Re: Tor 0.2.0.9-alpha is out

["John Kimble" <det.j.kimble@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Oct 28, 2007 11:07 PM, Roger Dingledine <arma@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 28, 2007 at 10:39:08PM +0800, John Kimble wrote:
> While this does in fact sound like a Vidalia bug worth looking into
> (and I'll let Matt tackle it), here's an answer to your other question
> that you didn't realize you should ask. :)
>
> Go into the Vidalia -> Settings -> Network and click on the box next to
> "My ISP blocks connections to the Tor network", then save. Even if you
> don't add any bridges, Tor will do some smart things internally.
>
> You can get the same effect by setting
> TunnelDirConns 1
> in your torrc.
>

Thanks for the suggestion, Roger.

To follow up, it now appears that the issue lies in Tor's SETCONF and SAVECONF:
<http://trac.vidalia-project.net/ticket/297>

In my case, "__allDirActionsPrivate" is preferred over
"TunnelDirConns" for the following reason:

- Due to proxy restrictions, I need to set "ReachableORAddresses
*:443". This limits the number of directory servers I can reach
through the first hop. Consequently it takes much longer to collect
enough descriptors with "TunnelDirConns" than with
"__allDirActionsPrivate".

- With TunnelDirConns, Tor keeps a larger number of connections open
(10 or more usually), while "__allDirActionsPrivate" just reuses
existing circuits so you can easily control the number of open
connections by setting "NumEntryGuards". I'm not sure if this applies
generally, but the network admin at my place tends to go after people
who hold a large number of concurrent proxy connections open.

TunnelDirConns still works, of course. It's just not as "quiet" as
__allDirActionsPrivate. :-)

- John