Many Internet services offer access to their services only if you are visiting the websites or applications from certain countries. IPs, and sometimes more variables like the system time, are checked when a user wants to access a country restricted service. If the IP is located in an allowed country access is allowed, otherwise it is rejected.
Many workarounds exist that help users access those services even if they are currently residing in a different country. One possibility that I would like to explain today is to configure Tor that way that the exit node lies in the country that you want to access the service in. Tor offers lots of so called nodes which are servers in a specific country running the Tor software.
I’m using Vidalia, a package that contains all necessary programs, to explain how a specific country can be selected when using Tor. Download Vidalia and install the software afterwards. The main program interface should load after the installation.
The control panel is displaying the current status of Tor. Additional information are displayed which we are going to use to find servers located in the country that we need an IP address from. A click on View the network displays a visual representation of all Tor servers but only if Tor is running.
Servers can be sorted by country flag and do have a performance indicator next to them as well. Write down some server names with the best performance and leave the menu again. We need to add those servers as exit nodes to the Tor configuration. A click on Settings and there on the advanced tab displays a menu where you find the entry Tor Configuration Menu.
A click on browse opens the browse for files dialog. Left-click on the file “torrc” and choose edit from that menu. Now add the following two lines to the configuration, just paste it at the beginning for instance:
ExitNodes server1, server2, server3
StrictExitNodes 1
Replace server1, server 2 and so on with the server names that you have written down in the network display window. Stop and restart Tor afterwards and the changes should have been made.
Now we have to add a http proxy to our browser. Firefox users click on Tools > Options > Advanced Network and there on the button Settings. Select Manual Proxy Configuration and enter localhost and port 8118 there.
You can test if everything is working fine by visiting my IP lookup script which should display a IP from the country that you have selected the servers from.
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8 Responses to “Configure Tor to use a specific country as an exit node”
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[...] claro, ya se formó un grupo de protesta, hay gente recomendando que usemos TOR y engañemos al sistema diciendo que estamos en Estados Unidos… o que usemos Foxy Proxy… pero ése no es el [...]
Nice article but unfortunately I can’t get this to work. I keep getting a local IP address.
i am in ksa and i want to open some sites which are blocked. i am using tor but can not access such
thanks
I had to use this config file to get the browser to use the exitnodes I entered in the torcc file:
http://openpandora.googlepages.com/tor.pac
Just save it in any folder you want and enter the path (file:///c: …) in the last box of the connections settings page which was mentioned in this article.
The same problem. Tor won’t start after making the adjustments above. tor.pa goes to “www.pandora.com” so thats useless. Anyone have a proxy in an a rated place?
Thanks friend, great advice and worked great! I now listen to last.fm for free!!!
I understand that a lot of people use Tor to access streaming services. Please, understand that the Tor network is run by volunteers and is already slow. Using it for video streaming puts a heavy strain on the few existing exit nodes, thereby deteriorating speeds for users who, for example, would like to access Wikipedia or other site banned in their country.
Thank you.
Thanks!
I agree with the concern about leeching TOR bandwidth for inefficient services, like video streaming or downloads etc.
In the end it will only degrade TOR for everyone.