[tor-talk] Tor stops progressing while loading relay descriptors

["Rikki" <rikkitic@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am having real problems with Tor that I don't understand. I tried help@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx but they don't understand it either and suggested I try here. As a point of information, I am not a computer novice and can follow technical advice regarding settings and the like, but a lot of what I see on or-talk is definitely over my elderly head so do please be patient with me. 

In the past Tor has worked fairly well for me but more recently it has become steadily worse. At present it is virtually unusable. This seems to be the case regardless of the version. I download the updates as soon as they become available and I am now trying the most recent stable bundle, which I just downloaded.

The problem I have with all versions is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to build a circuit at all. Occasionally this still works, though usually only after a lengthy period of trying (at least a half-hour or more), but more and more often it just never gets there. It says it is loading relay descriptors, and I can see that data is being continuously transferred, but nothing further happens. I have let it run for up to six hours and it still never builds a circuit. 

With the new Firefox bundle there is very little status information and as far as I can tell I cannot create a log file as long as there is no Tor connection (this does not strike me as an improvement over Vidalia). For these reasons I am unable to provide much in the way of specifics. However, I have also tried using different Tor versions with the Vidalia interface and I know from those that a variable point is usually reached when loading the relay descriptors (50% or 55% or 73% or other arbitrary values up to around 80% or so). After this it never progresses any further, though it seems to want to continue trying forever. In maybe one instance out of 20 or so it will actually successfully build a circuit, which I am then able to verify at check.torproject.org, but nearly all the time now it never gets this far. In the past I didn't have this problem. Now I do. It is really frustrating me and I would be very grateful for any help or advice. I am appending an earlier log file I was
  able to make. It is an accurate representation of this ongoing issue. Note the times in particular. 

With Vidalia (when Tor was stilll working) I would also sometimes (not always) get a warning message about a skewed time server being off by anything from a couple of minutes to an hour or more. Yet the time and time zone on my computer were always correct when I checked them. Even when this warning occurred, however, it did not seem to affect Tor's operation and since I couldn't do anything about it I just ignored it. 



> [log]
>
> 12/03/2014 14:39:28 PM.994 [NOTICE] Opening Socks listener on
> 127.0.0.1:9150
> 12/03/2014 14:39:28 PM.994 [NOTICE] Renaming old configuration file to
> "C:\Documents and Settings\Microshit\Desktop\Tor
> Browser\Data\Tor\torrc.orig.1"
> 12/03/2014 14:39:29 PM.140 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 5%: Connecting to
> directory server.
> 12/03/2014 14:39:35 PM.202 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 10%: Finishing
> handshake with directory server.
> 12/03/2014 14:39:37 PM.236 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 15%: Establishing an
> encrypted directory connection.
> 12/03/2014 14:39:38 PM.568 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 20%: Asking for
> networkstatus consensus.
> 12/03/2014 14:39:39 PM.248 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 25%: Loading
> networkstatus consensus.
> 12/03/2014 14:42:19 PM.643 [WARN] Received directory with skewed time
> (server '208.83.223.34:80'): It seems that our clock is ahead by 16
> hours, 59 minutes, or that theirs is behind. Tor requires an
> accurate clock to work: please check your time, timezone, and date
> settings.
> 12/03/2014 14:42:19 PM.643 [NOTICE] I learned some more directory
> information, but not enough to build a circuit: We have no usable
> consensus.
> 12/03/2014 14:42:25 PM.188 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 40%: Loading
> authority key certs.
> 12/03/2014 14:42:32 PM.700 [WARN] Received directory with skewed time
> (server '194.109.206.212:443'): It seems that our clock is ahead by
> 16 hours, 58 minutes, or that theirs is behind. Tor requires an
> accurate clock to work: please check your time, timezone, and date
> settings.
> 12/03/2014 14:42:32 PM.700 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 45%: Asking for relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:42:32 PM.701 [NOTICE] I learned some more directory
> information, but not enough to build a circuit: We need more
> microdescriptors: we have 0/5120, and can only build 0% of likely
> paths. (We have 0% of guards bw, 0% of midpoint bw, and 0% of exit
> bw.)
> 12/03/2014 14:42:39 PM.204 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 50%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:43:33 PM.839 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 52%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:43:48 PM.107 [NOTICE] No circuits are opened. Relaxed
> timeout for circuit 7 (a General-purpose client 1-hop circuit in
> state doing handshakes with channel state open) to 60000ms.
> However, it appears the circuit has timed out anyway. 0 guards are
> live.
> 12/03/2014 14:43:56 PM.809 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 54%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:43:58 PM.551 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 56%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:44:02 PM.233 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 58%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:44:18 PM.478 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 60%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:46:34 PM.539 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 62%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
>
>
>
>
>
> 12/03/2014 14:57:50 PM.875 [NOTICE] Opening Socks listener on
> 127.0.0.1:9150
> 12/03/2014 14:57:58 PM.530 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 64%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:58:14 PM.350 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 66%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:58:25 PM.146 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 68%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:59:07 PM.704 [NOTICE] No circuits are opened. Relaxed
> timeout for circuit 8 (a General-purpose client 1-hop circuit in
> state doing handshakes with channel state open) to 60000ms.
> However, it appears the circuit has timed out anyway. 0 guards are
> live.
> 12/03/2014 14:59:27 PM.939 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 70%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 14:59:45 PM.595 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 72%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 15:00:03 PM.298 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 75%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 15:14:05 PM.468 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 76%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
> 12/03/2014 15:14:18 PM.380 [NOTICE] Bootstrapped 78%: Loading relay
> descriptors.
>
>


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