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How many chains are the best? chain_len = ?

I read somewhere at tor browser, that more than 4 is not good so I guess it applies the same to proxychains?

the default setting is chain_len = 2.

Seandex
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  • "best" in terms of what? In terms of privacy the more the better. In terms of performance the fewer the better. If all the proxies you use collaborate even many will not help. If you have one very trustable proxy instead it might be sufficient. – Steffen Ullrich May 02 '20 at 15:03
  • If someone asked you about the Tor browser, and mentioned about proxychains, it's obviously "anonymity" that they chose to traded-off performances. and again my questions is a different 'category' far away from TLS privacy. – Seandex May 02 '20 at 19:46
  • As I said: *"In terms of privacy the more the better."*. But since longer chain means less performance you have to find the balance between privacy and performance which is best for you. There is no universal best, it depends on what you actually require in privacy and what you are willing to suffer in performance for this. And it also depends on what proxies you use, i.e. the more you can trust these the less you need to use to achieve a higher a level of privacy. – Steffen Ullrich May 02 '20 at 20:08

1 Answers1

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Tor default is three hops: Entry - Relay - Exit (not addressing hidden services). The reason they chose three is that every hop inserts delay and failure possibilities. Three is the minimum necessary to provide strong anonymity while maximizing performance.

If you are creating your own Tor-like multi-hop relay, even if you implement it perfectly, you've created a unique system where all the proxies know that they are talking to at least one other proxy and you are the only one, or at best one of few, using that multi-hop approach.

If a single proxy does not meet your needs, consider using Tor directly instead of your own toy version.

user10216038
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  • So is multi-hop good or bad? I'm firstly connecting to the bridge first, and the bridge will mix the proxies for me. and the proxies are from multiple places built by me and have a fail-proof script so it's up 24/7 and far different quality than free proxies. – Seandex May 02 '20 at 19:55
  • @Seandex - So to **paraphrase** ; you said, *All proxies are attributable only to you, you're the only one using them, and all have unique characteristics.* I'm having trouble imagining the goal here? – user10216038 May 02 '20 at 20:25
  • Maybe I should edit my question of why I was wondering about the number of tunnels like I said I read somewhere, disadvantages are having more than the total nodes that TOR suggests,(does it degrades the anonymity?) I'm not sure if that is true, thus I was expecting the answer like "as TOR says, don't chain it more than x amount of tunnels" or "TOR statement doesn't apply to proxy chains." Sorry for the confusion. – Seandex May 04 '20 at 07:33