What are these entries in my connections tab (using Vidalia GUI)?

[Roger Dingledine]

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 08:51:47AM +0100, Matthew wrote:
>  I have StrictExitNodes = 1 and this is the exit node "wollwoll".
>
> When I look at the Vidalia GUI the connections show:
>
> Lifuka, india533, 5aColuna01
> williamhaines, bp1, PPrivCom032
> birdbrain, torserversNet4, wollwoll
> Roo8Peik, tornodeviennasil, wollwoll
>
> All checks with www.ip2location.com or www.whatismyip.com show "wollwoll" 
> is the exit server.  When I connect to any website it appears in the  
> connections as being connected via the last entry.
>
> What, then, is the point of entries one and two where the exit node is 
> not the one demanded in StrictExitNodes?

These are internal circuits, built without any plans to exit to external
services, but instead ready to handle hidden service requests.

Tor starts out thinking maybe you'll interact with hidden services,
so it builds some circuits for them preemptively.

If an hour passes and you don't use them, it closes them and doesn't
build any new ones.

You may find the in-progress path-spec document useful:
https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/doc/spec/path-spec.txt
See sec 2.1.1 in particular.

--Roger

***********************************************************************
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to majordomo at torproject.org with
unsubscribe or-talk    in the body. http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/