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

[Matthew]

  Thanks Roger - I appreciate this explanation.  I will read the document 
you recommended.

On 30/08/10 08:59, Roger Dingledine wrote:
> 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
>
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