Silk Road forums
Support => Technical support => Topic started by: hubbabubba on September 13, 2012, 05:32 pm
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Hi, is SR becoming too big for Tor? I seem to be getting a lot more timeouts recently compared to when I first joined a few months ago.
I heard that speeding up Tor can help prevent timeouts and I found this 'fix' but I don't want to compromise my anonymity so can someone tell me if it's safe before I edit the Tor config file please?
Thank you.
This is the fix:
1. Open Up TOR Control Panel
2. Click Settings
3. Click Advanced
4. See where it says "TOR Configuration File" copy that.
-= This is where your config file is stored, navigate to it by explorer or use the steps below =-
5. Go to Run
6. Type CMD and click ENTER
7. Type notepad And then right click > paste the file location then press enter
Now paste the below to the file, and then Save!.
Code:
# Try for at most NUM seconds when building circuits. If the circuit isn't
# open in that time, give up on it. (Default: 1 minute.)
CircuitBuildTimeout 5
# Send a padding cell every N seconds to keep firewalls from closing our
# connections while Tor is not in use.
KeepalivePeriod 60
# Force Tor to consider whether to build a new circuit every NUM seconds.
NewCircuitPeriod 15
# How many entry guards should we keep at a time?
NumEntryGuards 8
To apply changes stop TOR and then Start TOR Again
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If you want a safe way to end the timeouts that occur when trying to connect to SR, then check out the link in my signature xoxo sickgirl
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Hi, that just gets redirected to the SR Home Page, even when I click on RichieRich's product page and choose that item.
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"There is a way to solve this problem, it is possible to have silkroad working reliably again just like it used to be, our guild will teach you in easy steps how to configure Tor to use your chosen exit nodes, this way you know the exit node you use will always be in a country that allows access to silkroad."
And suddenly I don't think your information is good. Accessing silkroad involves exactly zero exit-nodes.
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Hi Blargh, are you reffering to the tutorial sickgirl linked to? I thought an exit node was the last Tor server our communication went through before it reached our desired url?
Did you find a fix yourself to reduce timeouts?
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The fix you posted is safe to use, so far as my knowledge extends. And yes, that was about sickgirl's listing. An exit-node's only use is when going to the clearweb sites. Accessing .onion's is done through relay-nodes, with full(automatic) encryption. There is no such thing as an exit-node that "allows access to Silk Road" because the exit-nodes aren't used for accessing Silk Road. And by extension, there is no such thing as an exit-node that blocks access to the Road.
Plus: The encryption means that, in all reality, there shouldn't be/isn't a way to block access to the Road, even with a relay-node. So... misinformation is bad. That's what I was commenting on.
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Wouldn't it be possible for a relay node to block Silk Roads DNS resolution? Address resolution of .onion websites involves a distributed hashtable. While its impossible to connect a user to a fake site, it could be possible for the relay node that is used to find an entry point for SR to simply deny URL resolution. I have to say i am not absolutely sure about this.
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Wouldn't it be possible for a relay node to block Silk Roads DNS resolution? Address resolution of .onion websites involves a distributed hashtable. While its impossible to connect a user to a fake site, it could be possible for the relay node that is used to find an entry point for SR to simply deny URL resolution. I have to say i am not absolutely sure about this.
I'll be honest: I don't know.
I assume, by the phrase "distributed hashtable", that it is impossible(*computationally unfeasible). But I haven't dug deep into the workings of tor, just the basics.
Logically speaking, a relay-node having the ability to block or impede access to a .onion site goes ENTIRELY against the goals of the Tor Project and thus should be protected against, though.
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The fix you posted is safe to use, so far as my knowledge extends. And yes, that was about sickgirl's listing. An exit-node's only use is when going to the clearweb sites. Accessing .onion's is done through relay-nodes, with full(automatic) encryption. There is no such thing as an exit-node that "allows access to Silk Road" because the exit-nodes aren't used for accessing Silk Road. And by extension, there is no such thing as an exit-node that blocks access to the Road.
Plus: The encryption means that, in all reality, there shouldn't be/isn't a way to block access to the Road, even with a relay-node. So... misinformation is bad. That's what I was commenting on.
I agree, misinformation IS bad, and that being said, exit nodes do come into play here, and exit nodes can and do implement blocking policies all the time. Also, in reply to your first comment, this was co written, as I was tapped to show how to use the strict nodes feature. I think that one thing is for certain though, people should not believe what I have to say about it, nor should they believe you either. They should ultimately do a little research into the program they are using before trusting any high numbered poster in the forums. That being said, one thing I can tell them for certain, is I have my torrc edited exactly like we show in the tutorial, and I have not had a single time out, and my connections are quicker, and more stable. As I have said in another post, this is more than node configuration, this tinkers with some other settings as well. However, some people do not want to spend one btc, nor do they want to the research themselves...they would rather accept with blind faith a random, faceless poster on a forum.
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They don't even know that they are carrying circuits to SR .... It's a completely nonsensical statement to make.
That is what I would call the nonsensical statement. I would suggest you read (in full) Steve Murdoch's paper that he presented at the IEEE conference regarding this very same subject, I think you would be surprised, provided you believe what you are saying. The things I have been reading on this forum is that people think that.onion is some mystical domain that is untraceable, unblockable and unreachable unless you have tor, (or tor2web)...this is not the case. But tell me again how completely nonsensical this is. Again, regardless of what you may believe, the bottom line is you either choose to spend a bitcoin, or you don't. Really, if one is willing to do the research, it is not necessary. To assume that the U.S. government is not capable of keeping it's own relays from reaching certain hidden services is utterly ridiculous, as this is tor, and not the phantom protocol, nor a .clos system. However, I do not see this getting resolved unless people here actually see the tut themselves and can see what is written, so, if RR (the vendor who distributes this) is ok with it, I am completely ok with the link to the download being posted here. I do not forsee either of us budging from our positions however, so at the very least, agree to disagree. xoxo sickgirl (A denizen of Tor since 2005)