Configuring Vidalia and Tor

Vidalia allows you to configure some of the most commonly modified aspects of Vidalia and Tor. It also lets you set up and manage a Tor relay so you can help the Tor network grow.

General Settings

Settings on the General page are the most commonly modified settings.

Tor Executable: This is the Tor executable that Vidalia will run when you select Start from the tray menu. If you have multiple versions of Tor installed, you can tell Vidalia which version you would like to run by clicking the Browse button and navigating to the particular Tor installation you want.
Startup Options: This setting allows you to have Vidalia automatically start Tor when Vidalia starts. You can also configure Vidalia to run when your system starts (Windows only).

Network Settings

The Network settings page lets you change how Tor connects to the Tor network.

I use a proxy to access the Internet: If your Internet connection requires an HTTP proxy, you can configure Tor to send all of its directory requests and Tor relay connections through your proxy. You must specify at least the hostname or address of your proxy, and the port on which your proxy is listening for connections. If your proxy requires authentication, you can also enter the Username and Password you use to connect to your proxy. Otherwise, you can leave those fields blank.
My firewall only lets me connect to certain ports: If you are behind a restrictive firewall or proxy that limits the ports you are able to connect to, you can configure Tor to connect directly only to relays listening on the ports allowed by your firewall or proxy. Simply enter a list of ports permitted by your firewall or proxy, separated by commas. (Example: 80,443,8080)
My ISP blocks connections to the Tor network: If your ISP (Internet Service Provider) blocks connections to the Tor network, Tor can attempt to avoid being filtered by encrypting its directory connections and connecting to the Tor network through relays called bridges (Tor 0.2.0.3-alpha or newer only). You can add bridge relays by specifying either their address and port number, or their address, port number, and fingerprint.
Below are examples of valid bridge address formats:
- 128.213.48.13:8080
- 128.213.48.13:8080 1054 13B1 DBDA F867 B226 74D2 52DF 3D9F A367 1F73
- 128.213.48.13:8080 105413B1DBDAF867B22674D252DF3D9FA3671F73
Even if you do not know any bridge relay addresses, checking this checkbox may still be helpful. Tor will encrypt its directory requests, which can defeat blocking mechanisms that try to filter Tor's requests for information about other relays. If connections to normal Tor relays are also blocked, then you will need to learn a bridge relay address somehow and add it here.

Relay Settings

See this help topic for detailed information about setting up and managing a Tor relay.

Appearance Settings

The settings on the Appearance page allow you to customize the look and feel of Vidalia.

Language: Vidalia's interface has been translated into many languages by helpful volunteers. When Vidalia is first run, it will try to guess which language your computer is currently using. If Vidalia guesses incorrectly, or if you prefer a different language, you can choose another language from the dropdown box. You will need to restart Vidalia after changing the displayed language for the changes to take effect.
Style: In most cases, Vidalia will default to using your platform's default interface style. If you dislike the default, you can choose whichever interface style you prefer from the dropdown box.

Advanced Settings

The settings on the Advanced page should generally only be modified by more experienced users.

Control Address & Port: The Control Port is the port which Vidalia uses to talk to Tor. This doesn't need to be changed unless you have a conflict with another service on your machine, or if you are using Vidalia to control and monitor a Tor process running on another machine.
Control Port Authentication: Control port authentication is used to limit the applications on your machine that can connect to and reconfigure your Tor installation. The available authentication methods are:
- None -- No authentication is required. Use of this option is strongly discouraged. Any application or user on your computer can reconfigure your Tor installation.
- Password (Default) -- If this method is selected, you can specify a password that Tor will require each time a user or application connects to Tor's control port. If Vidalia starts Tor for you, you can have Vidalia randomly generate a new password each time it starts Tor by checking the Randomly Generate checkbox.
- Cookie -- If cookie authentication is selected, Tor will write a file (or, cookie) containing random bytes to its data directory when it starts. Any user or application that tries to connect to Tor's control port must be able to provide the contents of this cookie.
Tor Configuration File (optional): You can use this option to have Vidalia start Tor using a specific torrc, Tor's configuration file. If you leave this field blank, Tor will uses its own default torrc location.
Tor Data Directory (optional): You can specify the directory in which Tor will store its saved data, such as cached Tor relay information, Tor relay keys, and configuration files. If you leave this field blank, Tor will use its own default data directory location.
Permissions (optional, not available on Windows): If you enter a value for Run as User, Tor will setuid to this user when it starts. If you enter a value for Run as Group, Tor will setgid to this group when it starts.