The guard node typically changes in every 2–3 months.

Also, when you try changing the circuit in your current session, it only changes the relays and not the guard node (in order to protect against known anonymity-breaking attacks). There are cases where attackers have control or observe certain relays and they can be used to see the victim’s browsing.

Few websites to check the currently available guard nodes and their details are dan.me.uk/, /, /. The list of guard nodes is available in the public list of TOR nodes and are updated almost every minute. Each client that wants to connect to the TOR network will first connect to the guard node meaning, they can see the real IP Address of the client who is attempting to connect. It is the entry point to the TOR Network. Some transmissions also involve Bridge nodes (Such occurrences are only observed when the known entry and exit nodes are blocked by a certain party like a government or a corporate organization)Ī basic TOR Circuit What is an Entry/Guard Relay? A TOR circuit is the combination of entry/guard relay, middle relay and the exit relay. TOR anonymity works by transmitting data though a TOR circuit which is a key component of TOR that appends to onion routing mechanism. Each node will only know the relay path in which it is involved, but not the whole path from the source to destination.

Encryption and decryption mechanism is used in an onion routing fashion to limit the knowledge of each node about the data that passes through it. A series of virtual tunnels are created between all nodes ( also known as relays) of the TOR network, and for each data transmission a random path of tunnels ( known as the relay path) is chosen. TOR Network, as defined by the official website is a group of volunteer operated servers that improve the privacy and security of one’s data. One such private network implementation is the TOR Network. However even in today’s world anonymity could be achieved with few private network implementations. Many journalists, activists and researchers work has been exploited due to such a vulnerable structure. Even governments are known to spy on people to meet their political needs. The digital world is full of vultures such as spammers, attackers, troll armies, digital marketing firms and many more whose only objective is to use/violate our private data for their gain. Isn’t that good when it comes to catching bad guys? Yes, But only till a certain extent.

What is tor nrtwork