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I want to specify an ExitNode that is near me, so I looked at OnionView and found the IP address of the one I want to use. What is the syntax to put in torrc?

ExitNodes 73.48.139.226?

ExitNodes 73.48.139.226:9001?

ExitNodes {73.48.139.226}?

The first 2 show the "Connecting to the tor network" dialog forever and the last one crashes Tor. (I tried several exitnodes and they all do the same)

I realize I am not nearly as anonymous if I do this and this is sort of unorthodox, but I'm trying to test some things and cannot find documentation anywhere on how to do this.

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  • @canonizingironize I don't see any information on that page pertaining to specific nodes, only countries. My question is more of a duplicate of the link in the accepted answer, though for some reason, it did not come up on google search
    – dukevin
    Commented May 28, 2016 at 21:19
  • It does however include information about using ExitNodes in general, which explains how you would do it: tor.stackexchange.com/a/1143/12737
    – cacahuatl
    Commented May 28, 2016 at 21:21
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    I disagree. I read that page thoroughly before asking this question. It does explain exit nodes and that we can use fingerprints or addresses, but not the syntax, which is what I was asking here.
    – dukevin
    Commented May 28, 2016 at 21:24

1 Answer 1

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You can't specify a single node using its IP address. You can specify an address range, which equates to a network, using CIDR notation, as specified in the Tor FAQ. (It's not that obvious, but note the slash in the below description... )

A list of identity fingerprints, country codes, and address patterns of nodes to avoid when building a circuit. Country codes must be wrapped in braces; fingerprints may be preceded by a dollar sign. (Example: ExcludeNodes ABCD1234CDEF5678ABCD1234CDEF5678ABCD1234, {cc}, 255.254.0.0/8)

As noted in previous answers, what you want is the fingerprint of the node.

Check the below page for the relay you want to use, click on its name, and use the fingerprint that is given on the resulting page (but remove the spaces... ):

https://torstatus.blutmagie.de/

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  • Specifying a single node by fingerprint is the way to go then, thanks. However, I'm looking at exitnodes on OnionView but I cannot find their counterpart on torstatus by searching by IP or hostname. How can I do this? For example 178.18.16.108 does not show up anywhere on torstatus
    – dukevin
    Commented May 28, 2016 at 19:13
  • Hmm, good point. TorStatus is saying its cache was updated about an hour ago. I've found a node, KongHongFury, that appears on both pages. TorStatus is reporting it has an uptime of 7 day, while OnionView says 2 days. I'm inclined to think OnionView isn't up to date, regardless of today's date appearing in the top-left corner. (Which could be just today's date, rather than an indication of when the actual data was last updated...)
    – Richard Horrocks
    Commented May 28, 2016 at 19:34
  • I see, so it's just a matter of the data not being up to date on OnionView. I appreciate your help and patients.
    – dukevin
    Commented May 28, 2016 at 21:17
  • I pretty much checked every single exit node in California and only 1 was on torstatus and I still couldn't connect to it. Is there a better way to go about this?
    – dukevin
    Commented May 29, 2016 at 0:34
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    Ok, given there's no way to confirm when it was last updated, I'd ignore OnionView completely. Have a look at tormap.void.gr instead - all the nodes I checked also appear on TorStatus.
    – Richard Horrocks
    Commented May 29, 2016 at 8:09

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