[SOLVED] Help with exit nodes in Tor Browser

[lascetic]

Hi, I am trying to configure Tor Browser to connect only from UK. So I add to torrc (located at /etc/tor) the following lines:
EntryNodes {uk},{gb} StrictNodes 1
ExitNodes {uk},{gb} StrictNodes 1

and save it. Restarted the browser and the computer, but when I run tor it still selects random country circuits and no UK.

I read somewhere I should enable the following lines:
SocksPort 9050
ControlPort 9051
CookieAuthentication 1

which I tried by uncommenting those lines in torrc, but it still doesn't work.

Any suggestions?

[Snowhog]

Maybe use UPPERCASE? {UK},{GB}

[lascetic]

Maybe use UPPERCASE? {UK},{GB}

Thanks but it didn't work.

[Snowhog]

All the examples I'm seeing via Google searches show StrictNodes being on separate lines, so maybe:

EntryNodes {uk},{gb}
StrictNodes 1
ExitNodes {uk},{gb}
StrictNodes 1

[lascetic]

All the examples I'm seeing via Google searches show StrictNodes being on separate lines, so maybe:

EntryNodes {uk},{gb}
StrictNodes 1
ExitNodes {uk},{gb}
StrictNodes 1

Also not working, tried with capitals as well.

This is how torrc looks like:

## Configuration file for a typical Tor user
## Last updated 9 October 2013 for Tor 0.2.5.2-alpha.
## (may or may not work for much older or much newer versions of Tor.)
##
## Lines that begin with "## " try to explain what's going on. Lines
## that begin with just "#" are disabled commands: you can enable them
## by removing the "#" symbol.
##
## See 'man tor', or https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-manual.html,
## for more options you can use in this file.
##
## Tor will look for this file in various places based on your platform:
## https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#torrc

## Tor opens a socks proxy on port 9050 by default -- even if you don't
## configure one below. Set "SocksPort 0" if you plan to run Tor only
## as a relay, and not make any local application connections yourself.
SocksPort 9050 # Default: Bind to localhost:9050 for local connections.
#SocksPort 192.168.0.1:9100 # Bind to this addressort too.

## Entry policies to allow/deny SOCKS requests based on IP address.
## First entry that matches wins. If no SocksPolicy is set, we accept
## all (and only) requests that reach a SocksPort. Untrusted users who
## can access your SocksPort may be able to learn about the connections
## you make.
#SocksPolicy accept 192.168.0.0/16
#SocksPolicy reject *

## Logs go to stdout at level "notice" unless redirected by something
## else, like one of the below lines. You can have as many Log lines as
## you want.
##
## We advise using "notice" in most cases, since anything more verbose
## may provide sensitive information to an attacker who obtains the logs.
##
## Send all messages of level 'notice' or higher to /var/log/tor/notices.log
#Log notice file /var/log/tor/notices.log
## Send every possible message to /var/log/tor/debug.log
#Log debug file /var/log/tor/debug.log
## Use the system log instead of Tor's logfiles
#Log notice syslog
## To send all messages to stderr:
#Log debug stderr

## Uncomment this to start the process in the background... or use
## --runasdaemon 1 on the command line. This is ignored on Windows;
## see the FAQ entry if you want Tor to run as an NT service.
#RunAsDaemon 1

## The directory for keeping all the keys/etc. By default, we store
## things in $HOME/.tor on Unix, and in Application Data\tor on Windows.
#DataDirectory /var/lib/tor

## The port on which Tor will listen for local connections from Tor
## controller applications, as documented in control-spec.txt.
ControlPort 9051
## If you enable the controlport, be sure to enable one of these
## authentication methods, to prevent attackers from accessing it.
#HashedControlPassword 16:872860B76453A77D60CA2BB8C1A7042072093276A3D701A D684053EC4C
CookieAuthentication 1

############### This section is just for location-hidden services ###

## Once you have configured a hidden service, you can look at the
## contents of the file ".../hidden_service/hostname" for the address
## to tell people.
##
## HiddenServicePort x y:z says to redirect requests on port x to the
## address y:z.

#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80

#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/other_hidden_service/
#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80
#HiddenServicePort 22 127.0.0.1:22

################ This section is just for relays #####################
#
## See https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-relay for details.

## Required: what port to advertise for incoming Tor connections.
#ORPort 9001
## If you want to listen on a port other than the one advertised in
## ORPort (e.g. to advertise 443 but bind to 9090), you can do it as
## follows. You'll need to do ipchains or other port forwarding
## yourself to make this work.
#ORPort 443 NoListen
#ORPort 127.0.0.1:9090 NoAdvertise

## The IP address or full DNS name for incoming connections to your
## relay. Leave commented out and Tor will guess.
#Address noname.example.com

## If you have multiple network interfaces, you can specify one for
## outgoing traffic to use.
# OutboundBindAddress 10.0.0.5

## A handle for your relay, so people don't have to refer to it by key.
#Nickname ididnteditheconfig

## Define these to limit how much relayed traffic you will allow. Your
## own traffic is still unthrottled. Note that RelayBandwidthRate must
## be at least 20 KB.
## Note that units for these config options are bytes per second, not bits
## per second, and that prefixes are binary prefixes, i.e. 2^10, 2^20, etc.
#RelayBandwidthRate 100 KB # Throttle traffic to 100KB/s (800Kbps)
#RelayBandwidthBurst 200 KB # But allow bursts up to 200KB/s (1600Kbps)

## Use these to restrict the maximum traffic per day, week, or month.
## Note that this threshold applies separately to sent and received bytes,
## not to their sum: setting "4 GB" may allow up to 8 GB total before
## hibernating.
##
## Set a maximum of 4 gigabytes each way per period.
#AccountingMax 4 GB
## Each period starts daily at midnight (AccountingMax is per day)
#AccountingStart day 00:00
## Each period starts on the 3rd of the month at 15:00 (AccountingMax
## is per month)
#AccountingStart month 3 15:00

## Administrative contact information for this relay or bridge. This line
## can be used to contact you if your relay or bridge is misconfigured or
## something else goes wrong. Note that we archive and publish all
## descriptors containing these lines and that Google indexes them, so
## spammers might also collect them. You may want to obscure the fact that
## it's an email address and/or generate a new address for this purpose.
#ContactInfo Random Person <nobody AT example dot com>
## You might also include your PGP or GPG fingerprint if you have one:
#ContactInfo 0xFFFFFFFF Random Person <nobody AT example dot com>

## Uncomment this to mirror directory information for others. Please do
## if you have enough bandwidth.
#DirPort 9030 # what port to advertise for directory connections
## If you want to listen on a port other than the one advertised in
## DirPort (e.g. to advertise 80 but bind to 9091), you can do it as
## follows. below too. You'll need to do ipchains or other port
## forwarding yourself to make this work.
#DirPort 80 NoListen
#DirPort 127.0.0.1:9091 NoAdvertise
## Uncomment to return an arbitrary blob of html on your DirPort. Now you
## can explain what Tor is if anybody wonders why your IP address is
## contacting them. See contrib/tor-exit-notice.html in Tor's source
## distribution for a sample.
#DirPortFrontPage /etc/tor/tor-exit-notice.html

## Uncomment this if you run more than one Tor relay, and add the identity
## key fingerprint of each Tor relay you control, even if they're on
## different networks. You declare it here so Tor clients can avoid
## using more than one of your relays in a single circuit. See
## https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#MultipleRelays
## However, you should never include a bridge's fingerprint here, as it would
## break its concealability and potentionally reveal its IP/TCP address.
#MyFamily $keyid,$keyid,...

## A comma-separated list of exit policies. They're considered first
## to last, and the first match wins. If you want to _replace_
## the default exit policy, end this with either a reject *:* or an
## accept *:*. Otherwise, you're _augmenting_ (prepending to) the
## default exit policy. Leave commented to just use the default, which is
## described in the man page or at
## https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html
##
## Look at https://www.torproject.org/faq-abuse.html#TypicalAbuses
## for issues you might encounter if you use the default exit policy.
##
## If certain IPs and ports are blocked externally, e.g. by your firewall,
## you should update your exit policy to reflect this -- otherwise Tor
## users will be told that those destinations are down.
##
## For security, by default Tor rejects connections to private (local)
## networks, including to your public IP address. See the man page entry
## for ExitPolicyRejectPrivate if you want to allow "exit enclaving".
##
#ExitPolicy accept *:6660-6667,reject *:* # allow irc ports but no more
#ExitPolicy accept *:119 # accept nntp as well as default exit policy
#ExitPolicy reject *:* # no exits allowed

## Bridge relays (or "bridges") are Tor relays that aren't listed in the
## main directory. Since there is no complete public list of them, even an
## ISP that filters connections to all the known Tor relays probably
## won't be able to block all the bridges. Also, websites won't treat you
## differently because they won't know you're running Tor. If you can
## be a real relay, please do; but if not, be a bridge!
#BridgeRelay 1
## By default, Tor will advertise your bridge to users through various
## mechanisms like https://bridges.torproject.org/. If you want to run
## a private bridge, for example because you'll give out your bridge
## address manually to your friends, uncomment this line:
#PublishServerDescriptor 0


EntryNodes {uk},{gb}
StrictNodes 1
ExitNodes {uk},{gb}
StrictNodes 1

[GreyGeek]

Did you open those ports in your firewall (or the firewall your ISP uses)?

[Snowhog]

It is also possible there just aren't any currently available Tor exit nodes in UK or GB.

[lascetic]

It is also possible there just aren't any currently available Tor exit nodes in UK or GB.

It works on windows 10.

[Snowhog]

Okay. What Tor browser are you using? Where did you get it from? What version?

[lascetic]

Did you open those ports in your firewall (or the firewall your ISP uses)?

You mean ports 9050 & 9051? I tried opening them on ufw firewall but again it never gives entry or exit nodes to UK. Do they need to be open on the router, too?

[lascetic]

Okay. What Tor browser are you using? Where did you get it from? What version?

Tor 11.0.4. I can't remember if I downloaded it from Discover or from torproject.org, but it was either one of them.


EDIT: OK, your question lead me to uninstall the version I had and redownload from torprojext website. Edited the new torrc file and now it works. I have probably installed the version that I found on Discover and it was not working properly. Now everything runs smoothly.

Thanks a lot for pointing out that the version may be the culprit.

[GreyGeek]

You mean ports 9050 & 9051? I tried opening them on ufw firewall but again it never gives entry or exit nodes to UK. Do they need to be open on the router, too?

I see changing the version resolved your problem, but as far as opening ports are concerned, IF your router has a firewall then it has to have port forwarding on those ports set as well. Routers that have DD-WRT as its firmware usually have DD-WRT's firewall active by default and setting port forwarding is easy to do. It's a good firewall and if your router has it then you don't need ufw running. Routers made by Cisco, and I write from experience having purchased Linksys in 2002 before their sale to Cisco, have their own firmware firewall AND sometimes a built-in back door, so if your router doesn't have the open source DD-WRT then I'd use ufw to protect your system against the router as well as the WWW. Some routers that have a company included firewall on the router limit what you can change on that firewall. That's why, after my Cisco experience, I only use routers with DD-WRT or openWRT as the router firmware. And, keep in mind that Linksys routers are, as of 2013, now owned by Belkin, so I can't speak for or against them because I don't know Belkin's business ethic.

[lascetic]

I see changing the version resolved your problem, but as far as opening ports are concerned, IF your router has a firewall then it has to have port forwarding on those ports set as well. Routers that have DD-WRT as its firmware usually have DD-WRT's firewall active by default and setting port forwarding is easy to do. It's a good firewall and if your router has it then you don't need ufw running. Routers made by Cisco, and I write from experience having purchased Linksys in 2002 before their sale to Cisco, have their own firmware firewall AND sometimes a built-in back door, so if your router doesn't have the open source DD-WRT then I'd use ufw to protect your system against the router as well as the WWW. Some routers that have a company included firewall on the router limit what you can change on that firewall. That's why, after my Cisco experience, I only use routers with DD-WRT or openWRT as the router firmware. And, keep in mind that Linksys routers are, as of 2013, now owned by Belkin, so I can't speak for or against them because I don't know Belkin's business ethic.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this useful info.