Tor has 3 default EntryGuards. They are different from EntryNodes which are defined by users.
Tor picks EntryGuards by itself.
- UseEntryGuards 0|1
- If this option is set to 1, we pick a few long-term entry servers, and try to stick with them. This is desirable because constantly changing servers increases the odds that an adversary who owns some servers will observe a fraction of your paths. (Defaults to 1.)
look here: https://www.torproject.org/tor-manual-dev.html.en
- NumEntryGuards NUM
- If UseEntryGuards is set to 1, we will try to pick a total of NUM routers as long-term entries for our circuits. (Defaults to 3.)
I stopped Tor from the Vidalia GUI, and manually edited Vidalia's
"torrc" file, adding these two lines at the bottom:
StrictEntryNodes 1
EntryNodes BostonUCompSci,FSF,moria1,SelfEvident,superbad,fuga,augrime,askatasuna,VSvTZGO7UPj4yh8,conf555nick,desync,phobos
After re-starting Tor from the Vidalia GUI, I see circuits that have
entry nodes that are _not_ from the above list. In fact, nearly all
circuits have entry nodes that are not from the above list.
Update: If I add the following four lines to the bottom of Vidalia's "torrc" file, then Tor honors the StrictExitNodes + ExitNodes options, but it ignores the StrictEntryNodes + EntryNodes options:StrictExitNodes 1
StrictEntryNodes 1
EntryNodes BostonUCompSci,FSF,moria1,SelfEvident
ExitNodes BostonUCompSci,FSF,moria1,SelfEvident
Although, Tor seems to only use the first of the specified ExitNodes. Shouldn't it round-robin between them?
--
Fran