Node operational — UDP + multi-port TCP relay
A public Tox bootstrap node you can point a client at.
Tox has no servers to sign up to, but a client still has to meet the network somewhere. This node is that first contact: it answers DHT queries so your client can find peers, and it relays TCP for clients stuck behind firewalls that block UDP.
Ports 443 and 3389 are ordinary TCP relay ports here, not HTTPS or RDP. They are useful precisely because restrictive networks tend to leave them open. On a managed corporate network, expect monitoring tools to flag the traffic — use 33445 there, or ask your admin first.
What this node can see
Any bootstrap node operator can tell you this, and most do not. So, plainly:
- visible → Your IP address and source port when your client queries the DHT.
- visible → Your DHT public key — a temporary key most clients regenerate on every start. It is not your Tox ID.
- visible → When you connect and roughly how much traffic you push through the TCP relay.
- opaque → Your Tox ID, your contact list, your messages, calls and files. Relayed traffic is encrypted end to end and this node holds no key that opens it.
Read the full account of what Tox protects and what it doesn't →
What Tox actually is
Tox is a free, open-source peer-to-peer protocol for messaging, file transfer and audio/video calls. There is no company account, no phone number, no central server holding your conversations. Your identity is a keypair generated on your own machine.
No central servers
The network is made of its users. There is no operator who can hand over an archive of your messages, because no operator ever has one. Nodes like this one help clients find each other; they are not a place where anything is stored.
End-to-end encryption
Messages, calls and files are encrypted with the NaCl library — Curve25519 key exchange, XSalsa20 for the payload, Poly1305 for authentication. Encryption is always on and cannot be turned off.
Pseudonymity, not anonymity
You are a 76-character Tox ID rather than a phone number, and that is a real gain. But Tox is peer-to-peer, so your contacts see your IP address — that is how the direct connection works. Tox does not hide where you are. If you need that, run it over Tor.
Distributed hash table
Finding a friend means asking the DHT which address currently answers for their key. This node holds a slice of that table and answers those questions, which is all "bootstrapping" means.
Why the network needs nodes like this one
A bootstrap node has to be boring to be useful: online almost always, same address, same port, same public key. An ordinary Tox client fails all four tests — people shut their laptops, their IP changes, and most clients generate a fresh DHT key on every launch. So the network relies on a small number of dedicated daemons that do nothing but answer DHT queries. This is one of them.
It is also a TCP relay. If your network drops UDP — common on university, hotel and corporate Wi-Fi — your client can tunnel its Tox traffic over a TCP connection to this node instead. The relay forwards encrypted packets between you and your peer without being able to read them.
Pointing your client at one node is not a lock-in: clients bootstrap from several nodes at once and drop the ones that stop answering. Use this one alongside the nodes on the Tox wiki, not instead of them.