiple hops through the Tor network to the final 
2769)     receiver. More details on this process can be found in the <a 
2770)     href="https://www.torproject.org/about/overview">Tor overview</a>. 
2771)     Note that all your local ISP can observe now is that you are 
2772)     communicating with Tor nodes. Similarly, servers in the Internet just 
2773)     see that they are being contacted by Tor nodes.
2774)     </p>
2775)     
2776)     <p>
2777)     Generally speaking, Tor aims to solve three privacy problems: 
2778)     </p>
2779)     
2780)     <p>
2781)     First, Tor prevents websites and other services from learning 
2782)     your location, which they can use to build databases about your 
2783)     habits and interests. With Tor, your Internet connections don't 
2784)     give you away by default -- now you can have the ability to choose, 
2785)     for each connection, how much information to reveal. 
2786)     </p>
2787)     
2788)     <p>
2789)     Second, Tor prevents people watching your traffic locally (such as 
2790)     your ISP) from learning what information you're fetching and where 
2791)     you're fetching it from. It also stops them from deciding what you're 
2792)     allowed to learn and publish -- if you can get to any part of the Tor 
2793)     network, you can reach any site on the Internet.     
2794)     </p>
2795) 
2796)     <p>
2797)     Third, Tor routes your connection through more than one Tor relay 
2798)     so no single relay can learn what you're up to. Because these relays 
2799)     are run by different individuals or organizations, distributing trust 
2800)     provides more security than the old <a href="#Torisdifferent">one hop proxy
2801)     </a> approach. 
2802)     </p>
2803)     
2804)     <p>
2805)     Note, however, that there are situations where Tor fails to solve these 
2806)     privacy problems entirely: see the entry below on <a 
2807)     href="#AttacksOnOnionRouting">remaining attacks</a>.    
2808)     </p>
2809)     
2810)     <hr>
2811)     
2812)     <a id="CanExitNodesEavesdrop"></a>
2813)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#CanExitNodesEavesdrop">Can exit nodes eavesdrop 
2814)     on communications? Isn't that bad?</a></h3>
2815)     
2816)     <p>
2817)     Yes, the guy running the exit node can read the bytes that come in and 
2818)     out there. Tor anonymizes the origin of your traffic, and it makes sure 
2819)     to encrypt everything inside the Tor network, but it does not magically 
2820)     encrypt all traffic throughout the Internet. 
2821)     </p>
2822)     
2823)     <p>
2824)     This is why you should always use end-to-end encryption such as SSL for 
2825)     sensitive Internet connections. (The corollary to this answer is that if 
2826)     you are worried about somebody intercepting your traffic and you're 
2827)     *not* using end-to-end encryption at the application layer, then something 
2828)     has already gone wrong and you shouldn't be thinking that Tor is the problem.) 
2829)     </p>
2830)     
2831)     <p>
2832)     Tor does provide a partial solution in a very specific situation, though. 
2833)     When you make a connection to a destination that also runs a Tor relay, 
2834)     Tor will automatically extend your circuit so you exit from that circuit. 
2835)     So for example if Indymedia ran a Tor relay on the same IP address as 
2836)     their website, people using Tor to get to the Indymedia website would 
2837)     automatically exit from their Tor relay, thus getting *better* encryption 
2838)     and authentication properties than just browsing there the normal way. 
2839)     </p>
2840) 
2841)     <p>
2842)     We'd like to make it still work even if the service is nearby the Tor 
2843)     relay but not on the same IP address. But there are a variety of 
2844)     technical problems we need to overcome first (the main one being "how 
2845)     does the Tor client learn which relays are associated with which 
2846)     websites in a decentralized yet non-gamable way?"). 
2847)     </p>
2848)             
2849)     <hr>
2850)     
2851)     <a id="ExitEnclaving"></a>
2852)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ExitEnclaving">What is Exit Enclaving?</a></h3>
2853) 
2854)     <p>
2855)     When a machine that runs a Tor relay also runs a public service, such as 
2856)     a webserver, you can configure Tor to offer Exit Enclaving to that 
2857)     service. Running an Exit Enclave for all of your services you wish to 
2858)     be accessible via Tor provides your users the assurance that they will 
2859)     exit through your server, rather than exiting from a randomly selected 
2860)     exit node that could be watched. Normally, a tor circuit would end at 
2861)     an exit node and then that node would make a connection to your service. 
2862)     Anyone watching that exit node could see the connection to your service, 
2863)     and be able to snoop on the contents if it were an unencrypted 
2864)     connection. If you run an Exit Enclave for your service, then the exit 
2865)     from the Tor network happens on the machine that runs your service, 
2866)     rather than on an untrusted random node. This works when Tor clients 
2867)     wishing to connect to this public service extend their their circuit 
2868)     to exit from the Tor relay running on that same host. For example, if 
2869)     the server at 1.2.3.4 runs a web server on port 80 and also acts as a 
2870)     Tor relay configured for Exit Enclaving, then Tor clients wishing to 
2871)     connect to the webserver will extend their circuit a fourth hop to exit 
2872)     to port 80 on the Tor relay running on 1.2.3.4. 
2873)     </p>
2874)     <p>
2875)     Exit Enclaving is disabled by default to prevent attackers from 
2876)     exploiting trust relationships with locally bound services. For 
2877)     example, often 127.0.0.1 will run services that are not designed to 
2878)     be shared with the entire world. Sometimes these services will also 
2879)     be bound to the public IP address, but will only allow connections if 
2880)     the source address is something trusted, such as 127.0.0.1. 
2881)     </p>
2882)     <p>
2883)     As a result of possible trust issues, relay operators must configure 
2884)     their exit policy to allow connections to themselves, but they should 
2885)     do so only when they are certain that this is a feature that they would 
2886)     like. Once certain, turning off the ExitPolicyRejectPrivate option will 
2887)     enable Exit Enclaving. An example configuration would be as follows: 
2888)     </p>
2889)     <pre>
2890)     ExitPolicy accept 1.2.3.4:80
2891)     ExitPolicy reject 127.0.0.1/8
2892)     ExitPolicyRejectPrivate 0
2893)     </pre>
2894)     <p>
2895)     This option should be used with care as it may expose internal network 
2896)     blocks that are not meant to be accessible from the outside world or 
2897)     the Tor network. Please tailor your ExitPolicy to reflect all netblocks 
2898)     that you want to prohibit access. 
2899)     </p>
2900)     <p>
2901)     This option should be used with care as it may expose internal network 
2902)     blocks that are not meant to be accessible from the outside world or 
2903)     the Tor network. Please tailor your ExitPolicy to reflect all netblocks 
2904)     that you want to prohibit access. 
2905)     </p>
2906)     <p>
2907)     While useful, this behavior may go away in the future because it is 
2908)     imperfect. A great idea but not such a great implementation. 
2909)     </p>
2910) 
2911)     <hr>
2912)     

2913)     <a id="KeyManagement"></a>

2914)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#KeyManagement">Tell me about all the
2915) keys Tor uses.</a></h3>

2916) 

2917)     <p>
2918)     Tor uses a variety of different keys, with three goals in mind: 1)
2919)     encryption to ensure privacy of data within the Tor network, 2)
2920)     authentication so clients know they're

2921)     talking to the relays they meant to talk to, and 3) signatures to
2922) make

2923)     sure all clients know the same set of relays.
2924)     </p>

2925) 

2926)     <p>

2927)     <b>Encryption</b>: first, all connections in Tor use TLS link
2928) encryption,

2929)     so observers can't look inside to see which circuit a given cell is

2930)     intended for. Further, the Tor client establishes an ephemeral
2931) encryption

2932)     key with each relay in the circuit; these extra layers of encryption
2933)     mean that only the exit relay can read

2934)     the cells. Both sides discard the circuit key when the circuit ends,

2935)     so logging traffic and then breaking into the relay to discover the

2936)     key won't work.

2937)     </p>

2938)