Speed up Tor network

Question

I primarily want to connect to the internet via one proxy outside the UK.

Is there anyway I can configure the network to complete the task please?

Thanks Umfundi

Answer 1

You should be careful if you change the standard settings. This can reduce your anonymity in ways that you did not think of. But you do not seem to worry about this too much.

Maybe this answer can help you: How can one make Tor faster, when willing to to sacrifice anonymity?. Sam Withed says you can use Tor like a normal 1-hop proxy. But you need to change a line of the source code. Then you need to recompile it.

An other way is to choose fast entry and exit nodes. I think you can make your connection faster if you do it this way. But I have not tried it myself.

1. You find the configuration file for Tor. It has the name "torrc".

2. You add the two lines "EntryNodes node,node,…" and "ExitNodes node,node,…".

"node, node, ..." is a list of identity fingerprints, nicknames, country codes and address patterns (Example: ABCD1234CDEF5678ABCD1234CDEF5678ABCD1234, Tor2webRendezvousPoints Fastyfasty, {cc}, 255.254.0.0/8). The full explanation is in the manual. You could use https://atlas.torproject.org to search for good nodes.

3. You save the configuration file and restart Tor.

Unfortunately you can not choose the middle node like this. But you could use "ExcludeNodes node,node,…" with a list of all slow nodes.

Answer 2

I added these lines at the end of my torrc file. On Macs this is found at ..Library/Application Support/TorBrowser/Tor

Since I am based in the US, it specifies 10 really fast entry and exit servers, and requires that the middle relay server be based in the US as well. (US is the only country not excluded)

It has sped up Tor 4x or more for me, much more usable now. Maybe a bit less anonymous, but should be anonymous enough.

You can alter the middle relay country based on your location, and use https://atlas.torproject.org/ and the ping command in terminal to find entry/exit servers that are fast for you.

code

EntryNodes 216.218.222.14, 65.19.167.130, 65.19.167.130, 65.19.167.131, 65.19.167.132, 65.19.167.133, 65.19.167.134, 216.218.134.12, 216.218.222.10, 216.218.222.12, 216.218.222.14

ExitNodes 216.218.222.14, 65.19.167.130, 65.19.167.130, 65.19.167.131, 65.19.167.132, 65.19.167.133, 65.19.167.134, 216.218.134.12, 216.218.222.10, 216.218.222.12, 216.218.222.14

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