Tor Firefox: set a special country?

[Dirki]

How can one in the Tor Firefox set a special country, e.g. the USA, a proxy shall be used in?

[BuddhaNature]

I'm not sure I understand your question fully. But for what I think you are asking:

You need to set a specific country exit node - if that is what you are after. I used to do this years ago but suddenly it stopped working when ISPs in the UK, I would think under enforcement from UK Security Services, stopped allowing people to enter the TOR network (though there is a workaround for that). From memory it is also possible to set specific country entry nodes.

https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... +exit+node
For a list of TOR country codes just do a google for them.

[Dirki]

Sorry for the bad expression. I just want Tor to use IPs from special countries.

Thank you for the link. Yes, something like that, e.g. in the torrc file add a line with that node thing and e.g. "us" I had done, but it does not seem to work properly, although I have the correct entry for a special country I cannot get access to the desired website in that country. May be it is the same what you experienced with such security service there.

[BuddhaNature]

May be it is the same what you experienced with such security service there.

No, I just spent some time tinkering with a completely fresh install of TOR Browser and now it connects without difficulty at all. Been testing it out for the last hour or so and it is all going fine. Which means I must have done something that borked the settings I was using a few years back. All working now, so not the security services, seems I just assumed that in paranoid mode and have lived believing that for the past couple of years (even though I had a 'fix' to work around my assumption). Sorry for the misinformation.

In any case I don't know what you're doing wrong, it's no place of expertise for me, I just had forced exit nodes working for me years ago.

P.S. Out of curiosity I just spent the last half hour trying to get strict nodes to work and, like you, couldn't get it working. I went to the TOR website and on this page: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/tbb-16/ you can see that TOR are now advising people not to attempt to enforce exit nodes for themselves. All this said, I very, very rarely use TOR nowadays - I switched to a VPN for most of that sort of thing, VPNTunnel I have found to be very good, loads of locations to connect to, and is reasonably affordable. I found that with them if I sign up for a while, then let the account expire, and just wait, they will send me notices to renew. I just ignore those initial messages and leave it for a while, months, then they sent an offer I can't refuse. Last time I got 24 months for little more than the advertised price of 12 months - so I signed for that.

[Dirki]

No no, no reason to say sorry, good to know it works.

This is what I have added to that torrc file:
ExitNodes {us} StrictNodes 1

Thank you for the link. Well, yes, didn't know that (of course, I do not have any idea of using VPNs and such, browsers like Tor).

Yes, I also use Tor very rarely.

May be I did it correctly - it is not that difficult, just a singel line to add - but there is some other issue I do not know. When I try some different country codes it seems as if I then were in the right country, Google shows its page in the appropriate language then.

Yes, VPNTunnel, I have heard of, supposed to be a good VPN if I remember it right. Tor seems to be very slow, at least here. Ah, so you use VPNTunnel instead of the slow Tor. May be I should try that as well, sounds good your method, much more cheaper.

[BuddhaNature]

. . . sounds good your method, much more cheaper.

The downside is you have to sign up at least once so you are on their database. Then you have let your first sign up expire, then wait, and hope they are going to make an offer you can't refuse.

Should mention that when I used strict nodes years ago and it did work I had the following, for example:

ExitNodes {us}

StrictNodes 1

But that StrictNodes line had to be the last line in the torrc file. As mentioned I tried that just a little while ago and it didn't work. Ah, well.

[Dirki]

The downside is you have to sign up at least once so you are on their database. Then you have let your first sign up expire, then wait, and hope they are going to make an offer you can't refuse.

So, yes, a little insecure.

OK, I will try your ExitNodes variation as well, thank you.

But that StrictNodes line had to be the last line in the torrc file.

I didn't know, there are some comments (with a # before) under that nodes line, I assume that does not matter.

[BuddhaNature]

I toyed around with this a bit and got it to work though with a couple of caveats. Putting the following in the torrc file (use the TOR country code(s) that suits your own preference):

Code: Select all

#EntryNodes {us}
#StrictEntryNodes 1
ExitNodes {ru},{de}
StrictExitNodes 1

If I only use the two ExitNodes lines then it works reliably - at least it did for me with a half-hour of testing and only using a country code(s) for technologically advanced countries, which are likely to have folks in them running exit nodes. If I tried, for example, {ir} (Iran) it wouldn't work -- which didn't surprise me, though I don't think Iran would be technologically backward, so kind of pick your exit node county code carefully.

I had mixed success with trying to define EntryNodes -- sometimes it worked, most often not, failed to connect. Like I said, I rarely use TOR but I notice now, having tried to figure this out, that TOR regards the entry node as special entity now, calling it a "Guard", which is something of a change from the time years ago when I used to use TOR a bit more often. For good information on Guards see this and follow the links it offers: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/tbb-2/ Basically it seems the TOR relay likes to specify the entry node itself. In any case, if you don't want to try and specify the entry node country code then just comment out the two lines with the '#' character -- which I've done here.

If for the sake of experiments, or sheer wonderment, you want to see a list of active TOR nodes then have a look here: https://torstatus.blutmagie.de/ Most of it is gobbledegook to me but it is interesting.

In any case give the above a try and out of curiosity I'd be interested to know if it works for you.

With respect to VPNs being "a little insecure" well I don't think they are insecure -- unless your connection to the server cuts out while you're using it and the application you're using to access the VPN server doesn't kill all internet traffic at the time the cut happens -- just a little bit less anonymous. Signing up and paying would be traceable for the authorities. But traffic between you and the VPN server would always be encrypted and your actual (real) IP address wouldn't be known to the website you were trying to connect to, your IP address, as far as the website would be concerned, would be the IP address of the VPN server. That said it might be possible that your browser could 'leak' your real IP address to the website you were connecting to -- so you need to do some research on that and find a way to block that from happening -- it's not an area of expertise for me. In any case, I find VPN is useful if for no other reason than it does much better privacy for me as far as my ISP is concerned -- that's reason enough for me to want to use a VPN. VPN is also faster than TOR.

[Dirki]

Many thanks for the links.

In any case give the above a try and out of curiosity I'd be interested to know if it works for you.

I toyed around as well now and it seems - using those two exit lines like you do with different codes, in two lines - actually Tor can open the pages (I assume) - which didn't open before (and still do) - but it is to slow. I tried some random pages (don't know, some car sellers or so, some common pages, websites, just some entries in Google (in the specivied country with the country codes), about 5 pages of 11 tested opend the others showed a time out. So it seems to not to work just because Tor is extremely slow (with different country codes), too slow to open many of the pages, that's ridiculous.

With respect to VPNs being "a little insecure" well I don't think they are insecure

Ah sorry, I didn't meant the VPNs itselfes are (but actually I do not have any idea and it depends - I guess - on the correct using of them), but the method you described to safe money / the offers with the reduced prices.
I assume websites, services, whatever can (or not?) recognize if a user uses VPNs and restrict, prevent the access, e.g. to register, log in or do anything else one could do without using a VPN.

Signing up and paying would be traceable for the authorities.

Ah really?! Because of the data transferred? But it should be encrypted, I guess.

But traffic between you and the VPN server would always be encrypted and your actual (real) IP address wouldn't be known to the website you were trying to connect to, your IP address, as far as the website would be concerned, would be the IP address of the VPN server.

And the finger print respectively browser print or however it is called? And other data transferred from one's system? Don't know if they are transferred actually when using a VPN.

VPN is also faster than TOR.

Yes, without a doubt. And - if I see it right - the speed of Tor also depends on the country codes, may be I am wrong with that.

[BuddhaNature]

Yes, TOR is slow compared to VPN. Pages might not open because site admins don't allow connections from IP address known to be TOR nodes -- this is noticeable as you sometimes get a webpage saying the IP address is 'blocked'. VPNs can sometimes suffer the same problem, IP address of the VPN server is blocked -- so you just switch to another VPN server and get yourself unblocked.

When I say signing up would be traceable I mean via your bank (statements) or Paypal (whatever) account if that were linked to your bank account. If the authorities were interested in you they could probably easily access that information. But you would have to 'be of interest' to the authorities before they started digging for information on you. I believe that some VPN providers don't do sign ups as such but you still have to pay for the service so if you were wanting to do that anonymously you'd be looking at paying in crypto-currency.

Besides signing up, if using a VPN then your ISP will know that you are using a VPN and the specific VPN server you were using at any given time -- your ISP still has to route your traffic to/from the VPN server even though that traffic is encrypted. Authorities, if they were so interested, would also know this without difficulty, they could just ask your ISP or use their own methods.

Speed of TOR depends on the speed of the nodes your connection is passing through, the slowest node is the best speed you could possibly expect. Some TOR nodes are fast, some slow, it's all like entering the lottery for every site you connect to. I would think that fast/slow wouldn't be all that affected by country codes though it could be. In a country with slow internet cabling infrastructure then yes, that would have an affect if one of your nodes landed in that country. But TOR is slow for anything anyway beyond just surfing websites anyway.

Also TOR does not, and can't, guarantee anonymity. As far as I know there is nothing out there that can do that. However, it would help with anonymity. It's more anonymous than using your ISP directly. Anyone can set up a TOR node, and anyone can elect to allow that node to be used as an exit node. The exit node is particularly vulnerable to hacking by the individual that runs the node. It was reported years ago that some governments were running TOR nodes and electing to allow their nodes to be used as exit nodes specifically so they could analyse the traffic passing through. It was reported as being of limited use to them as there was no way they could guarantee that their node would actually be used as an exit node -- though it probably would as lots of people that do run TOR nodes are shy of allowing their node to be used as an exit node -- and of course, even if were being used as such there is no guarantee that the traffic they were really interested in would pass through their exit node anyway. Point is, don't think that TOR doesn't have problems, it does, and they are ones that can't be got around (at least so far).
https://medium.com/@omaidfaizyar/how-to ... 01fca7548b Pay particular attention to the last sentence in that document.

VPN is the way to go, Dirki. They're fast, affordable, relatively private, generally don't keep logs (though read the small print on that one) and so long as you're not up to anything truly nefarious no one will bat an eyelid that you're using one. Put it this way there will be few governments and corporations that don't use a VPN in some shape or form -- there is a reason for that.

[Dirki]

Authorities, if they were so interested, would also know this without difficulty, they could just ask your ISP or use their own methods.

So for authorities it rather doesn't matter if one uses a VPN or not, they will get the information they want to get.

If the authorities were interested in you they could probably easily access that information.

Yes, and everybody else could do so, I guess (if he had the skills...or not as your link shows: https://medium.com/@omaidfaizyar/how-to ... 01fca7548b). So one could say, one can use the Internet (without losing the [complete] "privacy") because other people let one do it, so better never get to 'be of interest'.

https://medium.com/@omaidfaizyar/how-to ... 01fca7548b Pay particular attention to the last sentence in that document.

Yes, unbelievable, so one could ask why at all use Tor. But it gives a little bit more "privacy" or such, I assume. And so do VPNs but a little bit better, if I understand it right.

Put it this way there will be few governments and corporations that don't use a VPN in some shape or form -- there is a reason for that.

Yes, so the same question again, why use Tor (respectively actually one should not use Tor but a VPN - like you say) or a VPN? Because of a little bit more privacy. Is it worth that? Depends on everybody's attitude one could say, I guess. Very complicated subject. Very much efford. But the best one could do is just to use a VPN, yes, you are right, a VPN would be the best for me.

Many thanks!

[BuddhaNature]

Why use TOR or a VPN at all? Because both are more private than running an unencrypted data stream through your ISP. With both of these your ISP can only be logging who you are directly connecting to (a TOR node or a VPN server), but they can't be logging the webpage you are actually trying to visit; they are blind to that because of the data stream encryption. At least that is how I think it works.

As to Firefox leaking your real IP address to websites you visit I did a little bit more research on this today. Seems that to get it to stop doing that the WebRTC (whatever that is) component of Firefox needs to be disabled (though doing so may cause some websites to break). Useful links I found for this are:

Is WebRTC still leaking my IP addresses in incognito or private browsing mode?

WebRTC Leak Test

And it seems there is an addon that allows user to turn on/off WebRTC: Disable WebRTC

I just did a quick install and test of the addon and it seems to work. When the extension's icon is a green colour it means your IP address isn't being leaked. When it is a red colour you are back to normal and your address is being leaked -- at least that is the information being indicated at the "WebRTC Leak Test" site.

Thanks very much for forcing me to do a little bit more research on this, Dirki. Interesting stuff, even if technically over my head at times. I need to do a bit more homework, ah well.

[Dirki]

So what is happening after the proxies is or should not be visible for the ISP. The ISP can only see what happens before them. Yes, that actually sounds good, of course.

Thank you very much for the links, yes, very interesting information you always find, many thanks.

This add on sounds very good, thank you, I will install it as well. On both the normal Firefox and the Tor Firefox. I assume with the normal Firefox it will be red all the time. But may be not in the privacy mode / window.

Well well, I should say thank you for forcing me to read a little bit more of information about that stuff, BuddhaNature! Yes, very interesting and even much more complicated, I guess. Well, not at times, it is over my head almost all the time, too many possibilites.

[BuddhaNature]

No, Dirki. If it was me I wouldn't install Disable WebRTC to TOR Browser. Just launch TOR Browser and then point it towards the WebRTC Leak Test site. You will see that TOR is preconfigured to not expose your IP nor your devices -- meaning that, it seems, TOR is more secure than standard Firefox even if you have the Disable WebRTC addon installed. How TOR is doing that, I don't know. However, if I look at what addons are installed in TOR by default I can see that one of them is "NoScript" and I think that WebRTC relies on Java Script to be able to leak your IP.

General rule for TOR. Never install addons to it -- leave it as it is, it is already optimised for privacy and the folks at TOR will really know what they are doing and what they are trying to achieve. If you add addons then the addon you added might in itself compromise your privacy.

[Dirki]

Alright, not install that add on to Tor, just using the WebRTC site. "NoScript" I have installed in the normal Firefox as well.

Ah yes, well, I should have hit on it by myself, no add ons for Tor Firefox (may be it even is not possible to install add ons to that one). Yes, very understandable. Yes, of course, if not the Tor folks, who else.