How do I use one and only node?

Question

I'm looking forward to using Tor like a VPN.

I learned about EntryNodes, ExitNodes, and MiddleNodes and how to set the country code for each and setting StrictNode 1 or something. When I set all these three to the same code, at least one of them wasn't from the country I specified.

So, I don't know how to use just one node; seems like there needs to be at least three. And it doesn't even allow all three to be from the same country.

I would like to know (1) How to set Entry, Exit, Middle nodes to be from the same country and (2) How to make ONE NODE to be all Entry, Exit, and Middle nodes, 'at my own risk'.

It seems like Tor enforces that the user of Tor goes through AT LEAST one different country and all nodes being different. But I feel like there must be an option to modify this 'at the risk of the client'.

Answer 1

For (2):

Tor relays do not allow clients to use only a single relay for circuits.

Exit relays now try harder to block exit attempts from unknown relays, to make it harder for people to use them as one-hop proxies a la tortunnel. Controlled by the refuseunknownexits consensus parameter (currently enabled), or you can override it on your relay with the RefuseUnknownExits torrc option. Resolves bug 1751; based on a variant of proposal 163.

https://blog.torproject.org/tor-02232-released/

At the time, this was an option configurable by relay operators. Nowadays no relays support single-hop exit circuits and this relay option no longer exists.