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Bootstrap Nodes

In order to facilitate quick connections to other people using Tox, Tox employs bootstrap nodes that each client may connect to in order to retrieve a list of clients currently connected to the pool.

Real time node status

To see the real time status of the nodes below visit https://nodes.tox.chat/

Active Nodes List

Below are a list of active nodes that you can connect to. This list is actively maintained.

IPv4 IPv6 Port Public Key Maintainer Location
node.tox.biribiri.org NONE 33445 F404ABAA1C99A9D37D61AB54898F56793E1DEF8BD46B1038B9D822E8460FAB67 nurupo US
130.133.110.14 NONE 33445 461FA3776EF0FA655F1A05477DF1B3B614F7D6B124F7DB1DD4FE3C08B03B640F Manolis DE
205.185.116.116 NONE 33445 A179B09749AC826FF01F37A9613F6B57118AE014D4196A0E1105A98F93A54702 Busindre US
198.98.51.198 2605:6400:1:fed5:22:45af:ec10:f329 33445 1D5A5F2F5D6233058BF0259B09622FB40B482E4FA0931EB8FD3AB8E7BF7DAF6F Busindre US
85.172.30.117 NONE 33445 8E7D0B859922EF569298B4D261A8CCB5FEA14FB91ED412A7603A585A25698832 ray65536 RU
194.249.212.109 2001:1470:fbfe::109 33445 3CEE1F054081E7A011234883BC4FC39F661A55B73637A5AC293DDF1251D9432B fluke571 SI
185.25.116.107 2a00:7a60:0:746b::3 33445 DA4E4ED4B697F2E9B000EEFE3A34B554ACD3F45F5C96EAEA2516DD7FF9AF7B43 MAH69K UA
46.101.197.175 2a03:b0c0:3:d0::ac:5001 443 CD133B521159541FB1D326DE9850F5E56A6C724B5B8E5EB5CD8D950408E95707 clearmartin DE
217.182.143.254 2001:41d0:302:1000::e111 2306 7AED21F94D82B05774F697B209628CD5A9AD17E0C073D9329076A4C28ED28147 pucetox FR
45.59.119.218 NONE 33445 0FB96EEBFB1650DDB52E70CF773DDFCABE25A95CC3BB50FC251082E4B63EF82A ru_maniac US
tox.verdict.gg NONE 33445 1C5293AEF2114717547B39DA8EA6F1E331E5E358B35F9B6B5F19317911C5F976 Deliran DE
tox1.a68366.com tox1.a68366.com 33445 AEC204B9A4501412D5F0BB67D9C81B5DB3EE6ADA64122D32A3E9B093D544327D a68366 FR
213.183.51.211 2a06:f901:1:100::98 33445 B71E91E2F5029B0A84D3B1136319CDD3D1DB6D3702B6CEFA66A4BEB25A635916 Skey NL
92.54.84.70 NONE 33445 5625A62618CB4FCA70E147A71B29695F38CC65FF0CBD68AD46254585BE564802 t3mp RU
toxnode.nek0.net toxnode.nek0.net 33445 20965721D32CE50C3E837DD75B33908B33037E6225110BFF209277AEAF3F9639 Phsm UA
163.172.136.118 2001:bc8:4400:2100::13:41d 33445 2C289F9F37C20D09DA83565588BF496FAB3764853FA38141817A72E3F18ACA0B LittleVulpix FR
78.46.73.141 2a01:4f8:120:4091::3 33445 02807CF4F8BB8FB390CC3794BDF1E8449E9A8392C5D3F2200019DA9F1E812E46 Sorunome DE
37.97.185.116 NONE 33445 E59A0E71ADA20D35BD1B0957059D7EF7E7792B3D680AE25C6F4DBBA09114D165 Yani NL
80.87.193.193 NONE 33445 B38255EE4B054924F6D79A5E6E5889EC94B6ADF6FE9906F97A3D01E3D083223A linxon RU
tox.initramfs.io tox.initramfs.io 33445 3F0A45A268367C1BEA652F258C85F4A66DA76BCAA667A49E770BCC4917AB6A25 initramfs TW
46.229.52.198 NONE 33445 813C8F4187833EF0655B10F7752141A352248462A567529A38B6BBF73E979307 Stranger UA
tox.ngc.zone tox.ngc.zone 33445 15E9C309CFCB79FDDF0EBA057DABB49FE15F3803B1BFF06536AE2E5BA5E4690E Nolz DE
149.56.140.5 NONE 33445 7E5668E0EE09E19F320AD47902419331FFEE147BB3606769CFBE921A2A2FD34C velusip CA
136.243.141.187 2a01:4f8:212:2459::a:1337 443 6EE1FADE9F55CC7938234CC07C864081FC606D8FE7B751EDA217F268F1078A39 CeBe DE
tox.abilinski.com NONE 33445 10C00EB250C3233E343E2AEBA07115A5C28920E9C8D29492F6D00B29049EDC7E Anthony Bilinski CA
95.215.46.114 2a02:7aa0:1619::bdbd:17b8 33445 5823FB947FF24CF83DDFAC3F3BAA18F96EA2018B16CC08429CB97FA502F40C23 isotoxin SE
tox-node.loskiq.it NONE 33445 88124F3C18C6CFA8778B7679B7329A333616BD27A4DFB562D476681315CF143D loskiq RU
tmux.ru NONE 33445 7467AFA626D3246343170B309BA5BDC975DF3924FC9D7A5917FBFA9F5CD5CD38 nrn RU
37.48.122.22 2001:1af8:4700:a115:6::b 33445 1B5A8AB25FFFB66620A531C4646B47F0F32B74C547B30AF8BD8266CA50A3AB59 Pokemon NL
tox.novg.net NONE 33445 D527E5847F8330D628DAB1814F0A422F6DC9D0A300E6C357634EE2DA88C35463 blind_oracle NL
t0x-node1.weba.ru NONE 33445 5A59705F86B9FC0671FDF72ED9BB5E55015FF20B349985543DDD4B0656CA1C63 Amin RU
79.140.30.52 NONE 33445 FFAC871E85B1E1487F87AE7C76726AE0E60318A85F6A1669E04C47EB8DC7C72D warlomak RU
95.31.18.227 NONE 33445 257744DBF57BE3E117FE05D145B5F806089428D4DCE4E3D0D50616AA16D9417E ky0uraku RU
tox.er0p.org fe80::5054:ff:fe75:173 33445 FB6A7FFE8F144B3ACBD00B7C644AFA14F8764DFADE6DA5691965C7F45A604450 er0p RU
185.14.30.213 2a00:1ca8:a7::e8b 443 2555763C8C460495B14157D234DD56B86300A2395554BCAE4621AC345B8C1B1B dvor NL
198.199.98.108 2604:a880:1:20::32f:1001 33445 BEF0CFB37AF874BD17B9A8F9FE64C75521DB95A37D33C5BDB00E9CF58659C04F Cody US
52.53.185.100 NONE 33445 A04F5FE1D006871588C8EC163676458C1EC75B20B4A147433D271E1E85DAF839 kpp US

If you want a list of these nodes in a more machine-readable format, try using the JSON output provided by https://nodes.tox.chat.

If you are a developer and you are considering making your application automatically download the list of nodes either off this wiki page or https://nodes.tox.chat, we strongly advise you to cache the list of nodes your application downloads on user side, in order to reduce the number of requests our servers are getting. It's also a good idea to not rely on these lists to be available (e.g. our websites might be blocked by a firewall), which can be solved by shipping your application with a pre-set list of bootstrap nodes and allowing users to add their own list of bootstrap nodes through a user interface.

FAQ

What is the purpose of bootstrap nodes?

If you are familiar with the concept of DHT, they are your regular DHT bootstrap nodes. If you are not familiar with DHT, then a more detailed explanation follows.

In Tox, every client communicates with other Tox clients, together creating an interconnected network. This Tox network is used to discover other peers in the network and communicate with them, which enables you to send/receive friend requests or get notified when your friend comes online. To connect to the Tox network, a client needs to connect to at least one other client that is connected to the Tox network, from which point it can ask the client it connected to for more clients it can connect to and keep repeating this process to discover more and more clients. A bootstrap node is what a client connects to first if it doesn't know of any other nodes in the network, thus it's required that bootstrap nodes are highly available (are online most of the time), have static IP addresses or use domain names, don't change port numbers, have static public keys and so on. While technically any Tox client can be used as a bootstrap node, the usage patterns of a Tox client by an average user violate the previously mentioned requirements – the user might want to shut down their computer, they might have dynamic IP addresses, their client might be changing public keys, and so on, therefore we need Tox clients dedicated to the task of being used as bootstrap nodes. Because bootstrap nodes would generally run on servers, they are made to have as small footprint as possible – they don't support most features a Tox client supports, they perform only some basic network functionality required for clients to discover other clients.

How do I run a bootstrap node?

How do I get my bootstrap node added to the table above?

  1. Subscribe to the bootstrap mailing list, which is low-traffic announcement-only mailing list for cases when updating a bootstrap node would result in better network performance or toxcore changes DHT in non-backwards-compatible way.
  2. Send an email to node-request@tox.chat requesting your node to be added to the table of bootstrap nodes. Mention the email address you used to subscribe to the mailing list and provide information for the fields of the table. Sample email template:
    Mailing list email address:
    IPv4:
    IPv6:
    Port:
    Public Key:
    Maintainer:
    Location:

Note that nodes that are offline for long periods of time are subject to removal from the table.

How much bandwidth is required to run a bootstrap node?

Generally it depends on popularity of your bootstrap node.

At the moment of writing this (August 4th, 2016), you may expect 700GiB of total traffic (1/2 incoming, 1/2 outgoing) per month for a very popular bootstrap node, one that was in the table for years and is actively used by many clients. The amount of traffic increases over time.

If you are familiar with software development, there is an interesting idea for a project that would help us quite a bit.

You might have noticed that the process of adding a node to the table above is somewhat tedious: a person running the node needs to subscribe to a mailing list, send an email, someone must review that email, possibly ask additional questions and finally edit the wiki table adding the node. We can get rid of this process entirely. If we traverse the Tox DHT network, we can collect data such as IP addresses, public keys and port numbers of all nodes in the network. Collect that data over time, and we will be able to identify nodes that are online most of the time, don't change their IP address, use the same port and use the same public key, i.e. the perfect candidates for being bootstrap nodes. Make a webpage similar to https://nodes.tox.chat/ and show only nodes that are the perfect candidates for being bootstrap nodes. Any person running a bootstrap node long enough will show up on such table automatically, without any interaction required. There is already a project that does something similar – Tox Statistic project similarly traverses Tox DHT network, collects data on nodes in Tox DHT network, and displays it on a web page, but for statistical purposes.

If you are interested in working on this project, feel free to come to our development IRC channel to discuss it. iphy, Impyy, JFreegman and nurupo would probably be the best people to discuss this with.

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