Problem bootstrapping. Stuck at 5%

Mon Mar 1 12:15:15 UTC 2010

 Hi.
I don't really need to edit torrc at all. I wanted to gather more information in the form of educating myself on "how to do" such a thing. I have never really had any problems with Tor and one of the developers told me "tweaking it" lends itself to problems. I just want to learn more. There is mention of editing torrc in the manual "The Onion Router" and how to block certain naughty exit nodes or choose which exit nodes one wishes to use. I read about this in the OR-TALK emails and have a very difficult time understanding it and naturally want to. Should I do this? Do I need to do this? 

Where I live, there appears to be no one I could meet and discuss Tor with, nor have someone teach or show me some of the technical aspects that are mentioned in "The Onion Router".

This stuff interests me but I really don't have the intelligence to "get it" like those more tech savvy or trained than I.
I talk about Tor with people I meet and get to know, and try to urge more individuals to learn about it and to use Tor. I mention to them that I would like to become a Tor server before I die (less than 3,000 days to go now), and so I decided to risk asking this question here. By trying to talk another into trying Tor out, I thought it would help me, at the very least, to show them what I do know or how to do, and learn a bit more in that way or even see if I understand it any better than when I first started using it.

I first read about it in a newspaper column by someone who writes a small tech column about new softwares, web sites, and a small amount of computer -problems advice. Right now I just thought, maybe I could email that person and see if they are now using Tor.

I only saw  a server on the Network Map (1 time), that showed a server in the country I now live in. I don't know if it was an entry, middle or exit node as I really don't know how to "read" the servers listed as, or while, Tor is running.
I just know they say "open", "closed". I would like to know how that list reads. Is it top down? And they usually list three at a time, so am I correct to assume (usually not), that those are the three hops? left-to-right-entry-middle-exit?

For instance, I regularly update the version of Vidalia/Tor for my Mac (10.5.2 ppc) and for Windows IM Browser Bundle and a little bit for Windows, but I usually use the IM Bundle on a USB when I am not at home. At home I usually use Mac. I still haven't been able to walk through the process of "verifying signatures" because at a certain point the page for that tells me "what I need to do next" but I need to know "how to do what I need to do next" which I don't know how to do.

Sorry for my lack of training and intelligence regarding this sort of thing. I think Tor is needed very much today and to be able to eventually become a server means learning more. And by telling more and more about it, I'm hoping that helps a little bit.

Regards. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Runa Sandvik <runa.sandvik at gmail.com>
To: or-talk at freehaven.net
Sent: Mon, Mar 1, 2010 2:05 pm
Subject: Re: Problem bootstrapping. Stuck at 5%

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 5:32 AM,  <zzzjethro666 at email2me.net> wrote:
> Hello.

Hi,

> I have wanted to understand more about these  Vidalia/Tor torrc files and
> just how and where one "edits them." In other words what do I write, where
> and in what manner?

What do you want to accomplish? Why do you need to edit torrc?

-- 
Runa Sandvik
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