Bootstrap Nodes tox

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
85.172.30.117 NONE 33445 8E7D0B859922EF569298B4D261A8CCB5FEA14FB91ED412A7603A585A25698832 ray65536 RU
85.143.221.42 2a04:ac00:1:9f00:5054:ff:fe01:becd 33445 DA4E4ED4B697F2E9B000EEFE3A34B554ACD3F45F5C96EAEA2516DD7FF9AF7B43 MAH69K RU
tox.verdict.gg NONE 33445 1C5293AEF2114717547B39DA8EA6F1E331E5E358B35F9B6B5F19317911C5F976 Deliran DE
78.46.73.141 2a01:4f8:120:4091::3 33445 02807CF4F8BB8FB390CC3794BDF1E8449E9A8392C5D3F2200019DA9F1E812E46 Sorunome DE
tox.initramfs.io tox.initramfs.io 33445 3F0A45A268367C1BEA652F258C85F4A66DA76BCAA667A49E770BCC4917AB6A25 initramfs TW
46.229.52.198 NONE 33445 813C8F4187833EF0655B10F7752141A352248462A567529A38B6BBF73E979307 Stranger UA
tox.neuland.technology tox.neuland.technology 33445 15E9C309CFCB79FDDF0EBA057DABB49FE15F3803B1BFF06536AE2E5BA5E4690E Nolz DE
144.217.167.73 NONE 33445 7E5668E0EE09E19F320AD47902419331FFEE147BB3606769CFBE921A2A2FD34C velusip CA
tox.abilinski.com NONE 33445 10C00EB250C3233E343E2AEBA07115A5C28920E9C8D29492F6D00B29049EDC7E Anthony Bilinski CA
37.48.122.22 2001:1af8:4700:a115:6::b 33445 1B5A8AB25FFFB66620A531C4646B47F0F32B74C547B30AF8BD8266CA50A3AB59 Pokemon NL
tox.novg.net NONE 33445 D527E5847F8330D628DAB1814F0A422F6DC9D0A300E6C357634EE2DA88C35463 blind_oracle NL
95.31.18.227 NONE 33445 257744DBF57BE3E117FE05D145B5F806089428D4DCE4E3D0D50616AA16D9417E ky0uraku 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
tox.kurnevsky.net tox.kurnevsky.net 33445 82EF82BA33445A1F91A7DB27189ECFC0C013E06E3DA71F588ED692BED625EC23 kurnevsky NL
87.118.126.207 NONE 33445 0D303B1778CA102035DA01334E7B1855A45C3EFBC9A83B9D916FFDEBC6DD3B2E quux DE
81.169.136.229 2a01:238:4254:2a00:7aca:fe8c:68e0:27ec 33445 E0DB78116AC6500398DDBA2AEEF3220BB116384CAB714C5D1FCD61EA2B69D75E 9 of Spades DE
205.185.115.131 NONE 53 3091C6BEB2A993F1C6300C16549FABA67098FF3D62C6D253828B531470B53D68 GDR! US
tox2.abilinski.com tox2.abilinski.com 33445 7A6098B590BDC73F9723FC59F82B3F9085A64D1B213AAF8E610FD351930D052D Anthony Bilinski US
109.111.178.181 NONE 33445 7B9BF5C2FF43F60592381596D4CBDC88B287AA3FD34C7536924CB1395CAF7E0C LivingstoneI2P RU
218.28.170.22 NONE 33445 DBACB7D3F53693498398E6B46EF0C063A4656EB02FEFA11D72A60BAFA8DF7B59 Onion Bulb CN
floki.blog NONE 33445 6C6AF2236F478F8305969CCFC7A7B67C6383558FF87716D38D55906E08E72667 Floki GB
51.158.146.76 2001:bc8:6010:213:208:a2ff:fe0c:7fee 33445 E940D8FA9B07C1D13EA4ECF9F06B66F565F1CF61F094F60C67FDC8ADD3F4BA59 CyberSquirrel NL
194.36.190.71 NONE 33445 B62F1878BD08EDD34E4D7B0D66F9E74CC7BDE4BEA2C95E130DAADCFF9BCB4F6D Shilov NL
94.45.70.19 NONE 33445 CE049A748EB31F0377F94427E8E3D219FC96509D4F9D16E181E956BC5B1C4564 Shilov UA
185.66.13.169 NONE 33445 A44A024DA1299A85B91E3A64B9D19C7F331D0073DD2FAAF1361C127B5D909E3D Shilov RU
46.101.197.175 2a03:b0c0:3:d0::ac:5001 33445 CD133B521159541FB1D326DE9850F5E56A6C724B5B8E5EB5CD8D950408E95707 kotelnik DE
tox1.mf-net.eu tox1.mf-net.eu 33445 B3E5FA80DC8EBD1149AD2AB35ED8B85BD546DEDE261CA593234C619249419506 2mf DE
tox2.mf-net.eu tox2.mf-net.eu 33445 70EA214FDE161E7432530605213F18F7427DC773E276B3E317A07531F548545F 2mf DE
46.146.229.184 NONE 33445 94750E94013586CCD989233A621747E2646F08F31102339452CADCF6DC2A760A GS RU
195.201.7.101 NONE 33445 B84E865125B4EC4C368CD047C72BCE447644A2DC31EF75BD2CDA345BFD310107 tux1973 DE
168.138.203.178 NONE 33445 6D04D8248E553F6F0BFDDB66FBFB03977E3EE54C432D416BC2444986EF02CC17 SOT-TECH JP
5.19.249.240 NONE 38296 DA98A4C0CD7473A133E115FEA2EBDAEEA2EF4F79FD69325FC070DA4DE4BA3238 Tox daemon RU
209.59.144.175 NONE 33445 214B7FEA63227CAEC5BCBA87F7ABEEDB1A2FF6D18377DD86BF551B8E094D5F1E LasersAreGreat US
188.225.9.167 209:dead:ded:4991:49f3:b6c0:9869:3019 33445 098AD1859B0F29894C49DBD108689432047F79CE57DD2BBDAD2E638C85521F2E Nikat RU
122.116.39.151 2001:b011:8:2f22:1957:7f9d:e31f:96dd 33445 5716530A10D362867C8E87EE1CD5362A233BAFBBA4CF47FA73B7CAD368BD5E6E miaoski TW
195.123.208.139 2a02:27ac::3ff 33445 534A589BA7427C631773D13083570F529238211893640C99D1507300F055FE73 Cüber LV
208.38.228.104 NONE 33445 3634666A51CA5BE1579C031BD31B20059280EB7C05406ED466BD9DFA53373271 LasersAreGreat 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?

See Running a node.
How do I get my bootstrap node added to the table above?

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, toxcore changes DHT in non-backwards-compatible way or some vulnerability affecting bootstrap nodes is discovered.
Send an email to [e-mail] 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:

We check the mail about once a week, so expect it might take a few days for you to get a reply.

Note that nodes that are offline for long periods of time or use a very old version of toxcore 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.
Is there anything else bootstrap node related I can help with besides running a bootstrap node?

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.