Hello,
Sorry if that has been asked, I am about to buy a Server One, however I am concerned about privacy and my ISP watching that I am running Bitcoin Core. I believe it is possible to sync Bitcoin Core via Tor. How easy is this? Also how do I ensure that whilst running my Start9 my ISP cannot see that I am running a Start9 server. This might be impossible. I support the most important thing is to sync the blockchain not on clearnet.
Thanks!
Napa
One thing to do is to set a VPN that runs constantly on your router. So the VPN is not installed on your clients but on the router itself. You can also go into configure on Bitcoin Core (before starting it) and select Disable Clearnet (Config > Advanced > Peers > Disable Clearnet) Disabling clearnet will make things slower but will ensure that you are only using TOR for BTC. Just using a good VPN and router might be all you need, but you can disable clearnet to be extra cautious if you choose
Thanks for the quick response! So by disabling clearnet does it automatically run over TOR or you have to do additional steps? I am just trying to get a feeling for how I set it up. Also I have a VPN which I purchase for my laptop however how do I transfer that over to my router? Sorry for the NOOB questions.
Thanks again,
Disabling clearnet will have Bitcoin sync over TOR only.
Configuring your router to use the VPN that you purchased for your laptop may or may not be possible depending on the VPN you purchased and the router you are using.
Configuring VPNs for routers is outside the scope of Start9 normal support, but if you post your details what VPN / router you are using someone may be able to assist.
Hi Jesse,
Thanks for confirming, so disabling cleaner will have Bitcoin run over Tor, I am using MullVad VPN for my laptop, however unsure how to duplicate that onto my router…
I haven’t used Mullvad, but I did find the following article on their help pages:
If you don’t have an Asus router, perhaps they have a similar page that does match your router…
ok so is there a way to run my whole Start9OS over TOR/VPN from get go or I would need to connect my ISP route to say a Asus router which would be connected to my VPN?
The easiest (and OOTB out of the box) approach is to access your StartOS server via TOR when you are not on your local LAN.
Go to System- → About → Web Addresses and see the TOR link posted there. You can access your server when not on LAN via that link from any TOR supporting browser. I use the TOR browser from The TOR Project.
Each service you install will also have a TOR address available.
Does this even work when you first initiate Start9 or you have to use your local network when you first initiate it?
I suggest you start with our getting started documentation. This has an ‘unboxing video’ that will show you the initial steps to get started including downloading a bitcoin node. The video does not go into TOR, but that is setup on the server by default. Of course, there is documentation on how to access your server over TOR.
Thank you so much, will go through the steps and come back if I get stuck!
Hi,
So I installed my StartOS yesterday and ran Tor on Home-brew using the following instructions: Start9 | Running Tor on Mac . However I only ran Tor over home-brew and did not enable Tor system wide. Would this be sufficient along with disabling clearnet to sync the blockchain over Tor?
Thanks!
If you disable clearnet in the Bitcoin config, it will only connect to Tor nodes. So the blockchain will be downloaded over Tor.