Talk:Tor

Proposal to rename/split Tor page

Much of the content here details information that is irrelevant to the subject of Bitcoin. I propose we create a separate wiki page for "Freenode" as that is what the main topic appears to be. We can keep a Tor page for issues related to Tor/Bitcoin and hidden service fallback nodes.

As an aside note we ought to, at the very least, trim down the mIRC section. It is after all, a shareware product. There are more appropriate free open source alternatives that already have SASL support built-in or have implementations that are not broken.

(note1 from ptmhd - i'm back on the wiki editing, i will trim the irc part to bare minimum (also because it is now much easier to setup)

Tor + Firefox

I recommend to start with the Vidalia Bundle. There Tor comes with a graphical control centre + Tor button for Firefox. the Tor button is a plugin that allows you with 1 click to turn on/off the Tor routing for Firefox.

Tor + Bitcoin

using Bitcoin with Tor is easy. All you need is to check the proxy option. The predefined values in Bitcoin match the Tor settings. As Bitcoin only saves from & to addresses (and no IP addresses), you should be pretty safe. Tor however does not fix the traceability of BTC from one address to other.

Tor + IRC (mIRC)

This is worked for me on two different computers, drop me a message on Bitcoin forum if you need help.

additional content?

some user started creating a tor page under his user space: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/User:Sawzall/Tor

maybe there's some stuff you guys can pull in from there...

also, xchat instructions for using over tor can be nice to have too. not everyone uses mirc, you know. :)

--Nanotube 05:39, 9 January 2011 (GMT)

There's a bounty for the article at http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=2602 Thanks for the link to Sawzall's Tor page. I did not know that. I shouldn't probably edit directly the main article either and should write it in my user space first. I have no wiki writing habbits :( As for the xchat, I do not do IRC since I left school and installed it after 7 years only to write the Freenode + Tor + SASL howto.

--Ptmhd 18:20, 12 January 2011 (GMT)

hidden services

rather than trying to keep a separate list of bitcoind as hidden services, it's probably better to link to the existing list of fallback nodes, which already has a few tor hidden services listed.

In addition, the bitcoin client does not resolve dns, so if you have any nodes added whose dns/.onion addresses are not resolved the connection will fail. You can find an explanation and instructions here http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=59.0;all#msg14635

Configuration tips

In torrc:

CircuitBuildTimeout 30 #Picks faster nodes
LearnCircuitBuildTimeout 0 #Enables the above setting
MaxCircuitDirtiness 1200 #The number of seconds between each enforced IP change.
                         #Increasing it can be good in some cases.
WarnUnsafeSocks 0 #Tor doesn't like the way Bitcoin makes requests, and spams
                  #the log about it. This stops that behavior.

• Privoxy is better than Polipo in every way. It has powerful privacy-assisting options (some disabled by default), and it can almost replace Torbutton on non-Firefox browsers. Firefox doesn't need Privoxy or Polipo because it can handle SOCKS5 natively.
• The most secure browser configuration is Firefox + Torbutton. You must use either Privoxy or Torbutton.
• Use standalone Tor, which outputs Tor's log to a console. Nearly all problems can be quickly solved by looking at the log.
• The official Vidalia bundles install two torrc files in different locations. One of these is useless. (Can't remember which one.)

Summary: The Tor bundles suck. theymos 09:21, 9 January 2011 (GMT)

• for the benefit of all users that run windows, would like to use Bitcoin client + IRC + browse the web via Tor, what would you recommend?

Ptmhd 23:42, 12 January 2011 (GMT+1)

Just download the expert bundle, make the torrc modifications I suggested (except the MaxCircuitDirtiness one), run it, and connect Bitcoin to localhost:9050. Same for IRC. If having the Tor window open all the time annoys you, minimize it to the tray with PowerMenu. There are also command-line options to tor.exe that create a Tor NT service -- this is a good idea if you run Tor constantly.

I never tried using IRC over Tor, so I can't recommend any particular IRC client. As a general rule, however, programs meant to be portable provide better anonymity.

For browsing, download Firefox Portable and install Torbutton on it. Privoxy/Polipo are not necessary. theymos 08:45, 13 January 2011 (GMT)

tor hidden service

"For clients, hidden services are more secure than encrypted Tor HTTPS connections because the destination's ISP isn't involved as they are in the HTTPS case."

the isp isn't receiving https traffic, but the timing attacks don't rely on the protocol being https. how can the destination isp or the final relay not aid in a timing attack?