When Tor changes circuit it only changes middle node and exit node, the entry node stays the same since the Tor started, so I guess the entry node is limiting the traffic if you make too much traffic, right? So changing the entry node is the idea for speeding up the Tor, I don't want to restart it to change the node that may cost too much time on connecting to the network, anybody has anyway?
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5 Answers
If you are looking to be able choose a specific entry nodes for specific period of time you may open the torrc and insert the following line:
EntryNode $fingerprint
On restart of Tor it will use the entry nodes if available.
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I believe you have to use fingerprints or country codes but not nicknames anymore. See tor.stackexchange.com/a/4831/350– JobiwanCommented Dec 30, 2014 at 17:01
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@Jobiwan, Dear Jobiwan, Thanks for the comment. The answer is edited to reflect your comment. Warm Regards,– RoyaCommented Dec 30, 2014 at 17:49
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"I don't want to restart it to change the node..." <-- You can look into using the
SETCONFcommand in the control protocol to change the config on the fly.– JobiwanCommented Dec 31, 2014 at 17:46 -
Just be careful yalls, there is another side to the story: tor.stackexchange.com/questions/129/… Commented Dec 18, 2017 at 5:35
To actually answer your question, since nobody did that until now:
- shutdown Tor
- delete
/tor/statefile - restart Tor
In case you use TorBrowser on Windows the path is ...\Tor Browser\Browser\TorBrowser\Data\Tor\state. You can just kill tor.exe via Task Manager, delete the file, switch back to Tor Browser and have TB automatically restart Tor via the popup that tells you tor is no longer running.
so I guess the entry node is limiting the traffic if you make too much traffic, right?
No.
The long guard rotation period is for security reasons. The more often you pick a new guard, the higher the chances that you will encounter a bad one (i.e. owned/controlled by the party you want to hide from).
See also: Changing of the Guards and One Fast Guard for Life for more on Guard rotation.
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Might be a noob question, but if you start off with a bad guard in the first place, wouldn't you be stuck on that guard node until Tor decides to give you a new guard? This could be months. Is there any way to tell if you got a bad guard node?– StardustCommented Oct 23, 2021 at 19:42
There is one other way you can change entry node when you start Tor browser without changing any of the setup. What you may do is to start the Tor browser roughly about a minute before you connect to internet. What happens is Tor browser try to connect but because there is no internet connection it can not connect. Tor browser then assume that guard is down and pick a new guard. Thus you have a new guard and completely new circuit now.
The simplest approach is to use Tails. The guard node is not stationary in Tails. In addition you get the bonus of higher security and anonymity by using dedicated OS on top of Tor.