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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 to

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

56)     <li><a href="#tarFiles">How do I open a .tar.gz or .tar.xz file?</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="#UbuntuBlackedOut">I'm using Ubuntu, and I can't type 
69)     anything into my browser.</a></li>
70)     <li><a href="#SophosOnMac">I'm using the Sophos anti-virus
71)     software on my Mac, and Tor Browser won't start.</a></li>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

86)     <li><a href="#TBBCloseBrowser">I want to leave Tor Browser Bundle
87)     running but close the browser.</a></li>
88) 

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

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

91)     <li><a href="#ForeignLanguages">Why does Google show up in foreign 

92)     languages?</a></li>

93)     <li><a href="#GmailWarning">Gmail warns me that my account may have
94)     been compromised.</a></li>

95)     <li><a href="#NeedToUseAProxy">My internet connection requires an HTTP 
96)     or SOCKS Proxy</a></li>

97)     <li><a href="#CantSetProxy">What should I do if I can't set a proxy 
98)     with my application?</a></li>

99)     <li><a href="#WhereDidVidaliaGo">Where did the world map (Vidalia) 
100)     go?</a></li>
101)     <li><a href="#DisableJS">How do I disable JavaScript?</a></li>
102)     <li><a href="#VerifyDownload">How do I verify the download 
103)     (sha256sums.txt)?</a></li>
104)     <li><a href="#NewIdentityClosingTabs">Why does "New Identity" close 
105)     all my open tabs?</a></li>
106)     <li><a href="#ConfigureRelayOrBridge">How do I configure Tor as a relay 
107)     or bridge?</a></li>
108)     <li><a href="#Timestamps">Why are the file timestamps from 2000?</a></li>
109)     <li><a href="#SourceCode">Where is the source code for the bundle? How do 
110)     I verify a build?</a></li>

111)     </ul>
112) 
113)     <p>Advanced Tor usage:</p>

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

131)     <li><a href="#WarningsAboutSOCKSandDNSInformationLeaks">I keep seeing 
132)     these warnings about SOCKS and DNS information leaks. Should I 
133)     worry?</a></li>

134)     <li><a href="#SocksAndDNS">How do I check if my application that uses 
135)     SOCKS is leaking DNS requests?</a></li>
136)     <li><a href="#DifferentComputer">I want to run my Tor client on a 
137)     different computer than my applications.</a></li>
138)     <li><a href="#ServerClient">Can I install Tor on a central server, and 
139)     have my clients connect to it?</a></li>
140)     <li><a href="#JoinTheNetwork">So I can just configure a nickname and 
141)     ORPort and join the network?</a></li>

142)     </ul>

143) 

144)     <p>Running a Tor relay:</p>
145)     <ul>

146) 
147)     <li><a href="#HowDoIDecide">How do I decide if I should run a relay?
148)     </a></li>

149)     <li><a href="#WhyIsntMyRelayBeingUsedMore">Why isn't my relay being 
150)     used more?</a></li>

151)     <li><a href="#IDontHaveAStaticIP">I don't have a static IP.</a></li>
152)     <li><a href="#ModemKeepsCrashing">My cable/dsl modem keeps crashing. 
153)     What's going on?</a></li>
154)     <li><a href="#PortscannedMore">Why do I get portscanned more often 
155)     when I run a Tor relay?</a></li>
156)     <li><a href="#MoreThanOneCPU">I have more than one CPU. Does this 
157)     help?</a></li>

158)     <li><a href="#HighCapacityConnection">How can I get Tor to fully 
159)     make use of my high capacity connection?</a></li>

160)     <li><a href="#RelayFlexible">How stable does my relay need to
161) be?</a></li>

162)     <li><a href="#BandwidthShaping">What bandwidth shaping options are 
163)     available to Tor relays?</a></li>
164)     <li><a href="#LimitTotalBandwidth">How can I limit the total amount 
165)     of bandwidth used by my Tor relay?</a></li>
166)     <li><a href="#ExitPolicies">I'd run a relay, but I don't want to deal

167)     with abuse issues.</a></li>
168)     <li><a href="#RelayOrBridge">Should I be a normal relay or bridge
169)     relay?</a></li>

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

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

174)     <li><a href="#NTService">How do I run my Tor relay as an NT service?
175)     </a></li>
176)     <li><a href="#VirtualServer">Can I run a Tor relay from my virtual server 
177)     account?</a></li>

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

180)     <li><a href="#RelayMemory">Why is my Tor relay using so much memory?
181)     </a></li>
182)     <li><a href="#BetterAnonymity">Do I get better anonymity if I run a relay?
183)     </a></li>

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

186)     </ul>

187) 

188)     <p>Tor hidden services:</p>
189)     <ul>
190)     <li><a href="#AccessHiddenServices">How do I access hidden services?</a></li>
191)     <li><a href="#ProvideAHiddenService">How do I provide a hidden service</a></li>
192)     </ul>

193) 

194)     <p>Development</p>
195)     <ul>
196)     <li><a href="#WhoIsResponsible">Who is responsible for Tor?</a></li>
197)     <li><a href="#VersionNumbers">What do these weird version numbers 
198)     mean?</a></li>
199)     <li><a href="#PrivateTorNetwork">How do I set up my own private
200)     Tor network?</a></li>
201)     <li><a href="#UseTorWithJava">How can I make my Java program use the 
202)     Tor network?</a></li>
203)     <li><a href="#WhatIsLibevent">What is Libevent?</a></li>
204)     <li><a href="#MyNewFeature">What do I need to do to get a new feature 
205)     into Tor?</a></li>
206)     </ul>
207) 

208)     <p>Anonymity and Security:</p>
209)     <ul>

210)     <li><a href="#WhatProtectionsDoesTorProvide">What protections does Tor 
211)     provide?</a></li>
212)     <li><a href="#CanExitNodesEavesdrop">Can exit nodes eavesdrop on 
213)     communications? Isn't that bad? </a></li>

214)     <li><a href="#AmITotallyAnonymous">So I'm totally anonymous if I use 
215)     Tor?</a></li>

216)     <li><a href="#ExitEnclaving">What is Exit Enclaving?</a></li>

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

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

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

221)     <li><a href="#CellSize">Tor uses hundreds of bytes for every IRC line. I 
222)     can't afford that!</a></li>
223)     <li><a href="#OutboundConnections">Why does netstat show these outbound 
224)     connections?</a></li>
225)     <li><a href="#PowerfulBlockers">What about powerful blocking mechanisms
226)     </a></li>
227)     <li><a href="#RemotePhysicalDeviceFingerprinting">Does Tor resist 
228)     "remote physical device fingerprinting"?</a></li>

229)     <li><a href="#VPN">Is Tor like a VPN?</a></li>

230)     <li><a href="#Proxychains">Aren't 10 proxies (proxychains) better than 
231)     Tor with only 3 hops?</a></li>

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

234)     </ul>

235) 

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

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

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

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

245)     <li><a href="#ChoosePathLength">You should let people choose their path 
246)     length.</a></li>
247)     <li><a href="#SplitEachConnection">You should split each connection over 
248)     many paths.</a></li>
249)     <li><a href="#UnallocatedNetBlocks">Your default exit policy should block 
250)     unallocated net blocks too.</a></li>
251)     <li><a href="#BlockWebsites">Exit policies should be able to block 
252)     websites, not just IP addresses.</a></li>
253)     <li><a href="#BlockContent">You should change Tor to prevent users from 
254)     posting certain content.</a></li>

255)     <li><a href="#SendPadding">You should send padding so it's more secure.
256)     </a></li>
257)     <li><a href="#Steganography">You should use steganography to hide Tor 
258)     traffic.</a></li>

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

260)     </ul>

261) 

262)     <p>Abuse:</p>

263)     <ul>

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

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

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

270)     </ul>

271) 

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

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

275) 

276)     <hr>

277) 

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

279) 

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

282) 

283)     <p>
284)     The name "Tor" can refer to several different components.
285)     </p>

286) 

287)     <p>

288)     The Tor software is a program you can run on your computer that
289) helps keep
290)     you safe on the Internet. Tor protects you by bouncing your
291) communications

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

293)     the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection
294) from

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

296)     from learning your physical location. This set of volunteer relays
297) is
298)     called the Tor network. You can read more about how Tor works on the
299) <a

300)     href="<page about/overview>">overview page</a>.
301)     </p>

302) 

303)     <p>

304)     The Tor Project is a non-profit (charity) organization that
305) maintains

306)     and develops the Tor software.
307)     </p>

308) 

309)     <hr>

310) 

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

312)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Torisdifferent">How is Tor different
313) from other proxies?</a></h3>
314)     <p>
315)     A typical proxy provider sets up a server somewhere on the Internet
316) and
317) allows you to use it to relay your traffic.  This creates a simple, easy
318) to
319) maintain architecture.  The users all enter and leave through the same
320) server.
321) The provider may charge for use of the proxy, or fund their costs
322) through
323) advertisements on the server.  In the simplest configuration, you don't
324) have to
325) install anything.  You just have to point your browser at their proxy
326) server.
327) Simple proxy providers are fine solutions if you do not want protections
328) for
329) your privacy and anonymity online and you trust the provider from doing
330) bad
331) things.  Some simple proxy providers use SSL to secure your connection
332) to them.
333) This may protect you against local eavesdroppers, such as those at a
334) cafe with

335) free wifi Internet.
336)     </p>
337)     <p>

338)     Simple proxy providers also create a single point of failure.  The
339) provider
340) knows who you are and where you browse on the Internet.  They can see
341) your
342) traffic as it passes through their server.  In some cases, they can even
343) see

344) inside your

345) encrypted traffic as they relay it to your banking site or to ecommerce
346) stores.

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

348) watching your traffic, injecting their own advertisements into your
349) traffic

350) stream, and recording your personal details.

351)     </p>
352)     <p>

353)     Tor passes your traffic through at least 3 different servers before
354) sending
355) it on to the destination. Because there's a separate layer of encryption
356) for
357) each of the three relays, Tor does not modify, or even know, what you
358) are
359) sending into it.  It merely relays your traffic, completely encrypted
360) through
361) the Tor network and has it pop out somewhere else in the world,
362) completely
363) intact.  The Tor client is required because we assume you trust your
364) local
365) computer.  The Tor client manages the encryption and the path chosen
366) through
367) the network.  The relays located all over the world merely pass
368) encrypted

369) packets between themselves.</p>

370)     <p>
371)     <dl>

372)     <dt>Doesn't the first server see who I am?</dt><dd>Possibly. A bad
373) first of
374) three servers can see encrypted Tor traffic coming from your computer.
375) It
376) still doesn't know who you are and what you are doing over Tor.  It
377) merely sees
378) "This IP address is using Tor".  Tor is not illegal anywhere in the
379) world, so
380) using Tor by itself is fine.  You are still protected from this node
381) figuring

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

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

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

388) e-commerce website, or encrypted mail connections, etc, it will only
389) know the
390) destination.  It won't be able to see the data inside the traffic
391) stream.  You

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

394)     </dl>
395)     </p>

396) 

397)     <hr>

398) 

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

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

402) 

403)     <p>

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

408)     </p>
409)     <p>
410)     There are plenty of other programs you can use with Tor,
411)     but we haven't researched the application-level anonymity

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

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

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

415)     specific applications</a>.

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

418) 

419)     <hr>

420) 

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

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

424) 

425)     <p>
426)     Because Tor is the onion routing network. When we were starting the
427)     new next-generation design and implementation of onion routing in
428)     2001-2002, we would tell people we were working on onion routing,
429)     and they would say "Neat. Which one?" Even if onion routing has
430)     become a standard household term, Tor was born out of the actual <a
431)     href="http://www.onion-router.net/">onion routing project</a> run by
432)     the Naval Research Lab.
433)     </p>

434) 

435)     <p>
436)     (It's also got a fine translation from German and Turkish.)
437)     </p>

438) 

439)     <p>

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

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

443)     spot people who haven't read any of our website (and have instead
444) learned
445)     everything they know about Tor from news articles) by the fact that
446) they

447)     spell it wrong.
448)     </p>

449) 

450)     <hr>

451) 

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

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

455) 

456)     <p>

457)     There is absolutely no backdoor in Tor. Nobody has asked us to put
458) one
459)     in, and we know some smart lawyers who say that it's unlikely that
460) anybody

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

464) 

465)     <p>
466)     We think that putting a backdoor in Tor would be tremendously

467)     irresponsible to our users, and a bad precedent for security
468) software

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

473) 

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

477)     computers, or something like that. Tor is open source, and you
478) should
479)     always check the source (or at least the diffs since the last
480) release)

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

487) 

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

490)     anonymity. We periodically find and fix anonymity-related bugs, so
491) make

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

494) 

495)     <hr>

496) 

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

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

500) 

501)     <p>
502)     Yes.
503)     </p>

504) 

505)     <p>

506)     The Tor software is <a href="https://www.fsf.org/">free
507) software</a>. This
508)     means we give you the rights to redistribute the Tor software,
509) either
510)     modified or unmodified, either for a fee or gratis. You don't have
511) to

512)     ask us for specific permission.
513)     </p>

514) 

515)     <p>

516)     However, if you want to redistribute the Tor software you must
517) follow our

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

519)     Essentially this means that you need to include our LICENSE file
520) along

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

523) 

524)     <p>

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

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

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

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

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

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

540)     </p>

541) 

542)     <p>

543)     Also, you should make sure not to confuse your readers about what
544) Tor is,
545)     who makes it, and what properties it provides (and doesn't provide).
546) See
547)     our <a href="<page docs/trademark-faq>">trademark FAQ</a> for
548) details.

549)     </p>

550) 

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

554)     changes. So if you distribute a particular version of the Tor
555) software, it
556)     may not be supported — or even work — six months later.
557) This

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

560) 

561)     <hr>

562) 

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

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

566) 

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

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

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

572)     <li>Read through the <a

573) 
574) href="https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk">
575) tor-talk

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

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

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

580)     <li>Send an email to <a

581) 
582) href="mailto:help@rt.torproject.org">help@rt.torproject.org</a>.</li>
583)     <li>If all else fails, try <a href="<page about/contact>">contacting
584) us</a> directly.</li>

585)     </ol>

586) 

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

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

590) 

591)     <hr>

592) 

593)     <a id="Forum"></a>
594)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Forum">Is there a Tor forum?</a></h3>
595) 

596)     <p>We have a <a href="https://tor.stackexchange.com/">StackExchange 

597)     page</a> that is currently in public beta.

598)     </p>
599) 
600)     <hr>
601) 

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

604) 

605)     <p>
606)     There are many reasons why the Tor network is currently slow.
607)     </p>

608) 

609)     <p>

610)     Before we answer, though, you should realize that Tor is never going
611) to
612)     be blazing fast. Your traffic is bouncing through volunteers'
613) computers
614)     in various parts of the world, and some bottlenecks and network
615) latency

616)     will always be present. You shouldn't expect to see university-style
617)     bandwidth through Tor.
618)     </p>

619) 

620)     <p>

621)     But that doesn't mean that it can't be improved. The current Tor
622) network
623)     is quite small compared to the number of people trying to use it,
624) and
625)     many of these users don't understand or care that Tor can't
626) currently

627)     handle file-sharing traffic load.
628)     </p>

629) 

630)     <p>
631)     For the much more in-depth answer, see <a

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

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

635)     to go with it.
636)     </p>

637) 

638)     <p>
639)     What can you do to help?
640)     </p>

641) 

642)     <ul>

643) 

644)     <li>

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

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

651) 

652)     <li>

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

655)     especially need people to help make it easier to configure your Tor
656)     as a relay. Also, we need help with clear simple documentation to
657)     walk people through setting it up.
658)     </li>

659) 

660)     <li>

661)     There are some bottlenecks in the current Tor network. Help us
662) design
663)     experiments to track down and demonstrate where the problems are,
664) and

665)     then we can focus better on fixing them.
666)     </li>

667) 

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

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

674)     get to spend more time on it.
675)     </li>

676) 

677)     <li>

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

682)     getinvolved/volunteer>">look at our volunteer page</a>.
683)     </li>

684) 

685)     <li>

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

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

689)     competition's websites discreetly, or to connect back to the home
690) servers
691)     when on the road without revealing affiliations? If your
692) organization has
693)     an interest in keeping the Tor network working, please contact them
694) about
695)     supporting Tor. Without sponsors, Tor is going to become even
696) slower.

697)     </li>

698) 

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

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

703)     cause</a>. It adds up!
704)     </li>

705) 

706)     </ul>

707) 

708)     <hr>

709) 

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

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

713) 
714)     <p>

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

721)     </p>
722) 
723)     <hr>
724) 

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

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

728) 

729)     <p>

730)     The Tor network's <a

731) 
732) href="https://metrics.torproject.org/network.html#networksize">several

733)     thousand</a> relays push <a
734)     href="https://metrics.torproject.org/network.html#bandwidth">over
735)     1GB per second on average</a>. We have <a

736) 
737) href="https://metrics.torproject.org/users.html#direct-users">several

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

740)     </p>

741) 

742)     <p>

743)     There are six main development/maintenance pushes that need
744) attention:

745)     </p>

746) 

747)     <ul>

748) 

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

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

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

756) 

757)     <li>

758)     User support: With this many users, a lot of people are asking
759) questions
760)     all the time, offering to help out with things, and so on. We need
761) good
762)     clean docs, and we need to spend some effort coordinating
763) volunteers.

764)     </li>

765) 

766)     <li>

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

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

770)     reminders to upgrade, and so on. The network itself is a commons,
771) and
772)     somebody needs to spend some energy making sure the relay operators
773) stay
774)     happy. We also need to work on stability on some platforms —
775) e.g.,

776)     Tor relays have problems on Win XP currently.

777)     </li>

778) 

779)     <li>

780)     Usability: Beyond documentation, we also need to work on usability
781) of the
782)     software itself. This includes installers, clean GUIs, easy
783) configuration
784)     to interface with other applications, and generally automating all
785) of
786)     the difficult and confusing steps inside Tor. We've got a start on
787) this
788)     with the <a href="<page projects/vidalia>">Vidalia GUI</a>, but much
789) more work

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

792) 

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

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

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

800) 

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

806)     critical <a href="<page getinvolved/volunteer>#Research">Tor
807) research questions</a>
808)     that will help us figure out how to make Tor secure against the
809) variety of
810)     attacks out there. Of course, there are more research questions
811) waiting

812)     behind these.
813)     </li>

814) 

815)     </ul>

816) 

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

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

821)     can keep up</a>.

822)     Now would be an excellent time to add a few more developers to the
823) effort

824)     so we can continue to grow the network.
825)     </p>

826) 

827)     <p>
828)     We are also excited about tackling related problems, such as
829)     censorship-resistance.
830)     </p>

831) 

832)     <p>

833)     We are proud to have <a href="<page about/sponsors>">sponsorship and
834) support</a>
835)     from the Omidyar Network, the International Broadcasting Bureau,
836) Bell
837)     Security Solutions, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, several
838) government

839)     agencies and research groups, and hundreds of private contributors.
840)     </p>

841) 

842)     <p>

843)     However, this support is not enough to keep Tor abreast of changes
844) in the
845)     Internet privacy landscape. Please <a href="<page
846) donate/donate>">donate</a>
847)     to the project, or <a href="<page about/contact>">contact</a> our
848) executive

849)     director for information on making grants or major donations.
850)     </p>

851) 

852)     <hr>
853) 

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

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

857) 
858)     <p>

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

863)     </p>
864)     <p>

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

872)     </p>
873)     <p>

874)     If you really need to connect to only a small set of ports, see the FAQ 

875)     entry on <a href="#FirewallPorts">firewalled ports</a>.

876)     </p>
877)     <p>

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

883)     </p>
884)     
885)     <hr>
886)     
887)     <a id="IsItWorking"></a>

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

890) 
891)     <p>

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

895)     </p>
896)     <p>

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

903)     </p>
904)     <p>

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

908)     </p>
909)     <p>

910)     If you are behind a NAT or firewall, though, your IP address will be 
911)     within the range of 10.XXX.XXX.XXX, 192.168.XXX.XXX, or 172.16.XXX.XXX - 
912)     172.31.XXX.XXX, which is not your public IP address. In this case, you 
913)     should check your IP address with one of the sites above without using 
914)     Tor, and then check again using Tor to see whether your IP address has 
915)     changed. 

916)     </p>
917)     
918)     <hr>
919)     
920)     <a id="FTP"></a>
921)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#FTP">How do I use my browser for ftp with Tor?
922)     </a></h3>
923) 

924)     <p>

925)     Use the <a href="https://torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html">Tor 
926)     Browser Bundle</a>. If you want a separate application for an 

927)     ftp client, we've heard good things about  FileZilla for Windows. You can 
928)     configure it to point to Tor as a "socks4a" proxy on "localhost" port 
929)     "9050". 
930)     </p>

931)     <hr>
932)     

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

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

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

936) 

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

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

940)     <hr>

941) 

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

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

945)     <p>

946)     <pre>

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

948)     The serial number is:

949) 06:DE:97:E5:1D:C3:9D:C2:64:8D:AC:72:DD:41:01:FC
950)     The SHA-1 fingerprint is: 1f9d306e8bfccfcb03981a71a27a9f5d1e0876ce

951)     The SHA-256 fingerprint is:

952) 3613d2b22a750094760c41ad19db52a4f05bdea80172e2578761ad967f7ed9aa

953) 

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

955)     The serial number is: 00:EF:A3
956)     The SHA-1 fingerprint is: 50af43db8438e67f305a3257d8ef198e8c42f13f

957)     </pre>

958)     </p>
959)     <hr>
960) 

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

962)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#HowUninstallTor">How do I uninstall
963) Tor?</a></h3>
964) 
965)     <p>
966)     Tor Browser does not install itself in the classic sense of
967) applications. You just simply delete the folder or directory named "Tor
968) Browser" and it is removed from your system.
969)     </p>

970) 

971)     <p>

972)     If this is not related to Tor Browser, uninstallation depends
973) entirely on how you installed it and which operating system you
974)     have. If you installed a package, then hopefully your package has a
975) way to

976)     uninstall itself. The Windows packages include uninstallers. 

977)     </p>

978) 

979)     <p>
980)     For Mac OS X, follow the <a
981)     href="<page docs/tor-doc-osx>#uninstall">uninstall directions</a>.
982)     </p>

983) 

984)     <p>

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

989)     be pretty easy to notice things there.
990)     </p>

991) 

992)     <hr>

993) 

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

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

997) 

998)     <p>

999)     These are PGP signatures, so you can verify that the file you've
1000) downloaded is

1001)     exactly the one that we intended you to get.
1002)     </p>

1003) 

1004)     <p>
1005)     Please read the <a

1006)     href="<page docs/verifying-signatures>">verifying signatures</a>
1007) page for details.

1008)     </p>

1009) 

1010) <hr>
1011) 
1012) <a id="GetTor"></a>
1013) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#GetTor">Your website is blocked in my
1014) country. How do I download Tor?</a></h3>
1015) 
1016) <p>
1017) Some government or corporate firewalls censor connections to Tor's
1018) website. In those cases, you have three options. First, get it from

1019) a friend &mdash; the <a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">Tor Browser

1020) Bundle</a> fits nicely on a USB key. Second, find the <a

1021) href="https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=tor+mirrors">google
1022) cache</a>

1023) for the <a href="<page getinvolved/mirrors>">Tor mirrors</a> page
1024) and see if any of those copies of our website work for you. Third,
1025) you can download Tor via email: log in to your Gmail account and mail

1026) '<tt>gettor@gettor.torproject.org</tt>'. If you include the word 'help'

1027) in the body of the email, it will reply with instructions. Note that
1028) only a few webmail providers are supported, since they need to be able
1029) to receive very large attachments.
1030) </p>
1031) 
1032) <p>

1033) Be sure to <a href="<page docs/verifying-signatures>">verify the
1034) signature</a>

1035) of any package you download, especially when you get it from somewhere
1036) other than our official HTTPS website.

1037) </p>
1038) 
1039) <hr>

1040) 

1041)     <a id="CompileTorWindows"></a>

1042)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#CompileTorWindows">How do I compile Tor
1043) under Windows?</a></h3>

1044) 

1045)     <p>

1046)     Try following the steps at <a
1047) href="<gitblob>doc/tor-win32-mingw-creation.txt">

1048)     tor-win32-mingw-creation.txt</a>.
1049)     </p>

1050) 

1051)     <p>
1052)     (Note that you don't need to compile Tor yourself in order to use

1053)     it. Most people just use the packages available on the <a
1054) href="<page

1055)     download/download>">download page</a>.)
1056)     </p>

1057) 

1058)     <hr>

1059) 

1060)     <a id="VirusFalsePositives"></a>

1061)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#VirusFalsePositives">Why does my Tor
1062) executable appear to have a virus or spyware?</a></h3>

1063) 

1064)     <p>

1065)     Sometimes, overzealous Windows virus and spyware detectors trigger
1066) on some
1067)     parts of the Tor Windows binary. Our best guess is that these are
1068) false
1069)     positives — after all, the anti-virus and anti-spyware
1070) business is just a
1071)     guessing game anyway. You should contact your vendor and explain
1072) that you have
1073)     a program that seems to be triggering false positives. Or pick a
1074) better vendor.

1075)     </p>

1076) 

1077)     <p>
1078)     In the meantime, we encourage you to not just take our word for

1079)     it. Our job is to provide the source; if you're concerned, please do
1080) <a

1081)     href="#CompileTorWindows">recompile it yourself</a>.
1082)     </p>

1083) 

1084)     <hr>

1085) 

1086)     <a id="tarFiles"></a>
1087)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#tarFiles">How do I open a .tar.gz 

1088)     or .tar.xz file?</a></h3>

1089) 
1090)     <p>
1091)     Tar is a common archive utility for Unix and Linux systems. If your
1092)     system has a mouse, you can usually open them by double clicking. 
1093)     Otherwise open a command prompt and execute 
1094)     <pre>
1095)     tar xzf &lt;FILENAME&gt;.tar.gz
1096)     </pre>
1097)     or
1098)     <pre>
1099)     tar xJf &lt;FILENAME&gt;.tar.xz
1100)     </pre>
1101)     <p>
1102)     as documented in tar's man page. 
1103)     </p>
1104) 
1105)     <hr>
1106) 

1107)     <a id="LiveCD"></a>

1108)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#LiveCD">Is there a LiveCD or other
1109) bundle that includes Tor?</a></h3>

1110) 

1111)     <p>

1112)     Yes.  Use <a href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito

1113)     Live System</a> or <a href="<page projects/torbrowser>">the Tor
1114) Browser

1115)     Bundle</a>.

1116)     </p>

1117) 
1118) <hr>
1119) 

1120) <a id="TBBFlash"></a>

1121) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBFlash">Why can't I view videos on
1122) YouTube

1123) and other Flash-based sites?</a></h3>

1124) 
1125) <p>

1126) YouTube and similar sites require third party browser plugins such as Flash.
1127) Plugins operate independently from Firefox and can perform
1128) activity on your computer that ruins your anonymity. This includes
1129) but is not limited to: <a href="http://decloak.net">completely disregarding
1130) proxy settings</a>, querying your <a

1131) href="http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5162138&messageID=9618376">
1132) local IP address</a>, and <a

1133) href="http://epic.org/privacy/cookies/flash.html">storing their own
1134) cookies</a>. It is possible to use a LiveCD solution such as

1135) or <a href="https://tails.boum.org/">The Amnesic Incognito Live System</a> 
1136) that creates a secure, transparent proxy to protect you from proxy bypass, 
1137) however issues with local IP address discovery and Flash cookies still remain. 
1138) </p>

1139) 
1140) <p>

1141) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/html5">YouTube offers experimental HTML5 video
1142) support</a> for many of their videos. You can use their Advanced Search to

1143) find HTML5 videos.
1144) </p>
1145) 

1146) <hr>
1147) 

1148) <a id="Ubuntu"></a>
1149) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Ubuntu">

1150) I'm using Ubuntu and I can't start Tor Browser.</a></h3>

1151) <p>

1152) Ubuntu prevents its users from executing shell scripts by clicking them, 
1153) even when the file permissions are set correctly. For now you need to 
1154) start the Tor Browser from the command line by running </p>

1155) <pre>
1156) ./start-tor-browser
1157) </pre>
1158) <p>
1159) from inside the Tor Browser directory.
1160) </p>
1161) 

1162) <hr>
1163) 

1164) <a id="UbuntuBlackedOut"></a>
1165) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#UbuntuBlackedOut">
1166) I'm using Ubuntu, and I can't type anything into my browser.</a></h3>
1167) <p>Another issue affecting Ubuntu users is that when Tor Browser opens, text
1168) fields, including the address bar, are blacked out and can not be used.
1169) This is not so great, and we hope to include a fix in a coming release. 
1170) In the mean time, this issue can be worked around by editing the 
1171) start-tor-browser script and adding the following line below line 1:</p>
1172) <pre>
1173) export GTK_IM_MODULE=xim
1174) </pre>
1175) <p>This issue is related to the version of IBUS that ships with Ubuntu. 
1176) Some users have also reported success by executing this command</p>
1177) <pre>
1178) ibus exit
1179) </pre>
1180) <p>To follow the progress of this issue, see this <a 
1181) href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9353">bug ticket.</a>
1182) </p>
1183) 
1184) <hr>
1185) 
1186) <a id="SophosOnMac"></a>
1187) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SophosOnMac">I'm using the Sophos anti-virus
1188) software on my Mac, and Tor Browser won't start.</a></h3>
1189) <p>
1190) You'll need to modify Sophos anti-virus so that Tor can connect to the 
1191) internet. Go to Preferences -> Web Protection -> General, and turn off 
1192) the protections for "Malicious websites" and "Malicious downloads".
1193) </p>
1194) 

1195) <hr>
1196) 

1197) <a id="TBBSocksPort"></a>

1198) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBSocksPort">

1199) I want to run another application through the Tor launched by Tor

1200) Browser Bundle.</a></h3>

1201) 
1202) <p>

1203) Typically Tor listens for Socks connections on port 9050. TBB listens

1204) on port 9150.

1205) The goal is to avoid conflicting with a "system" Tor install,

1206) so you can run a system Tor and TBB at the same time. We're <a
1207) href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/3948">working on
1208) a feature</a> where Tor will try the usual ports first and then back

1209) off to a random choice if they're already in use.

1210) </p>
1211) 
1212) <hr>
1213) 
1214) <a id="TBBPolipo"></a>
1215) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBPolipo">I need an HTTP proxy. Where did
1216) Polipo go?</a></h3>
1217) 
1218) <p>
1219) In the past, Tor bundles included an HTTP proxy like Privoxy or Polipo,
1220) solely to work around a bug in Firefox that was finally fixed in Firefox
1221) 6. Now you don't need a separate HTTP proxy to use Tor, and in fact
1222) leaving it out makes you safer because Torbutton has better control over
1223) Firefox's interaction with websites.
1224) </p>
1225) 
1226) <p>
1227) If you are trying to use some external application with Tor, step zero

1228) should be to <a href="<page download/download>#warning">reread the set

1229) of warnings</a> for ways you can screw up. Step one should be to try

1230) to use a Socks proxy rather than an http proxy — Tor runs a Socks

1231) proxy on port 9050 on Windows, or <a href="#TBBSocksPort">see above</a>
1232) for OSX and Linux.
1233) </p>
1234) 
1235) <p>

1236) If that fails, feel free to install <a

1237) href="http://www.privoxy.org/">privoxy</a>.
1238) However, please realize that this approach is not recommended for novice
1239) users. Privoxy has an <a
1240) href="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/misc.html#TOR">example
1241) configuration</a> of Tor and Privoxy.

1242) </p>
1243) 
1244) <hr>
1245) 

1246) <a id="TBBOtherExtensions"></a>
1247) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBOtherExtensions">Can I install other
1248) Firefox extensions?</a></h3>
1249) 
1250) <p>

1251) The Tor Browser is free software, so there is nothing preventing you from 
1252) modifying it any way you like. However, we do not recommend installing any 
1253) additional Firefox add-ons with the Tor Browser Bundle. Add-ons can break 
1254) your anonymity in a number of ways, including browser fingerprinting and 
1255) bypassing proxy settings.

1256) </p>

1257) <p>

1258) Some people have suggested we include ad-blocking software or 
1259) anti-tracking software with the Tor Browser Bundle. Right now, we do not 
1260) think that's such a good idea. The Tor Browser Bundle aims to provide 
1261) sufficient privacy that additional add-ons to stop ads and trackers are 
1262) not necessary. Using add-ons like these may cause some sites to break, which 
1263) <a href="https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/#philosophy">
1264) we don't want to do</a>. Additionally, maintaining a list of "bad" sites that 
1265) should be black-listed provides another opportunity to uniquely fingerprint 
1266) users. 

1267) </p>

1268) 

1269) <hr>
1270) 

1271) <a id="TBBJavaScriptEnabled"></a>

1272) <a id="TBBCanIBlockJS"></a>

1273) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBJavaScriptEnabled">Why is NoScript
1274) configured to allow JavaScript by default in the Tor Browser Bundle?
1275) Isn't that unsafe?</a></h3>

1276) 
1277) <p>
1278) We configure NoScript to allow JavaScript by default in the Tor
1279) Browser Bundle because many websites will not work with JavaScript
1280) disabled.  Most users would give up on Tor entirely if a website
1281) they want to use requires JavaScript, because they would not know
1282) how to allow a website to use JavaScript (or that enabling
1283) JavaScript might make a website work).
1284) </p>
1285) 

1286) <p>
1287) There's a tradeoff here. On the one hand, we should leave
1288) JavaScript enabled by default so websites work the way
1289) users expect. On the other hand, we should disable JavaScript
1290) by default to better protect against browser vulnerabilities (<a

1291) href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tor-security-advisory-old-tor-browser-bundles-vulnerable">
1292) not just a theoretical concern!</a>). But there's a third issue: websites

1293) can easily determine whether you have allowed JavaScript for them,
1294) and if you disable JavaScript by default but then allow a few websites
1295) to run scripts (the way most people use NoScript), then your choice of
1296) whitelisted websites acts as a sort of cookie that makes you recognizable
1297) (and distinguishable), thus harming your anonymity.
1298) </p>

1299) 
1300) <p>

1301) Ultimately, we want the default Tor bundles to use
1302) a combination of firewalls (like the iptables rules
1303) in <a href="https://tails.boum.org/">Tails</a>) and <a
1304) href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/7680">sandboxes</a>
1305) to make JavaScript not so scary. In
1306) the shorter term, TBB 3.0 will hopefully <a
1307) href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9387">allow users
1308) to choose their JavaScript settings more easily</a> &mdash; but the
1309) partitioning concern will remain.

1310) </p>
1311) 
1312) <p>

1313) Until we get there, feel free to leave JavaScript on or off depending
1314) on your security, anonymity, and usability priorities.

1315) </p>
1316) 
1317) <hr>
1318) 

1319) <a id="TBBOtherBrowser"></a>
1320) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBOtherBrowser">I want to use
1321) Chrome/IE/Opera/etc with Tor.</a></h3>
1322) 
1323) <p>
1324) Unfortunately, Torbutton only works with Firefox right now, and without
1325) <a href="https://www.torproject.org/torbutton/en/design/">Torbutton's
1326) extensive privacy fixes</a> there are many ways for websites or other

1327) attackers to recognize you, track you back to your IP address, and so
1328) on.

1329) In short, using any browser besides Tor Browser Bundle with Tor is a
1330) really bad idea.
1331) </p>
1332) 
1333) <p>
1334) We're working with the Chrome team to <a

1335) href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/google-chrome-incognito-mode-tor-
1336) and-fingerprinting">fix
1337) some bugs and missing APIs in Chrome</a> so it will be possible to write
1338) a
1339) Torbutton for Chrome. No support for any other browser is on the
1340) horizon.

1341) </p>
1342) 
1343) <hr>
1344) 

1345) <a id="TorbuttonOtherBrowser"></a>

1346) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TorbuttonOtherBrowser">

1347) Will ​Torbutton be available for other browsers?</a></h3>

1348) 
1349) <p>

1350)  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.

1351) </p>
1352) <p>

1353) 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. 

1354) </p>
1355) 

1356) <hr>

1357) 

1358) <a id="TBBCloseBrowser"></a>

1359) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TBBCloseBrowser">I want to leave Tor
1360) Browser

1361) Bundle running but close the browser.</a></h3>
1362) 
1363) <p>
1364) We're working on a way to make this possible on all platforms. Please
1365) be patient.
1366) </p>
1367) 
1368) <hr>
1369) 

1370) <a id="GoogleCAPTCHA"></a>
1371) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#GoogleCAPTCHA">Google makes me solve a
1372) CAPTCHA or tells me I have spyware installed.</a></h3>

1373) 
1374) <p>
1375) This is a known and intermittent problem; it does not mean that Google
1376) considers Tor to be spyware.
1377) </p>
1378) 
1379) <p>

1380) When you use Tor, you are sending queries through exit relays that are
1381) also

1382) shared by thousands of other users. Tor users typically see this message

1383) when many Tor users are querying Google in a short period of time.
1384) Google

1385) interprets the high volume of traffic from a single IP address (the exit
1386) relay you happened to pick) as somebody trying to "crawl" their website,
1387) so it slows down traffic from that IP address for a short time.
1388) </p>
1389) <p>
1390) An alternate explanation is that Google tries to detect certain
1391) kinds of spyware or viruses that send distinctive queries to Google
1392) Search. It notes the IP addresses from which those queries are received
1393) (not realizing that they are Tor exit relays), and tries to warn any
1394) connections coming from those IP addresses that recent queries indicate
1395) an infection.
1396) </p>
1397) 
1398) <p>

1399) To our knowledge, Google is not doing anything intentionally
1400) specifically

1401) to deter or block Tor use. The error message about an infected machine
1402) should clear up again after a short time.
1403) </p>
1404) 
1405) <p>
1406) Torbutton 1.2.5 (released in mid 2010) detects Google captchas and can
1407) automatically redirect you to a more Tor-friendly search engine such as

1408) DuckDuckGo, ixquick, or Bing.

1409) </p>
1410) 
1411) <hr />
1412) 

1413) <a id="ForeignLanguages"></a>
1414) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ForeignLanguages">
1415) Why does Google show up in foreign languages?</a></h3>
1416) 
1417) <p>

1418)  Google uses "geolocation" to determine where in the world you are, so it 
1419)  can give you a personalized experience. This includes using the language 
1420)  it thinks you prefer, and it also includes giving you different results 
1421)  on your queries.

1422) </p>
1423) <p>

1424) If you really want to see Google in English you can click the link that 
1425) provides that. But we consider this a feature with Tor, not a bug --- the 
1426) Internet is not flat, and it in fact does look different depending on 
1427) where you are. This feature reminds people of this fact. The easy way to 
1428) avoid this "feature" is to use 
1429) <a href="https://google.com/ncr">https://google.com/ncr</a>.

1430) </p>
1431) <p>

1432) Note that Google search URLs take name/value pairs as arguments and one 
1433) of those names is "hl". If you set "hl" to "en" then Google will return 
1434) search results in English regardless of what Google server you have been 
1435) sent to. On a query this looks like: 
1436) </p>
1437) <pre>https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=online%20anonymity&hl=en

1438) </pre>

1439) <p>

1440) Another method is to simply use your country code for accessing Google. 
1441) This can be google.be, google.de, google.us and so on. 

1442) </p>
1443) <hr />

1444) <a id="GmailWarning"></a>

1445) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#GmailWarning">Gmail warns me that my

1446) account may have been compromised.</a></h3>

1447) 
1448) <p>
1449) Sometimes, after you've used Gmail over Tor, Google presents a
1450) pop-up notification that your account may have been compromised.
1451) The notification window lists a series of IP addresses and locations
1452) throughout the world recently used to access your account.
1453) </p>
1454) 
1455) <p>
1456) In general this is a false alarm: Google saw a bunch of logins from

1457) different places, as a result of running the service via Tor, and
1458) decided

1459) it was a good idea to confirm the account was being accessed by it's
1460) rightful owner.
1461) </p>
1462) 
1463) <p>
1464) Even though this may be a biproduct of using the service via tor,
1465) that doesn't mean you can entirely ignore the warning. It is
1466) <i>probably</i> a false positive, but it might not be since it is
1467) possible for someone to hijack your Google cookie.
1468) </p>
1469) 
1470) <p>
1471) Cookie hijacking is possible by either physical access to your computer
1472) or by watching your network traffic.  In theory only physical access
1473) should compromise your system because Gmail and similar services
1474) should only send the cookie over an SSL link. In practice, alas, it's <a

1475) href="http://fscked.org/blog/fully-automated-active-https-cookie-
1476) hijacking">

1477) way more complex than that</a>.
1478) </p>
1479) 
1480) <p>
1481) And if somebody <i>did</i> steal your google cookie, they might end
1482) up logging in from unusual places (though of course they also might
1483) not). So the summary is that since you're using Tor, this security
1484) measure that Google uses isn't so useful for you, because it's full of
1485) false positives. You'll have to use other approaches, like seeing if
1486) anything looks weird on the account, or looking at the timestamps for
1487) recent logins and wondering if you actually logged in at those times.
1488) </p>
1489) 
1490) <hr>
1491) 

1492) <a id="NeedToUseAProxy"></a>

1493) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#NeedToUseAProxy">My internet connection 
1494) requires an HTTP or SOCKS Proxy</a></h3>

1495) 
1496) <p>
1497) You can set Proxy IP address, port, and authentication information in 
1498) Tor Browser's Network Settings. If you're using Tor another way, check 
1499) out the HTTPProxy and HTTPSProxy config options in the <a 
1500) href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-manual.html.en">man page</a>, 
1501) and modify your torrc file accordingly. You will need an HTTP proxy for 
1502) doing GET requests to fetch the Tor directory, and you will need an 
1503) HTTPS proxy for doing CONNECT requests to get to Tor relays. (It's fine 
1504) if they're the same proxy.) Tor also recognizes the torrc options 
1505) Socks4Proxy and Socks5Proxy. 
1506) </p>
1507) <p>

1508) Also read up on the HTTPProxyAuthenticator and HTTPSProxyAuthenticator 
1509) options if your proxy requires auth. We only support basic auth currently, 
1510) but if you need NTLM authentication, you may find <a 

1511) href="http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/Jun-2005/msg00223.html">this post 
1512) in the archives</a> useful. 
1513) </p>
1514) <p>
1515) If your proxies only allow you to connect to certain ports, look at the 
1516) entry on <a href="#FirewallPorts">Firewalled clients</a> for how 
1517) to restrict what ports your Tor will try to access. 
1518) </p>
1519) 
1520) <hr>
1521) 

1522) <a id="CantSetProxy"></a>
1523) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#CantSetProxy">What should I do if I can't 
1524) set a proxy with my application?</a></h3>
1525) 
1526) <p>
1527) On Unix, we recommend you give <a 
1528) href="https://github.com/dgoulet/torsocks/">torsocks</a> a try. 
1529) Alternative proxifying tools like <a 
1530) href="http://www.dest-unreach.org/socat/">socat</a> and <a 
1531) href="http://proxychains.sourceforge.net/">proxychains</a> are also 
1532) available.</p>
1533) <p> 
1534) The Windows way to force applications through Tor is less clear. <a 
1535) href="http://freecap.ru/eng/">Some</a> <a 
1536) href="http://www.freehaven.net/~aphex/torcap/">tools</a> have been <a 
1537) href="http://www.crowdstrike.com/community-tools/index.html#tool-79">proposed
1538) </a>, but we'd also like to see further testing done here. 
1539) </p>
1540) 
1541) <hr>
1542) 

1543)     <a id="WhereDidVidaliaGo"></a>
1544)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhereDidVidaliaGo">Where did the world map 
1545)     (Vidalia) go?</a></h3>
1546) 
1547)     <p>Vidalia has been replaced with Tor Launcher, which is a Firefox 
1548)     extension that provides similar functionality. Unfortunately, circuit 
1549)     status reporting is still missing, but we are <a 
1550)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/8641">working 
1551)     on providing it</a>. </p>
1552) 
1553)     <p>In the meantime, we are providing standalone Vidalia packages for 
1554)     people who still want the map. Windows and Linux versions are <a 

1555)     href="https://people.torproject.org/~erinn/vidalia-standalone-bundles/">

1556)     available here</a>.</p> 

1557) 
1558)     <p>To use these packages, extract them, then run the startup script. 
1559)     On Windows, this is "Start Vidalia.exe". On Linux, it is start-vidalia. 
1560)     They can be placed in a different directory from TBB (and likely should 
1561)     be). </p>
1562) 
1563)     <p>This Vidalia package will only run properly if Tor Browser has already 
1564)     been launched. You cannot start it before launching Tor Browser. </p>
1565) 
1566)     <p>MacOS is still under development, but in the mean time you can modify 
1567)     your TBB 2.x to be a standalone Vidalia (and then use it after starting 
1568)     TBB 3.x) by opening your TBB 2.x vidalia.conf file in an editor and 
1569)     replacing its contents with just these lines:</p>
1570) 
1571)     <pre>
1572)     [General]
1573)     LanguageCode=en
1574) 
1575)     [Tor]
1576)     ControlPort=9151
1577)     TorExecutable=.
1578)     Torrc=.
1579)     DataDirectory=.
1580)     AuthenticationMethod=cookie
1581)     </pre> 
1582) 
1583)     <hr>
1584) 
1585)     <a id="DisableJS"></a>
1586)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DisableJS">How do I disable JavaScript?</a>
1587)     </h3>
1588) 
1589)     <p>Alas, Mozilla decided to get rid of the config checkbox for JavaScript 
1590)     from earlier Firefox versions. And since TBB 3.5 is based on Firefox 24 
1591)     (FF17 is unmaintained), that means TBB 3.5 doesn't have the config 
1592)     checkbox anymore either, which is unfortunate.</p>
1593) 
1594)     <p>The simplest way to disable JavaScript in TBB 3.5 is to click on the 
1595)     Noscript "S" (between the green onion and the address bar), and select 
1596)     "Forbid scripts globally". Note that vanilla NoScript actually whitelists 
1597)     several domains even when you try to disable scripts globally, whereas 
1598)     Tor Browser's NoScript configuration disables all of them. </p>
1599) 
1600)     <p>The more klunky way to disable JavaScript is to go to about:config, 
1601)     find javascript.enabled, and set it to false.</p>
1602) 
1603)     <p>There is also a very simple addon available at addons.mozilla.org
1604)     called QuickJS, which provides a toolbar toggle for the javascript.enabled
1605)     about:config control. There are no configuration options for the addon, 
1606)     it just switches the javascript.enabled entry between true and false and 
1607)     provides a button for it. </p>
1608) 
1609)     <p>If you want to be extra safe, use both the about:config setting and 
1610)     NoScript. </p>
1611) 
1612)     <p>As for whether you should disable it or leave it enabled, that's <a 

1613)     href="#TBBJavaScriptEnabled">a tradeoff we leave to you</a>.</p>

1614) 
1615)     <hr>
1616) 
1617)     <a id="VerifyDownload"></a>
1618)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#VerifyDownload">How do I verify the download
1619)     (sha256sums.txt)?</a></h3>
1620) 
1621)     <p>You can still verify your Tor Browser download by downloading the 
1622)     signature file (.asc) along with your package and <a 
1623)     href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/verifying-signatures.html.en">
1624)     checking the GPG signature</a> as before. We now have an additional 
1625)     verification method that allows you to verify the build as well as 
1626)     the download.</p>
1627) 
1628)     <ul>
1629)       <li>Download the Tor Browser package, the sha256sums.txt file, and the
1630)       sha256sums signature files. They can all be found in the same directory 
1631)       under <a href="https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/">
1632)       https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/</a>, for example in 3.5 
1633)       for TBB 3.5.</li>
1634)       <li>Retrieve the signers' GPG keys. This can be done from the command 
1635)       line by entering something like 
1636)       <pre>gpg --keyserver keys.mozilla.org --recv-keys 0x29846B3C683686CC</pre>
1637)       (This will bring you developer Mike Perry's public key. Other 
1638)       developers' key IDs can be found on
1639)       <a href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/signing-keys.html.en">this 
1640)       page</a>.)</li>
1641)       <li>Verify the sha256sums.txt file by executing this command:
1642)       <pre>gpg --verify &lt;NAME OF THE SIGNATURE FILE&gt;.asc sha256sums.txt</pre></li>
1643)       <li>You should see a message like "Good signature from &lt;DEVELOPER 
1644)       NAME&gt;". If you don't, there is a problem. Try these steps again.</li>
1645)       <li>Now you can take the sha256sum of the Tor Browser package. On 
1646)       Windows you can use the <a href="http://md5deep.sourceforge.net/">
1647)       hashdeep utility</a> and run
1648)       <pre>C:\location\where\you\saved\hashdeep -c sha256sum &lt;TOR BROWSER FILE NAME&gt;.exe</pre>
1649)       On Mac or Linux you can run <pre>sha256sum &lt;TOR BROWSER FILE NAME&gt;.zip</pre> or <pre>sha256sum &lt;TOR BROWSER FILE NAME&gt;.tar.gz</pre> without having to download a utility.</li>
1650)       <li>You will see a string of letters and numbers.</li>
1651)       <li>Open sha256sums.txt in a text editor.</li>
1652)       <li>Locate the name of the Tor Browser file you downloaded.</li>
1653)       <li>Compare the string of letters and numbers to the left of your
1654)       filename with the string of letters and numbers that appeared 
1655)       on your command line. If they match, you've successfully verified the 
1656)       build.</li> 
1657)     </ul>
1658) 
1659)     <p><a href="https://github.com/isislovecruft/scripts/blob/master/verify-gitian-builder-signatures">
1660)     Scripts</a> to <a 
1661)     href="http://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/648/how-to-verify-tor-browser-bundle-tbb-3-x">automate
1662)     </a> these steps have been written, but to use them you will need to 
1663)     modify them yourself with the latest Tor Browser Bundle filename.</p>
1664) 
1665)     <hr>
1666) 
1667)     <a id="PluggableTransports"></a>
1668)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#PluggableTransports">How do I use pluggable transports?</a></h3>
1669) 
1670)     <p>
1671)     For now, the Pluggable Transports-capable TBB is still a separate 
1672)     unofficial package. Download them <a 
1673)     href="https://people.torproject.org/~dcf/pt-bundle/3.5-pt20131217/">
1674)     here</a>. We hope to have combined packages available in a beta soon.
1675)     </p>
1676) 
1677)     <p>
1678)     The separate Pluggable Transports-capable TBB is different from the 
1679)     Pluggable Transports bundles that have been released in the past. 
1680)     They include the programs necessary to use obfsproxy and flash proxy, 
1681)     but the pluggable transports are not enabled by default. You must 
1682)     enable them manually by adding Bridge lines to the torrc file. 
1683)     (Please see ticket <a 
1684)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/10418">#10418</a> 
1685)     for how we hope to make it easier to do in the future.)
1686)     </p>
1687) 
1688)     <p>
1689)     To enable <b>obfsproxy</b>, edit the file called Data/Tor/torrc inside the 
1690)     bundle and add the lines: 
1691)     </p>
1692) 
1693)     <pre>
1694) Bridge obfs3 83.212.101.2:42782 2ADFE7AA8D272C520D1FBFBF4E413F3A1B26313D
1695) Bridge obfs3 83.212.101.2:443 2ADFE7AA8D272C520D1FBFBF4E413F3A1B26313D
1696) Bridge obfs3 169.229.59.74:31493 AF9F66B7B04F8FF6F32D455F05135250A16543C9
1697) Bridge obfs3 169.229.59.75:46328 AF9F66B7B04F8FF6F32D455F05135250A16543C9
1698) Bridge obfs3 209.141.36.236:45496
1699) Bridge obfs3 208.79.90.242:35658
1700) Bridge obfs3 109.105.109.163:38980 9D7259A696F7DAB073043B28114112A46D36CFFD
1701) Bridge obfs3 109.105.109.163:47779 844B1F53FFD548C998F8D3B01B7E19FA07C3396E
1702) Bridge obfs2 83.212.100.216:47870 1F01A7BB60F49FC96E0850A6BAD6D076DFEFAF80
1703) Bridge obfs2 83.212.96.182:46602 6F058CBEF888EB20D1DEB9886909F1E812245D41
1704) Bridge obfs2 70.182.182.109:54542 94C9E691688FAFDEC701A0788BD15BE8AD34ED35
1705) Bridge obfs2 128.31.0.34:1051 CA7434F14A898C7D3427B8295A7F83446BC7F496
1706) Bridge obfs2 83.212.101.2:45235 2ADFE7AA8D272C520D1FBFBF4E413F3A1B26313D
1707)     </pre>
1708)     <p>
1709)     To enable <b>flash proxy</b>, edit the file called Data/Tor/torrc inside the 
1710)     bundle and add the lines: 
1711)     </p>
1712)     <pre>
1713) LearnCircuitBuildTimeout 0
1714) CircuitBuildTimeout 60
1715) Bridge flashproxy 0.0.1.0:1
1716)     </pre>
1717) 
1718)     <hr>
1719) 
1720)     <a id="NewIdentityClosingTabs"></a>
1721)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#NewIdentityClosingTabs">Why does "New 
1722)     Identity" close all my open tabs?</a></h3>
1723) 
1724)     <p>
1725)     That's actually a feature, since it's discarding your application-level 
1726)     browser data too. But it sure is a surprising feature, for people who 
1727)     are used to Vidalia's "new identity" behavior.
1728)     </p>
1729) 
1730)     <p>

1731)     We're working on ways to make the behavior less surprising, e.g. a popup
1732)     warning or auto restoring tabs. See ticket <a
1733)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9906">#9906</a> and
1734)     ticket <a
1735)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/10400">#10400</a>
1736)     to follow progress there.

1737)     </p>
1738) 
1739)     <p>

1740)     In the mean time, you can get Vidalia's old "newnym" functionality by
1741)     attaching a Vidalia to your TBB 3.x. See the instructions <a
1742)     href="#WhereDidVidaliaGo">above</a>.

1743)     </p>
1744) 
1745)     <hr>
1746) 
1747)     <a id="ConfigureRelayOrBridge"></a>
1748)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ConfigureRelayOrBridge">How do I configure Tor as a relay or bridge?</a></h3>
1749) 
1750)     <p>
1751)     You've got three options. 
1752)     </p>
1753) 
1754)     <p>
1755)     First (best option), if you're on Linux, you can install the system 
1756)     Tor package (e.g. apt-get install tor) and then set it up to be a relay 
1757)     (<a href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-relay-debian">instructions</a>). 
1758)     You can then use TBB independent of that.
1759)     </p>
1760) 
1761)     <p>
1762)     Second (simpler option), if you're on Windows, you can fetch the separate 
1763)     "Vidalia relay bundle" or "Vidalia bridge bundle" from the download page 
1764)     and then use that (again you can use TBB independent of it). 
1765)     </p>
1766) 
1767)     <p>
1768)     Third (complex option), you can either hook your Vidalia up to TBB (as 
1769)     described in the FAQ above) or edit your torrc file (in Data/Tor/torrc) 
1770)     directly to add the following lines: 
1771)     </p>
1772)     <pre>
1773)     ORPort 443
1774)     Exitpolicy reject *:*
1775)     BridgeRelay 1  # only add this line if you want to be a bridge
1776)     </pre>
1777)     <p>
1778)     If you've installed <a 
1779)     href="https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-debian-instructions.html.en#instructions">Obfsproxy</a>, 
1780)     you'll need to add one more line:
1781)     </p>
1782)     <pre>
1783)     ServerTransportPlugin obfs3 exec /usr/bin/obfsproxy managed
1784)     </pre>
1785)     <p>
1786)     This third option is pretty klunky right now; see e.g. <a 
1787)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/10449">this bug</a>; 
1788)     but we're hoping it will become an easy option in the future. 
1789)     </p>
1790) 
1791)     <hr>
1792) 
1793)     <a id="Timestamps"></a>
1794)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Timestamps">Why are the file timestamps 
1795)     from 2000?</a></h3>
1796) 
1797)     <p>One of the huge new features in TBB 3.x is the "deterministic build" 
1798)     process, which allows many people to build the Tor Browser Bundle and 
1799)     verify that they all make exactly the same package. See Mike's <a 
1800)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/deterministic-builds-part-one-cyberwar-and-global-compromise">first 
1801)     blog</a> post for the motivation, and his <a 
1802)     href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/deterministic-builds-part-two-technical-details">second
1803)     blog post</a> for the technical details of how we do it. 
1804)     </p>
1805) 
1806)     <p>Part of creating identical builds is having everybody use the same 
1807)     timestamp. Mike picked the beginning of 2000 for that time. The reason 
1808)     you might see 7pm in 1999 is because of time zones. </p>
1809) 
1810)     <hr>
1811) 
1812)     <a id="SourceCode"></a>
1813)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SourceCode">Where is the source code for the bundle? How do I verify a build?</a></h3>
1814) 
1815)     <p>
1816)     Start with <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-bundle.git">https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-bundle.git</a> and <a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-bundle.git/blob/HEAD:/gitian/README.build">https://gitweb.torproject.org/builders/tor-browser-bundle.git/blob/HEAD:/gitian/README.build</a>.
1817)     </p>
1818) 
1819) 

1820) <hr>
1821) 

1822) <a id="torrc"></a>

1823) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#torrc">I'm supposed to "edit my torrc".
1824) What does that mean?</a></h3>

1825) 
1826) <p>
1827) Tor installs a text file called torrc that contains configuration
1828) instructions for how your Tor program should behave. The default

1829) configuration should work fine for most Tor users. 

1830) </p>

1831) <p>

1832) If you installed Tor Browser Bundle, look for

1833) <code>Data/Tor/torrc</code> inside your Tor Browser Bundle directory. 
1834) </p>
1835) <p>
1836) Core tor puts the torrc file in <code>/usr/local/etc/tor/torrc</code> if you compiled tor from source, and <code>/etc/tor/torrc</code> or <code>/etc/torrc</code> if you installed a pre-built package.</p>

1837) 
1838) <p>

1839) Once you've changed your torrc, you will need to restart tor for the
1840) changes to take effect. (For advanced users, note that

1841) you actually only need to send Tor a HUP signal, not actually restart
1842) it.)

1843) </p>
1844) 
1845) <p>

1846) For other configuration options you can use, see the <a href="<page
1847) docs/tor-manual>">Tor manual page</a>. Have a look at <a 

1848) href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/blob/HEAD:/src/config/torrc.sample.in">
1849) the sample torrc file</a> for hints on common configurations. Remember, all 
1850) lines beginning with # in torrc are treated as comments and have no effect 
1851) on Tor's configuration.

1852) </p>
1853) 
1854) <hr>
1855) 

1856) <a id="Logs"></a>

1857) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Logs">How do I set up logging, or see Tor's
1858) logs?</a></h3>

1859) 
1860) <p>

1861) If you installed a Tor bundle that includes Vidalia, then Vidalia has a

1862) window called "Message Log" that will show you Tor's log messages. Click
1863) on "Advanced" to see more details. You can click on "Settings" to change
1864) your log verbosity or save the messages to a file. You're all set.

1865) </p>
1866) 
1867) <p>
1868) If you're not using Vidalia, you'll have to go find the log files by

1869) hand. Here are some likely places for your logs to be:

1870) </p>
1871) 
1872) <ul>
1873) <li>On OS X, Debian, Red Hat, etc, the logs are in /var/log/tor/
1874) </li>

1875) <li>On Windows, there are no default log files currently. If you enable
1876) logs in your torrc file, they default to <code>\username\Application
1877) Data\tor\log\</code> or <code>\Application Data\tor\log\</code>
1878) </li>
1879) <li>If you compiled Tor from source, by default your Tor logs to <a
1880) href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_streams">"stdout"</a>
1881) at log-level notice. If you enable logs in your torrc file, they
1882) default to <code>/usr/local/var/log/tor/</code>.

1883) </li>
1884) </ul>
1885) 
1886) <p>

1887) To change your logging setup by hand, <a href="#torrc">edit your
1888) torrc</a>

1889) and find the section (near the top of the file) which contains the
1890) following line:

1891) </p>
1892) 
1893) <pre>

1894) \## Logs go to stdout at level "notice" unless redirected by something
1895) \## else, like one of the below lines.

1896) </pre>

1897) 
1898) <p>

1899) For example, if you want Tor to send complete debug, info, notice, warn,

1900) and err level messages to a file, append the following line to the end
1901) of the section:
1902) </p>
1903) 
1904) <pre>
1905) Log debug file c:/program files/tor/debug.log
1906) </pre>
1907) 
1908) <p>

1909) Replace <code>c:/program files/tor/debug.log</code> with a directory
1910) and filename for your Tor log.

1911) </p>
1912) 
1913) <hr>
1914) 

1915) 
1916) <a id="LogLevel"></a>
1917) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#LogLevel">What log level should I use?</a></h3>
1918) 
1919) <p>

1920) There are five log levels (also called "log severities") you might see in 
1921) Tor's logs:

1922) </p>
1923) 
1924) <ul>

1925)     <li>"err": something bad just happened, and we can't recover. Tor will 
1926)     exit.</li>
1927)     <li>"warn": something bad happened, but we're still running. The bad 
1928)     thing might be a bug in the code, some other Tor process doing something 
1929)     unexpected, etc. The operator should examine the message and try to 
1930)     correct the problem.</li>

1931)     <li>"notice": something the operator will want to know about.</li>

1932)     <li>"info": something happened (maybe bad, maybe ok), but there's 
1933)     nothing you need to (or can) do about it.</li>

1934)     <li>"debug": for everything louder than info. It is quite loud indeed.</li> 
1935) </ul>
1936) 
1937) <p>

1938) Alas, some of the warn messages are hard for ordinary users to correct -- the 
1939) developers are slowly making progress at making Tor automatically react 
1940) correctly for each situation.

1941) </p>
1942) 
1943) <p>

1944) We recommend running at the default, which is "notice". You will hear about 
1945) important things, and you won't hear about unimportant things.

1946) </p>
1947) 
1948) <p>

1949) Tor relays in particular should avoid logging at info or debug in normal 
1950) operation, since they might end up recording sensitive information in 
1951) their logs. 

1952) </p>
1953) 

1954) <hr>
1955) 

1956) <a id="DoesntWork"></a>

1957) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DoesntWork">I installed Tor but it's not
1958) working.</a></h3>

1959) 
1960) <p>

1961) Once you've got the Tor bundle up and running, the first question to
1962) ask is whether your Tor client is able to establish a circuit.

1963) </p>
1964) 
1965) <p>If Tor can establish a circuit, the onion icon in

1966) Vidalia will turn green (and if you're running Tor Browser Bundle, it
1967) will
1968) automatically launch a browser for you). You can also check in the
1969) Vidalia

1970) Control Panel to make sure it says "Connected to the Tor
1971) network!" under Status. For those not using Vidalia, check your <a

1972) href="#Logs">Tor logs</a> for

1973) a line saying that Tor "has successfully opened a circuit. Looks like
1974) client functionality is working."
1975) </p>
1976) 
1977) <p>
1978) If Tor can't establish a circuit, here are some hints:
1979) </p>
1980) 
1981) <ol>
1982) <li>Are you sure Tor is running? If you're using Vidalia, you may have
1983) to click on the onion and select "Start" to launch Tor.</li>
1984) <li>Check your system clock. If it's more than a few hours off, Tor will

1985) refuse to build circuits. For Microsoft Windows users, synchronize your
1986) clock under the clock -> Internet time tab. In addition, correct the

1987) day and date under the 'Date & Time' Tab. Also make sure your time
1988) zone is correct.</li>

1989) <li>Is your Internet connection <a href="#FirewallPorts">firewalled
1990) by port</a>, or do you normally need to use a <a

1991) href="<#NeedToUseAProxy">proxy</a>?

1992) </li>

1993) <li>Are you running programs like Norton Internet Security or SELinux
1994) that

1995) block certain connections, even though you don't realize they do? They
1996) could be preventing Tor from making network connections.</li>
1997) <li>Are you in China, or behind a restrictive corporate network firewall
1998) that blocks the public Tor relays? If so, you should learn about <a

1999) href="<page docs/bridges>">Tor bridges</a>.</li>

2000) <li>Check your <a href="#Logs">Tor logs</a>. Do they give you any hints
2001) about what's going wrong?</li>

2002) </ol>
2003) 
2004) <hr />
2005) 

2006) <a id="TorCrash"></a>
2007) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TorCrash">My Tor keeps crashing.</a></h3>
2008) <p>
2009)  We want to hear from you! There are supposed to be zero crash bugs in Tor. 
2010)  This FAQ entry describes the best way for you to be helpful to us. But even 
2011)  if you can't work out all the details, we still want to hear about it, so 
2012)  we can help you track it down. 
2013) </p>
2014) <p>
2015) First, make sure you're using the latest version of Tor (either the latest 
2016) stable or the latest development version). 
2017) </p>
2018) <p>
2019) Second, make sure your version of libevent is new enough. We recommend at 
2020) least libevent 1.3a. 
2021) </p>
2022) <p>
2023) Third, see if there's already an entry for your bug in the <a 
2024) href="https://bugs.torproject.org/">Tor bugtracker</a>. If so, 
2025) check if there are any new details that you can add. 
2026) </p>
2027) <p>
2028) Fourth, is the crash repeatable? Can you cause the crash? Can 
2029) you isolate some of the circumstances or config options that 
2030) make it happen? How quickly or often does the bug show up? 
2031) Can you check if it happens with other versions of Tor, for 
2032) example the latest stable release? 
2033) </p>
2034) <p>
2035) Fifth, what sort of crash do you get? 
2036) </p>
2037) <ul>
2038) <li>
2039) Does your Tor log include an "assert failure"? If so, please 
2040) tell us that line, since it helps us figure out what's going on. 
2041) Tell us the previous couple of log messages as well, especially 
2042) if they seem important. 
2043) </li>
2044) <li>
2045) If it says "Segmentation fault - core dumped" then you need to 
2046) do a bit more to track it down. Look for a file like "core" or 
2047) "tor.core" or "core.12345" in your current directory, or in your 
2048) Data Directory. If it's there, run "gdb tor core" and then "bt", 
2049) and include the output. If you can't find a core, run "ulimit -c 
2050) unlimited", restart Tor, and try to make it crash again. (This core 
2051) thing will only work on Unix -- alas, tracking down bugs on Windows 
2052) is harder. If you're on Windows, can you get somebody to duplicate 
2053) your bug on Unix?)
2054) </li>
2055) <li>
2056) If Tor simply vanishes mysteriously, it probably is a segmentation 
2057) fault but you're running Tor in the background (as a daemon) so you 
2058) won't notice. Go look at the end of your log file, and look for a 
2059) core file as above. If you don't find any good hints, you should 
2060) consider running Tor in the foreground (from a shell) so you can 
2061) see how it dies. Warning: if you switch to running Tor in the foreground, 
2062) you might start using a different torrc file, with a different default 
2063) Data Directory; see the <a href="#UpgradeOrMove">relay-upgrade FAQ entry</a> 
2064) for details. 
2065) </li>
2066) <li>
2067) If it's still vanishing mysteriously, perhaps something else is killing it? 
2068) Do you have resource limits (ulimits) configured that kill off processes 
2069) sometimes? (This is especially common on OpenBSD.) On Linux, try running 
2070) "dmesg" to see if the out-of-memory killer removed your process. (Tor will 
2071) exit cleanly if it notices that it's run out of memory, but in some cases 
2072) it might not have time to notice.) In very rare circumstances, hardware 
2073) problems could also be the culprit. 
2074) </li>
2075) </ul>
2076) <p>
2077) Sixth, if the above ideas don't point out the bug, consider increasing your 
2078) log level to "loglevel debug". You can look at the log-configuration FAQ 
2079) entry for instructions on what to put in your torrc file. If it usually 
2080) takes a long time for the crash to show up, you will want to reserve a whole 
2081) lot of disk space for the debug log. Alternatively, you could just send 
2082) debug-level logs to the screen (it's called "stdout" in the torrc), and then 
2083) when it crashes you'll see the last couple of log lines it had printed. 
2084) (Note that running with verbose logging like this will slow Tor down 
2085) considerably, and note also that it's generally not a good idea security-wise 
2086) to keep logs like this sitting around.) 
2087) </p>
2088) 
2089) <hr />
2090) 

2091) <a id="VidaliaPassword"></a>

2092) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#VidaliaPassword">Tor/Vidalia prompts for a
2093) password at start.</a></h3>

2094) 
2095) <p>
2096) Vidalia interacts with the Tor software via Tor's "control port". The
2097) control port lets Vidalia receive status updates from Tor, request a new
2098) identity, configure Tor's settings, etc. Each time Vidalia starts Tor,
2099) Vidalia sets a random password for Tor's control port to prevent other
2100) applications from also connecting to the control port and potentially
2101) compromising your anonymity.
2102) </p>
2103) 
2104) <p>
2105) Usually this process of generating and setting a random control password
2106) happens in the background. There are three common situations, though,
2107) where Vidalia may prompt you for a password:
2108) </p>
2109) 
2110) <ol>
2111) <li>You're already running Vidalia and Tor. For example, this situation
2112) can happen if you installed the Vidalia bundle and now you're trying to
2113) run the Tor Browser Bundle. In that case, you'll need to close the old
2114) Vidalia and Tor before you can run this one.
2115) </li>
2116) <li>Vidalia crashed, but left Tor running with the last known random
2117) password. After you restart Vidalia, it generates a new random password,

2118) but Vidalia can't talk to Tor, because the random passwords are
2119) different.

2120) <br />

2121) If the dialog that prompts you for a control password has a Reset
2122) button,

2123) you can click the button and Vidalia will restart Tor with a new random
2124) control password.
2125) <br />
2126) If you do not see a Reset button, or if Vidalia is unable to restart
2127) Tor for you, you can still fix the problem manually. Simply go into your
2128) process or task manager, and terminate the Tor process. Then use Vidalia
2129) to restart Tor and all will work again.
2130) </li>
2131) <li>You had previously set Tor to run as a Windows NT service. When Tor
2132) is set to
2133) run as a service, it starts up when the system boots. If you configured
2134) Tor to start as a service through Vidalia, a random password was set
2135) and saved in Tor. When you reboot, Tor starts up and uses the random
2136) password it saved. You login and start up Vidalia. Vidalia attempts to
2137) talk to the already running Tor. Vidalia generates a random password,
2138) but it is different than the saved password in the Tor service.
2139) <br />
2140) You need to reconfigure Tor to not be a service. See the FAQ entry on

2141) <a href="#NTservice">running Tor as a

2142) Windows NT service</a>

2143) for more information on how to remove the Tor service.
2144) </li>
2145) </ol>
2146) 

2147)     <hr>

2148) 

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

2150)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ChooseEntryExit">Can I control which
2151) nodes (or country) are used for entry/exit?</a></h3>

2152) 

2153)     <p>

2154)     Yes. You can set preferred entry and exit nodes as well as
2155)     inform Tor which nodes you do not want to use.

2156)     The following options can be added to your config file <a
2157)     href="#torrc">"torrc"</a> or specified on the command line:

2158)     </p>
2159)     <dl>
2160)       <dt><tt>EntryNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

2161)         <dd>A list of preferred nodes to use for the first hop in the
2162) circuit, if possible.

2163)         </dd>
2164)       <dt><tt>ExitNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

2165)         <dd>A list of preferred nodes to use for the last hop in the
2166) circuit, if possible.

2167)         </dd>
2168)       <dt><tt>ExcludeNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

2169)         <dd>A list of nodes to never use when building a circuit.

2170)         </dd>
2171)       <dt><tt>ExcludeExitNodes $fingerprint,$fingerprint,...</tt></dt>

2172)         <dd>A list of nodes to never use when picking an exit.

2173)             Nodes listed in <tt>ExcludeNodes</tt> are automatically in
2174) this list.

2175)         </dd>
2176)     </dl>
2177)     <p>

2178)     <em>We recommend you do not use these</em>

2179)     — they are intended for testing and may disappear in future
2180) versions.

2181)     You get the best security that Tor can provide when you leave the
2182)     route selection to Tor; overriding the entry / exit nodes can mess
2183)     up your anonymity in ways we don't understand.

2184)     </p>
2185)     <p>

2186)     Note also that not every circuit is used to deliver traffic outside of 
2187)     the Tor network. It is normal to see non-exit circuits (such as those 
2188)     used to connect to hidden services, those that do directory fetches, 
2189)     those used for relay reachability self-tests, and so on) that end at 
2190)     a non-exit node. To keep a node from being used entirely, see 
2191)     <tt>ExcludeNodes</tt> and <tt>StrictNodes</tt> in the 
2192)     <a href="<page docs/tor-manual>">manual</a>.

2193)     </p>
2194)     <p>

2195)     Instead of <tt>$fingerprint</tt> you can also specify a <a

2196) 
2197) href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2"
2198) >2

2199)     letter ISO3166 country code</a> in curly braces (for example <tt>{de}</tt>),

2200)     or an ip address pattern (for example 255.254.0.0/8), or a node
2201)     nickname. Make sure there are no spaces between the commas and the
2202)     list items.

2203)     </p>
2204)     <p>

2205)     If you want to access a service directly through Tor's Socks
2206) interface

2207)     (eg. using ssh via connect.c), another option is to set up an

2208)     internal mapping in your configuration file using
2209) <tt>MapAddress</tt>.

2210)     See the manual page for details.
2211)     </p>

2212) 

2213)     <hr>

2214) 

2215) <a id="FirewallPorts"></a>

2216) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#FirewallPorts">My firewall only allows a
2217) few outgoing ports.</a></h3>

2218) 
2219) <p>
2220) If your firewall works by blocking ports, then you can tell Tor to only

2221) use the ports that your firewall permits by adding "FascistFirewall 1"
2222) to

2223) your <a href="<page docs/faq>#torrc">torrc

2224) configuration file</a>, or by clicking "My firewall only lets me connect
2225) to certain ports" in Vidalia's Network Settings window.
2226) </p>
2227) 
2228) <p>
2229) By default, when you set this Tor assumes that your firewall allows only
2230) port 80 and port 443 (HTTP and HTTPS respectively). You can select a
2231) different set of ports with the FirewallPorts torrc option.
2232) </p>
2233) 
2234) <p>
2235) If you want to be more fine-grained with your controls, you can also
2236) use the ReachableAddresses config options, e.g.:
2237) </p>
2238) 
2239) <pre>
2240)   ReachableDirAddresses *:80
2241)   ReachableORAddresses *:443
2242) </pre>
2243) 
2244) <hr>

2245) 

2246)     <a id="DefaultExitPorts"></a>
2247)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DefaultExitPorts">Is there a list of default exit 

2248)     ports?</a></h3>

2249)     <p>

2250) The default open ports are listed below but keep in mind that, any port or 
2251) ports can be opened by the relay operator by configuring it in torrc or 
2252) modifying the source code. But the default according to src/or/policies.c 
2253) from the source code release tor-0.2.4.16-rc is: 

2254)     </p>
2255)     <pre>
2256)   reject 0.0.0.0/8
2257)   reject 169.254.0.0/16
2258)   reject 127.0.0.0/8
2259)   reject 192.168.0.0/16
2260)   reject 10.0.0.0/8
2261)   reject 172.16.0.0/12
2262)   reject *:25
2263)   reject *:119
2264)   reject *:135-139
2265)   reject *:445
2266)   reject *:563
2267)   reject *:1214
2268)   reject *:4661-4666
2269)   reject *:6346-6429
2270)   reject *:6699
2271)   reject *:6881-6999
2272)   accept *:*
2273)     </pre>
2274)     <p>

2275)     A relay will block access to its own IP address, as well local network 
2276)     IP addresses. A relay always blocks itself by default. This prevents 
2277)     Tor users from accidentally accessing any of the exit operator's local 
2278)     services. 
2279)     </p>
2280) 
2281)     <hr>
2282) 

2283)     <a id="WarningsAboutSOCKSandDNSInformationLeaks"></a>
2284)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WarningsAboutSOCKSandDNSInformationLeaks">I 
2285)     keep seeing these warnings about SOCKS and DNS information leaks. 
2286)     Should I worry?</a></h3>
2287)     <p>
2288)     The warning is: 
2289)     </p>
2290)     <p>
2291)     Your application (using socks5 on port %d) is giving Tor only an IP 
2292)     address. Applications that do DNS resolves themselves may leak 
2293)     information. Consider using Socks4A (e.g. via Polipo or socat) instead. 
2294)     </p>
2295)     <p>
2296)     If you are running Tor to get anonymity, and you are worried about an 
2297)     attacker who is even slightly clever, then yes, you should worry. Here's why. 
2298)     </p>
2299)     <p>
2300)     <b>The Problem.</b> When your applications connect to servers on the 
2301)     Internet, they need to resolve hostnames that you can read (like 
2302)     www.torproject.org) into IP addresses that the Internet can use (like 
2303)     209.237.230.66). To do this, your application sends a request to a DNS 
2304)     server, telling it the hostname it wants to resolve. The DNS server 
2305)     replies by telling your application the IP address. 
2306)     </p>
2307)     <p>
2308)     Clearly, this is a bad idea if you plan to connect to the remote host 
2309)     anonymously: when your application sends the request to the DNS server, 
2310)     the DNS server (and anybody else who might be watching) can see what 
2311)     hostname you are asking for. Even if your application then uses Tor to 
2312)     connect to the IP anonymously, it will be pretty obvious that the user 
2313)     making the anonymous connection is probably the same person who made 
2314)     the DNS request. 
2315)     </p>
2316)     <p>
2317)     <b>Where SOCKS comes in.</b> Your application uses the SOCKS protocol 
2318)     to connect to your local Tor client. There are 3 versions of SOCKS you 
2319)     are likely to run into: SOCKS 4 (which only uses IP addresses), SOCKS 5 
2320)     (which usually uses IP addresses in practice), and SOCKS 4a (which uses 
2321)     hostnames). 
2322)     </p>
2323)     <p>
2324)     When your application uses SOCKS 4 or SOCKS 5 to give Tor an IP address, 
2325)     Tor guesses that it 'probably' got the IP address non-anonymously from a 
2326)     DNS server. That's why it gives you a warning message: you probably aren't 
2327)     as anonymous as you think. 
2328)     </p>
2329)     <p>
2330)     <b>So what can I do?</b> We describe a few solutions below. 
2331)     </p>
2332)     <ul>
2333)     <li>If your application speaks SOCKS 4a, use it. </li>
2334)     <li>If you only need one or two hosts, or you are good at programming, 
2335)     you may be able to get a socks-based port-forwarder like socat to work 
2336)     for you; see <a 
2337)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorifyHOWTO">the 
2338)     Torify HOWTO</a> for examples. </li>
2339)     <li>Tor ships with a program called tor-resolve that can use the Tor 
2340)     network to look up hostnames remotely; if you resolve hostnames to IPs 
2341)     with tor-resolve, then pass the IPs to your applications, you'll be fine. 
2342)     (Tor will still give the warning, but now you know what it means.) </li>
2343) <!-- I'm not sure if this project is still maintained or not
2344) 
2345) <li>You can use TorDNS as a local DNS server to rectify the DNS leakage. See the Torify HOWTO for info on how to run particular applications anonymously. </li>
2346) !-->
2347)     </ul>
2348)     <p>If you think that you applied one of the solutions properly but still 
2349)     experience DNS leaks please verify there is no third-party application 
2350)     using DNS independently of Tor. Please see <a 
2351)     href="#AmITotallyAnonymous">the FAQ entry on whether you're really 
2352)     absolutely anonymous using Tor</a> for some examples. 
2353)     </p>
2354) 
2355)     <hr>
2356) 

2357)     <a id="SocksAndDNS"></a>
2358)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SocksAndDNS">How do I check if my application that uses 
2359)     SOCKS is leaking DNS requests?</a></h3>
2360) 
2361)     <p>
2362)     These are two steps you need to take here. The first is to make sure 
2363)     that it's using the correct variant of the SOCKS protocol, and the 
2364)     second is to make sure that there aren't other leaks. 
2365)     </p>
2366) 
2367)     <p>
2368)     Step one: add "TestSocks 1" to your torrc file, and then watch your 
2369)     logs as you use your application. Tor will then log, for each SOCKS 
2370)     connection, whether it was using a 'good' variant or a 'bad' one. 
2371)     (If you want to automatically disable all 'bad' variants, set 
2372)     "SafeSocks 1" in your <a href="#torrc">torrc</a> file.) 
2373)     </p>
2374) 
2375)     <p>
2376)     Step two: even if your application is using the correct variant of 
2377)     the SOCKS protocol, there is still a risk that it could be leaking 
2378)     DNS queries. This problem happens in Firefox extensions that resolve 
2379)     the destination hostname themselves, for example to show you its IP 
2380)     address, what country it's in, etc. These applications may use a safe 
2381)     SOCKS variant when actually making connections, but they still do DNS 
2382)     resolves locally. If you suspect your application might behave like 
2383)     this, you should use a network sniffer like <a 
2384)     href="https://www.wireshark.org/">Wireshark</a> and look for 
2385)     suspicious outbound DNS requests. I'm afraid the details of how to look 
2386)     for these problems are beyond the scope of a FAQ entry though -- find 
2387)     a friend to help if you have problems. 

2388)     </p>
2389) 
2390)     <hr>
2391) 

2392)     <a id="HowDoIDecide"></a>
2393)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#HowDoIDecide">How do I decide if I should 
2394)     run a relay?</a></h3>
2395)     <p>
2396)     We're looking for people with reasonably reliable Internet connections, 
2397)     that have at least 20 kilobytes/second each way. If that's you, please 
2398)     consider <a href="https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-relay-debian">helping 
2399)     out</a>. 
2400)     </p>
2401)     
2402)     <hr>
2403)     
2404)     <a id="WhyIsntMyRelayBeingUsedMore"></a>
2405)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhyIsntMyRelayBeingUsedMore">Why isn't my 
2406)     relay being used more?</a></h3>
2407)     <p>
2408)     If your relay is relatively new then give it time. Tor decides which 
2409)     relays it uses heuristically based on reports from Bandwidth 
2410)     Authorities. These authorities take measurements of your relay's 
2411)     capacity and, over time, directs more traffic there until it reaches 
2412)     an optimal load. The lifecycle of a new relay is explained in more 
2413)     depth in <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/lifecycle-of-a-new-relay">
2414)     this blog post</a>.
2415)     </p>
2416)     <p>
2417)     If you've been running a relay for a while and still having issues 
2418)     then try asking on the <a href=
2419)     "https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays/">
2420)     tor-relays list</a>. 
2421)     </p>
2422)     
2423)     <hr>
2424) 

2425)     <a id="IDontHaveAStaticIP"></a>
2426)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#IDontHaveAStaticIP">I don't have a static 
2427)     IP.</a></h3>
2428) 
2429)     <p>
2430)     Tor can handle relays with dynamic IP addresses just fine. Just leave 
2431)     the "Address" line in your torrc blank, and Tor will guess. 
2432)     </p>
2433) 
2434)     <hr>
2435) 
2436)     <a id="ModemKeepsCrashing"></a>
2437)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ModemKeepsCrashing">My cable/DSL modem 
2438)     keeps crashing. What's going on?</h3></a>
2439) 
2440)     <p>
2441)     Tor relays hold many connections open at once. This is more intensive 
2442)     use than your cable modem (or other home router) would ever get normally. 
2443)     So if there are any bugs or instabilities, they might show up now. 
2444)     </p>
2445)     <p>
2446)     If your router keeps crashing, you've got two options. First, you should 
2447)     try to upgrade its firmware. If you need tips on how to do this, ask 
2448)     Google or your cable/router provider, or try the Tor IRC channel. 
2449)     </p>
2450) 
2451)     <p>
2452)     Usually the firmware upgrade will fix it. If it doesn't, you will 
2453)     probably want to get a new (better) router. 
2454)     </p>
2455) 
2456)     <hr>
2457) 
2458)     <a id="PortscannedMore"></a>
2459)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#PortscannedMore">Why do I get portscanned 
2460)     more often when I run a Tor relay?</a></h3>
2461) 
2462)     <p>
2463)     If you allow exit connections, some services that people connect to 
2464)     from your relay will connect back to collect more information about you. 
2465)     For example, some IRC servers connect back to your identd port to record 
2466)     which user made the connection. (This doesn't really work for them, 
2467)     because Tor doesn't know this information, but they try anyway.) Also, 
2468)     users exiting from you might attract the attention of other users on the 
2469)     IRC server, website, etc. who want to know more about the host they're 
2470)     relaying through. 
2471)     </p>
2472)     <p>
2473)     Another reason is that groups who scan for open proxies on the Internet 
2474)     have learned that sometimes Tor relays expose their socks port to the 
2475)     world. We recommend that you bind your socksport to local networks only. 
2476)     </p>
2477)     <p>
2478)     In any case, you need to keep up to date with your security. See this <a 
2479)     href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/OperationalSecurity">article 
2480)     on operational security for Tor relays</a> for more suggestions. 
2481)     </p>
2482) 
2483)     <hr>
2484) 
2485)     <a id="MoreThanOneCPU"></a>
2486)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#MoreThanOneCPU">I have more than one CPU. 
2487)     Does this help?</a></h3>
2488) 
2489)     <p>
2490)     Yes. You can set your NumCpus config option in torrc to the number of 
2491)     CPUs you have, and Tor will spawn this many cpuworkers to deal with 
2492)     public key operations in parallel. 
2493)     </p>
2494) 
2495)     <p>
2496)     This option has no effect for clients. 
2497)     </p>
2498) 
2499)     <hr>
2500) 

2501)     <a id="HighCapacityConnection"></a>    
2502)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#HighCapacityConnection">How can I get Tor to fully 
2503)     make use of my high capacity connection?</a></h3>
2504)     
2505)     <p>
2506)     See <a href="http://archives.seul.org/or/relays/Aug-2010/msg00034.html">this 
2507)     tor-relays thread</a>.
2508)     </p>
2509)     
2510)     <hr>    
2511)     

2512)     <a id="RelayFlexible"></a>

2513)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RelayFlexible">How stable does my relay
2514) need to be?</a></h3>

2515) 

2516)     <p>
2517)     We aim to make setting up a Tor relay easy and convenient:
2518)     </p>

2519) 

2520)     <ul>
2521)     <li>Tor has built-in support for <a

2522)     href="<wikifaq>#WhatbandwidthshapingoptionsareavailabletoTorrelays">

2523)     rate limiting</a>. Further, if you have a fast
2524)     link but want to limit the number of bytes per
2525)     day (or week or month) that you donate, check out the <a

2526) 
2527) href="<wikifaq>#HowcanIlimitthetotalamountofbandwidthusedbymyTorrelay">
2528) hibernation

2529)     feature</a>.
2530)     </li>

2531)     <li>Each Tor relay has an <a href="#ExitPolicies">exit policy</a>
2532) that
2533)     specifies what sort of outbound connections are allowed or refused
2534) from
2535)     that relay. If you are uncomfortable allowing people to exit from
2536) your
2537)     relay, you can set it up to only allow connections to other Tor
2538) relays.

2539)     </li>
2540)     <li>It's fine if the relay goes offline sometimes. The directories
2541)     notice this quickly and stop advertising the relay. Just try to make
2542)     sure it's not too often, since connections using the relay when it
2543)     disconnects will break.
2544)     </li>
2545)     <li>We can handle relays with dynamic IPs just fine &mdash; simply
2546)     leave the Address config option blank, and Tor will try to guess.
2547)     </li>
2548)     <li>If your relay is behind a NAT and it doesn't know its public
2549)     IP (e.g. it has an IP of 192.168.x.y), you'll need to set up port

2550)     forwarding. Forwarding TCP connections is system dependent but

2551)     <a href="#BehindANAT">this FAQ entry</a>

2552)     offers some examples on how to do this.
2553)     </li>
2554)     <li>Your relay will passively estimate and advertise its recent

2555)     bandwidth capacity, so high-bandwidth relays will attract more users
2556) than
2557)     low-bandwidth ones. Therefore having low-bandwidth relays is useful
2558) too.

2559)     </li>
2560)     </ul>

2561) 

2562)     <hr>

2563)     
2564)     <a id="BandwidthShaping"></a>
2565)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#BandwidthShaping">What bandwidth shaping 
2566)     options are available to Tor relays?</a></h3>
2567) 
2568)     <p>
2569)     There are two options you can add to your torrc file: 
2570)     </p>
2571)     <ul>
2572)     <li>
2573)     BandwidthRate is the maximum long-term bandwidth allowed (bytes per 
2574)     second). For example, you might want to choose "BandwidthRate 2 MB" 
2575)     for 2 megabytes per second (a fast connection), or "BandwidthRate 50 
2576)     KB" for 50 kilobytes per second (a medium-speed cable connection). 
2577)     The minimum BandwidthRate is 20 kilobytes per second. 
2578)     </li>
2579)     <li>
2580)     BandwidthBurst is a pool of bytes used to fulfill requests during 
2581)     short periods of traffic above BandwidthRate but still keeps the 
2582)     average over a long period to BandwidthRate. A low Rate but a high 
2583)     Burst enforces a long-term average while still allowing more traffic 
2584)     during peak times if the average hasn't been reached lately. For example, 
2585)     if you choose "BandwidthBurst 50 KB" and also use that for your 
2586)     BandwidthRate, then you will never use more than 50 kilobytes per second; 
2587)     but if you choose a higher BandwidthBurst (like 1 MB), it will allow 
2588)     more bytes through until the pool is empty.
2589)     </li>
2590)     </ul>
2591)     <p>
2592)     If you have an asymmetric connection (upload less than download) such 
2593)     as a cable modem, you should set BandwidthRate to less than your smaller 
2594)     bandwidth (Usually that's the upload bandwidth). (Otherwise, you could 
2595)     drop many packets during periods of maximum bandwidth usage -- you may 
2596)     need to experiment with which values make your connection comfortable.) 
2597)     Then set BandwidthBurst to the same as BandwidthRate. 
2598)     </p>
2599)     <p>
2600)     Linux-based Tor nodes have another option at their disposal: they can 
2601)     prioritize Tor traffic below other traffic on their machine, so that 
2602)     their own personal traffic is not impacted by Tor load. A ​<a 
2603)     href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/blob/HEAD:/contrib/linux-tor-prio.sh">script
2604)     to do this</a> can be found in the Tor source distribution's contrib 
2605)     directory. 
2606)     </p>
2607)     <p>
2608)     Additionally, there are hibernation options where you can tell Tor to 
2609)     only serve a certain amount of bandwidth per time period (such as 100 
2610)     GB per month). These are covered in the <a 
2611)     href="#LimitTotalBandwidth">hibernation entry</a> below. 
2612)     </p>
2613)     <p>
2614)     Note that BandwidthRate and BandwidthBurst are in <b>Bytes,</b>not Bits. 
2615)     </p>
2616) 
2617)     <hr>
2618) 
2619)     <a id="LimitTotalBandwidth"></a>
2620)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#LimitTotalBandwidth">How can I limit the 
2621)     total amount of bandwidth used by my Tor relay?</a></h3>
2622)     <p>
2623)     The accounting options in the torrc file allow you to specify the maximum 
2624)     amount of bytes your relay uses for a time period. 
2625)     </p>
2626)     <pre>
2627)     AccountingStart day week month [day] HH:MM
2628)     </pre>
2629)     <p>
2630)     This specifies when the accounting should reset. For instance, to setup 
2631)     a total amount of bytes served for a week (that resets every Wednesday 
2632)     at 10:00am), you would use: 
2633)     </p>
2634)     <pre>
2635)     AccountingStart week 3 10:00
2636)     AccountingMax N bytes KB MB GB TB
2637)     </pre>
2638)     <p>
2639)     This specifies the maximum amount of data your relay will send during an 
2640)     accounting period, and the maximum amount of data your relay will receive 
2641)     during an account period. When the accounting period resets (from 
2642)     AccountingStart), then the counters for AccountingMax are reset to 0.
2643)     </p>
2644)     <p>
2645)     Example. Let's say you want to allow 1 GB of traffic every day in each 
2646)     direction and the accounting should reset at noon each day: 
2647)     </p>
2648)     <pre>
2649)     AccountingStart day 12:00
2650)     AccountingMax 1 GB
2651)     </pre>
2652)     <p>
2653)     Note that your relay won't wake up exactly at the beginning of each 
2654)     accounting period. It will keep track of how quickly it used its 
2655)     quota in the last period, and choose a random point in the new interval 
2656)     to wake up. This way we avoid having hundreds of relays working at the 
2657)     beginning of each month but none still up by the end. 
2658)     </p>
2659)     <p>
2660)     If you have only a small amount of bandwidth to donate compared to your 
2661)     connection speed, we recommend you use daily accounting, so you don't 
2662)     end up using your entire monthly quota in the first day. Just divide 
2663)     your monthly amount by 30. You might also consider rate limiting to 
2664)     spread your usefulness over more of the day: if you want to offer X GB 
2665)     in each direction, you could set your BandwidthRate to 20*X. For example, 
2666)     if you have 10 GB to offer each way, you might set your BandwidthRate to 
2667)     200 KB: this way your relay will always be useful for at least half of 
2668)     each day. 
2669)     </p>
2670)     <hr>

2671) 

2672)     <a id="ExitPolicies"></a>

2673)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ExitPolicies">I'd run a relay, but I
2674) don't want to deal with abuse issues.</a></h3>

2675) 

2676)     <p>
2677)     Great. That's exactly why we implemented exit policies.
2678)     </p>

2679) 

2680)     <p>
2681)     Each Tor relay has an exit policy that specifies what sort of

2682)     outbound connections are allowed or refused from that relay. The
2683) exit

2684)     policies are propagated to Tor clients via the directory, so clients
2685)     will automatically avoid picking exit relays that would refuse to
2686)     exit to their intended destination. This way each relay can decide
2687)     the services, hosts, and networks he wants to allow connections to,

2688)     based on abuse potential and his own situation. Read the FAQ entry
2689) on
2690)     <a href="<page docs/faq-abuse>#TypicalAbuses">issues you might
2691) encounter</a>

2692)     if you use the default exit policy, and then read Mike Perry's

2693)     <a href="<blog>tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment">tips

2694)     for running an exit node with minimal harassment</a>.
2695)     </p>

2696) 

2697)     <p>

2698)     The default exit policy allows access to many popular services

2699)     (e.g. web browsing), but <a

2700) href="#DefaultExitPorts">restricts</a>

2701)     some due to abuse potential (e.g. mail) and some since
2702)     the Tor network can't handle the load (e.g. default
2703)     file-sharing ports). You can change your exit policy

2704)     using Vidalia's "Sharing" tab, or by manually editing your

2705)     <a href="<page docs/faq>#torrc">torrc</a>

2706)     file. If you want to avoid most if not all abuse potential, set it
2707) to
2708)     "reject *:*" (or un-check all the boxes in Vidalia). This setting
2709) means
2710)     that your relay will be used for relaying traffic inside the Tor
2711) network,

2712)     but not for connections to external websites or other services.
2713)     </p>

2714) 

2715)     <p>

2716)     If you do allow any exit connections, make sure name resolution
2717) works

2718)     (that is, your computer can resolve Internet addresses correctly).

2719)     If there are any resources that your computer can't reach (for
2720) example,

2721)     you are behind a restrictive firewall or content filter), please

2722)     explicitly reject them in your exit policy — otherwise Tor
2723) users

2724)     will be impacted too.
2725)     </p>

2726) 

2727)     <hr>

2728) 

2729)     <a id="DifferentComputer"></a>

2730)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DifferentComputer">I want to run my 
2731)     Tor client on a different computer than my applications.</a></h3>

2732)     <p>

2733)     By default, your Tor client only listens for applications that 
2734)     connect from localhost. Connections from other computers are 
2735)     refused. If you want to torify applications on different computers 
2736)     than the Tor client, you should edit your torrc to define 

2737)     SocksListenAddress 0.0.0.0 and then restart (or hup) Tor. If you 

2738)     want to get more advanced, you can configure your Tor client on a 
2739)     firewall to bind to your internal IP but not your external IP.  

2740)     </p>
2741) 
2742)     <hr>
2743) 
2744)     <a id="ServerClient"></a>

2745)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ServerClient">Can I install Tor on a 
2746)     central server, and have my clients connect to it?</a></h3>
2747)     <p>
2748)      Yes. Tor can be configured as a client or a relay on another 
2749)      machine, and allow other machines to be able to connect to it 
2750)      for anonymity. This is most useful in an environment where many 
2751)      computers want a gateway of anonymity to the rest of the world. 
2752)      However, be forwarned that with this configuration, anyone within 
2753)      your private network (existing between you and the Tor 
2754)      client/relay) can see what traffic you are sending in clear text. 
2755)      The anonymity doesn't start until you get to the Tor relay. 
2756)      Because of this, if you are the controller of your domain and you 
2757)      know everything's locked down, you will be OK, but this configuration 
2758)      may not be suitable for large private networks where security is 
2759)      key all around.
2760)     </p>
2761)     <p>
2762) Configuration is simple, editing your torrc file's SocksListenAddress 
2763) according to the following examples:

2764)     </p>
2765)     <pre>

2766) 
2767)   #This provides local interface access only, 
2768)   #needs SocksPort to be greater than 0
2769)   SocksListenAddress 127.0.0.1 
2770) 
2771)   #This provides access to Tor on a specified interface
2772)   SocksListenAddress 192.168.x.x:9100 
2773) 
2774)   #Accept from all interfaces
2775)   SocksListenAddress 0.0.0.0:9100
2776)    </pre>

2777)     <p>

2778) You can state multiple listen addresses, in the case that you are 
2779) part of several networks or subnets.

2780)     </p>
2781)     <pre>
2782)   SocksListenAddress 192.168.x.x:9100 #eth0
2783)   SocksListenAddress 10.x.x.x:9100 #eth1
2784)     </pre>
2785)     <p>

2786) After this, your clients on their respective networks/subnets would specify 
2787) a socks proxy with the address and port you specified SocksListenAddress 
2788) to be. 

2789)     </p>
2790)     <p>

2791) Please note that the SocksPort configuration option gives the port ONLY for 
2792) localhost (127.0.0.1). When setting up your SocksListenAddress(es), you need 
2793) to give the port with the address, as shown above.

2794)     <p>

2795) If you are interested in forcing all outgoing data through the central Tor 
2796) client/relay, instead of the server only being an optional proxy, you may find 
2797) the program iptables (for *nix) useful. 

2798)     </p>
2799) 
2800)     <hr>
2801) 

2802)     <a id="JoinTheNetwork"></a>

2803)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#JoinTheNetwork">So I can just configure a 
2804)     nickname and ORPort and join the network?</a></h3>

2805) 
2806)     <p>

2807)      Yes. You can join the network and be a useful relay just by configuring 
2808)      your Tor to be a relay and making sure it's reachable from the outside.

2809)     </p>
2810)     <p>
2811) 30 Seconds to a Tor Relay:
2812)     </p>
2813)     <ul><li>
2814)     Configure a Nickname: 
2815)     </li></ul>
2816)     <pre>
2817) Nickname ididnteditheconfig
2818)     </pre>

2819)     <ul><li>

2820)     Configure ORPort: 

2821)     </li></ul>

2822)     <pre>
2823) ORPort 9001
2824)     </pre>

2825)     <ul><li>

2826)     Configure Contact Info: 

2827)     </li></ul>

2828) 
2829)     <pre>
2830) ContactInfo human@…

2831)     </pre>
2832)     <ul><li>

2833)     Start Tor. Watch the log file for a log entry that states: "Self-testing 
2834)     indicates your ORPort is reachable from the outside. Excellent. Publishing 
2835)     server descriptor."

2836)     </li></ul>

2837) 
2838)     <hr />

2839) 

2840)     <a id="RelayOrBridge"></a>

2841)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RelayOrBridge">Should I be a normal
2842) relay or bridge relay?</a></h3>

2843) 

2844)     <p><a href="<page docs/bridges>">Bridge relays</a> (or "bridges" for
2845) short)
2846)     are <a href="<page docs/tor-doc-relay>">Tor relays</a> that aren't

2847)     listed in the public Tor directory.

2848)     That means that ISPs or governments trying to block access to the

2849)     Tor network can't simply block all bridges.

2850)     </p>

2851) 

2852)     <p>Being a normal relay vs being a bridge relay is almost the same
2853)     configuration: it's just a matter of whether your relay is listed

2854)     publicly or not.

2855)     </p>

2856) 

2857)     <p>

2858)     So bridges are useful a) for Tor users in oppressive regimes,

2859)     and b) for people who want an extra layer of security

2860)     because they're worried somebody will recognize that it's a public
2861)     Tor relay IP address they're contacting.

2862)     </p>

2863) 

2864)     <p>
2865)     Several countries, including China and Iran, have found ways to

2866)     detect and block connections to Tor bridges.

2867)     <a href="<page projects/obfsproxy>">Obfsproxy</a> bridges address

2868)     this by adding another layer of obfuscation.

2869)     </p>
2870) 

2871)     <p>So should you run a normal relay or bridge relay? If you have
2872) lots

2873)     of bandwidth, you should definitely run a normal relay.
2874)     If you're willing

2875)     to <a href="#ExitPolicies">be an exit</a>, you should definitely
2876)     run a normal relay, since we need more exits. If you can't be an
2877)     exit and only have a little bit of bandwidth, be a bridge. Thanks
2878)     for volunteering!

2879)     </p>

2880) 

2881)     <hr>

2882) 

2883) <a id="UpgradeOrMove"></a>

2884) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#UpgradeOrMove">I want to upgrade/move my relay. 
2885) How do I keep the same key?</a></h3>

2886) 
2887) <p>

2888)  When upgrading your Tor relay, or running it on a different computer, 
2889)  the important part is to keep the same nickname (defined in your torrc 
2890)  file) and the same identity key (stored in "keys/secret_id_key" in 
2891)  your DataDirectory).

2892) </p>
2893) <p>

2894) This means that if you're upgrading your Tor relay and you keep the same 
2895) torrc and the same DataDirectory, then the upgrade should just work and 
2896) your relay will keep using the same key. If you need to pick a new 
2897) DataDirectory, be sure to copy your old keys/secret_id_key over. 

2898) </p>
2899) 
2900)     <hr>
2901) 
2902) <a id="NTService"></a>

2903) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#NTService">How do I run my Tor relay as an NT 
2904) service?</a></h3>

2905) 
2906) <p>

2907)  You can run Tor as a service on all versions of Windows except Windows 
2908)  95/98/ME. This way you can run a Tor relay without needing to always have 
2909)  Vidalia running.

2910) </p>
2911) <p>

2912) If you've already configured your Tor to be a relay, please note that when 
2913) you enable Tor as a service, it will use a different DatagDirectory, and 
2914) thus will generate a different key. If you want to keep using the old key, 
2915) see the Upgrading your Tor relay FAQ entry for how to restore the old 
2916) identity key.

2917) </p>
2918) <p>
2919) To install Tor as a service, you can simply run:
2920) </p>
2921) <pre>
2922) tor --service install
2923) </pre>
2924) <p>

2925) A service called Tor Win32 Service will be installed and started. This 
2926) service will also automatically start every time Windows boots, unless 
2927) you change the Start-up type. An easy way to check the status of Tor, 
2928) start or stop the service, and change the start-up type is by running 
2929) services.msc and finding the Tor service in the list of currently 
2930) installed services.

2931) </p>
2932) <p>

2933) Optionally, you can specify additional options for the Tor service using 
2934) the -options argument. For example, if you want Tor to use C:\tor\torrc, 
2935) instead of the default torrc, and open a control port on port 9151, you 
2936) would run:

2937) </p>
2938) <pre>
2939) tor --service install -options -f C:\tor\torrc ControlPort 9151
2940) </pre>
2941) <p>
2942) You can also start or stop the Tor service from the command line by typing:
2943) </p>
2944) <pre>
2945)  tor --service start
2946) </pre>
2947) <p>
2948) or
2949) </p>
2950) <pre>
2951)  tor --service stop
2952) </pre>
2953) <p>
2954) To remove the Tor service, you can run the following command:
2955) </p>
2956) <pre>
2957) tor --service remove
2958) </pre>
2959) <p>

2960) If you are running Tor as a service and you want to uninstall Tor entirely, 
2961) be sure to run the service removal command (shown above) first before 
2962) running the uninstaller from "Add/Remove Programs". The uninstaller is 
2963) currently not capable of removing the active service.

2964) </p>
2965) 
2966) <hr>
2967) 
2968) <a id="VirtualServer"></a>

2969) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#VirtualServer">Can I run a Tor relay from my 
2970) virtual server account?</a></h3>

2971) 
2972) <p>

2973) Some ISPs are selling "vserver" accounts that provide what they call a 
2974) virtual server -- you can't actually interact with the hardware, and 
2975) they can artificially limit certain resources such as the number of file 
2976) descriptors you can open at once. Competent vserver admins are able to 
2977) configure your server to not hit these limits. For example, in SWSoft's 
2978) Virtuozzo, investigate /proc/user_beancounters. Look for "failcnt" in 
2979) tcpsndbuf, tcprecvbuf, numothersock, and othersockbuf. Ask for these to 
2980) be increased accordingly. Some users have seen settings work well as follows: 

2981) <p>

2982) <table border="1">

2983) <tr>
2984) <td>
2985) <i>resource</i>
2986) </td>
2987) <td>
2988) <i>held</i>
2989) </td>
2990) <td>
2991) <i>maxheld</i>
2992) </td>
2993) <td>
2994) <i>barrier</i>
2995) </td>
2996) <td>
2997) <i>limit</i>
2998) </td>
2999) <td>
3000) <i>failcnt</i>
3001) </td>
3002) </tr>
3003) <tr>
3004) <td>
3005) tcpsndbuf
3006) </td>
3007) <td>
3008) 46620
3009) </td>
3010) <td>
3011) 48840
3012) </td>
3013) <td>
3014) 3440640
3015) </td>
3016) <td>
3017) 5406720
3018) </td>
3019) <td>
3020) 0
3021) </td>
3022) </tr>
3023) <tr>
3024) <td>
3025) tcprcvbuf
3026) </td>
3027) <td>
3028) 0
3029) </td>
3030) <td>
3031) 2220
3032) </td>
3033) <td>
3034) 3440640
3035) </td>
3036) <td>
3037) 5406720
3038) </td>
3039) <td>
3040) 0
3041) </td>
3042) </tr>
3043) <tr>
3044) <td>
3045) othersockbuf
3046) </td>
3047) <td>
3048) 243516
3049) </td>
3050) <td>
3051) 260072
3052) </td>
3053) <td>
3054) 2252160
3055) </td>
3056) <td>
3057) 4194304
3058) </td>
3059) <td>
3060) 0
3061) </td>
3062) </tr>
3063) <tr>
3064) <td>
3065) numothersock
3066) </td>
3067) <td>
3068) 151
3069) </td>
3070) <td>
3071) 153
3072) </td>
3073) <td>
3074) 720
3075) </td>
3076) <td>
3077) 720
3078) </td>
3079) <td>
3080) 0
3081) </td>
3082) </tr>
3083) </table>
3084) <p>
3085)  Xen, Virtual Box and VMware virtual servers have no such limits normally.
3086) </p>
3087) <p>

3088) If the vserver admin will not increase system limits another option is 
3089) to reduce the memory allocated to the send and receive buffers on TCP 
3090) connections Tor uses. An experimental feature to constrain socket buffers 
3091) has recently been added. If your version of Tor supports it, set 
3092) "ConstrainedSockets 1" in your configuration. See the tor man page for 
3093) additional details about this option.

3094) </p>
3095) <p>

3096) Unfortunately, since Tor currently requires you to be able to connect to 
3097) all the other Tor relays, we need you to be able to use at least 1024 file 
3098) descriptors. This means we can't make use of Tor relays that are crippled 
3099) in this way.

3100) </p>
3101) <p>

3102) We hope to fix this in the future, once we know how to build a Tor network 
3103) with restricted topologies -- that is, where each node connects to only a 
3104) few other nodes. But this is still a long way off.

3105) </p>
3106) 

3107) <hr>
3108) 

3109) <a id="MultipleRelays"></a>

3110) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#MultipleRelays">I want to run more than one
3111) relay.</a></h3>

3112) 
3113) <p>
3114) Great. If you want to run several relays to donate more to the network,
3115) we're happy with that. But please don't run more than a few dozen on
3116) the same network, since part of the goal of the Tor network is dispersal
3117) and diversity.
3118) </p>
3119) 
3120) <p>
3121) If you do decide to run more than one relay, please set the "MyFamily"

3122) config option in the <a href="#torrc">torrc</a> of each relay, listing
3123) all the relays (comma-separated) that are under your control:

3124) </p>
3125) 
3126) <pre>
3127)     MyFamily $fingerprint1,$fingerprint2,$fingerprint3
3128) </pre>
3129) 
3130) <p>
3131) where each fingerprint is the 40 character identity fingerprint (without

3132) spaces). You can also list them by nickname, but fingerprint is safer.
3133) Be

3134) sure to prefix the digest strings with a dollar sign ('$') so that the
3135) digest is not confused with a nickname in the config file.
3136) </p>
3137) 
3138) <p>
3139) That way clients will know to avoid using more than one of your relays
3140) in a single circuit. You should set MyFamily if you have administrative
3141) control of the computers or of their network, even if they're not all in
3142) the same geographic location.
3143) </p>
3144) 
3145)     <hr>
3146) 

3147)     <a id="WrongIP"></a>

3148)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WrongIP">My relay is picking the wrong 
3149)     IP address.</a></h3>

3150)     <p>

3151)  Tor guesses its IP address by asking the computer for its hostname, and 
3152)  then resolving that hostname. Often people have old entries in their 
3153)  /etc/hosts file that point to old IP addresses.

3154)     </p>
3155)     <p>

3156) If that doesn't fix it, you should use the "Address" config option to 
3157) specify the IP you want it to pick. If your computer is behind a NAT and 
3158) it only has an internal IP address, see the following FAQ entry on <a 

3159) href="#RelayFlexible">dynamic IP addresses</a>.

3160)     </p>
3161)     <p>

3162) Also, if you have many addresses, you might also want to set 
3163) "OutboundBindAddress" so external connections come from the IP you intend 
3164) to present to the world. 

3165)     </p>
3166) 
3167)     <hr>
3168) 
3169)     <a id="BehindANAT"></a>
3170)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#BehindANAT">I'm behind a NAT/Firewall.</a></h3>
3171) 
3172)     <p>

3173) See <a>​http://portforward.com/</a> for directions on how to port forward with 
3174) your NAT/router device.

3175) </p>
3176) <p>

3177) If your relay is running on a internal net you need to setup port forwarding. 
3178) Forwarding TCP connections is system dependent but the firewalled-clients FAQ 
3179) entry offers some examples on how to do this.

3180) </p>
3181) <p>

3182) Also, here's an example of how you would do this on GNU/Linux if you're using 
3183) iptables:

3184) </p>
3185) <pre>
3186) /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp --destination-port 9001 -j ACCEPT
3187) </pre>
3188) <p>

3189) You may have to change "eth0" if you have a different external interface 
3190) (the one connected to the Internet). Chances are you have only one (except 
3191) the loopback) so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. 

3192)     </p>
3193)     <hr>
3194) 

3195)     <a id="RelayMemory"></a>

3196)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RelayMemory">Why is my Tor relay using
3197) so much memory?</a></h3>

3198) 

3199)     <p>If your Tor relay is using more memory than you'd like, here are
3200) some

3201)     tips for reducing its footprint:
3202)     </p>

3203) 

3204)     <ol>
3205)     <li>If you're on Linux, you may be encountering memory fragmentation

3206)     bugs in glibc's malloc implementation. That is, when Tor releases
3207) memory
3208)     back to the system, the pieces of memory are fragmented so they're
3209) hard
3210)     to reuse. The Tor tarball ships with OpenBSD's malloc
3211) implementation,
3212)     which doesn't have as many fragmentation bugs (but the tradeoff is
3213) higher
3214)     CPU load). You can tell Tor to use this malloc implementation
3215) instead:

3216)     <tt>./configure --enable-openbsd-malloc</tt></li>

3217) 

3218)     <li>If you're running a fast relay, meaning you have many TLS
3219) connections

3220)     open, you are probably losing a lot of memory to OpenSSL's internal
3221)     buffers (38KB+ per socket). We've patched OpenSSL to <a

3222) 
3223) href="https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2008-June/001519.
3224) html">release

3225)     unused buffer memory more aggressively</a>. If you update to OpenSSL

3226)     1.0.0 or newer, Tor's build process will automatically recognize and
3227) use

3228)     this feature.</li>

3229) 

3230) <!-- Nickm says he's not sure this is still accurate
3231) 

3232)     <li>If you're running on Solaris, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or
3233)     old FreeBSD, Tor is probably forking separate processes
3234)     rather than using threads. Consider switching to a <a
3235)     href="<wikifaq>#WhydoesntmyWindowsorotherOSTorrelayrunwell">better
3236)     operating system</a>.</li>

3237) -->

3238)     <li>If you still can't handle the memory load, consider reducing the

3239)     amount of bandwidth your relay advertises. Advertising less
3240) bandwidth

3241)     means you will attract fewer users, so your relay shouldn't grow
3242)     as large. See the <tt>MaxAdvertisedBandwidth</tt> option in the man
3243)     page.</li>

3244) 

3245)     </ol>

3246) 

3247)     <p>

3248)     All of this said, fast Tor relays do use a lot of ram. It is not
3249) unusual

3250)     for a fast exit relay to use 500-1000 MB of memory.
3251)     </p>

3252) 

3253)     <hr>

3254) 

3255)     <a id="BetterAnonymity"></a>

3256)     <h3><a class="anchor" href="#BetterAnonymity">Do I get better anonymity 
3257)     if I run a relay?</a></h3>

3258)