HowTo Freshen Tor/SecureSessions

I use Tor a lot. When I get 404's or 503's there are a number of things I check.

Does the browser/network connection work without Tor?
Is the site I'm trying to get to available without Tor?
Is Privoxy Running?
Are the tcp ports 9050 & 9051 bound on 127.0.0.1? (netstat -an or tcpview)


To start fresh and pull everything down again:

1. Delete the Nodes file.

\IronKey-System-Files\SecureSessions\SecureSessionsFiles\Nodes

This file contains a list of Authoritative Directory servers. This is where your Onion Proxy, otherwise known as the Tor Client, gets its info on all the other Onion Routers out there (essentially, the cached-routers file). This is usually the essential first and only step to get a fresh start with IronKey Tor in most cases. However, you may still experience issues, so take the following extra steps.

2. Delete all Network Descriptors.

\IronKey-System-Files\SecureSessions\SecureSessionsFiles\cached-status\*

Network descriptors are more detailed descriptions of the Onion Routers. Its basically the same info that's in the cached-routers file. Its very possible that if the Engineers at IronKey have made changes to their Tor network, some of the network descriptors may have become outdated and invalid. Collection of network descriptors is not subtractive...therefore, wiping these out and starting fresh is an excellent idea. Be sure to check the forum.ironkey.com website for Maintenance Notices and other network related info.

3. Delete the cached-routers file.

\IronKey-System-Files\SecureSessions\SecureSessionsFiles\cached-routers

Yes, I know...this file gets regenerated when the Nodes file is missing, but I have seen it not get updated...or worse, it gets created as a zero-byte file. Just delete it or move it, and shut up.

Finally, if you are still having problems, pull up the Network Map. To do this, right-click on the IronKey Icon in the Windows systray | Secure Sessions | Network Map. Watch the lower-middle content area. This view shows Vidalia's view of your current Identity. In case you aren't aware, your Identity is the collection of 3 Tor nodes that make up your "Virtual Circuit". Your identity changes every few minutes. The last node in the circuit is your actual identity, meaning....when you go to a web site, its the IP address of this server (the Exit node) that gets logged in the web server logs.

Have a secure day!