Some optimisations are possible, for example:

AvoidDiskWrites 1 # Avoids writing to HDD (obviously)
DisableAllSwap 1 # Keeps everything in memory as much as possible
HardwareAccel 1 # Enables hardware acceleration for generating crypto keys
AccelName rsax # RSA Engine
LearnCircuitBuildTimeout 1 # Enables circuit learning
CircuitBuildTimeout 4 # Try 4 seconds before abandoning to build a circuit 
KeepalivePeriod 10 # Keep alive for pesky firewalls
NewCircuitPeriod 30 # Build a new circuit every 30 seconds
NumEntryGuards 8 # Keep 8 entry guards alive
StrictNodes 1 # Respect node exclusions
SafeSocks 1 # Use properly configured socks5 proxies
##
# These settings will allow single-hope circuits and defeat the 
# purpose of staying anonymous. On the other hand, they will make 
# Tor noticeably faster. If your unique concern is hiding your 
# IP, then you can enable them at the expense of anonymity.
AllowSingleHopCircuits 1
ExcludeSingleHopRelays 0
FastFirstHopPK 0
##
MaxCircuitDirtiness 300 # Cycles proxies every 5 minutes
LongLivedPorts 80,443 # heh . . . xD
NumCPUs 2 # number of CPUs to use
ClientUseIPv6 1 # Set to 1, "Tor might connect to entry nodes over IPv6". 

In order to make TOR faster, you can exclude some countries from the list of nodes that TOR will proxy though. The list below is the entry that you will have to add to /etc/tor/torrc.

ExitNodes {hk},{kr},{jp},{lv},{ro},{be},{ch},{bg},{il},{sg},{tw},{ad},{lu},{mo}

Then you can perform your own speed tests and start to eliminate countries that are slow for you. A good resource is the net index by ookla which provides a very generalised overview of internet quality based on upload and download statistics.

TOR tries to build a circuit in the time specified by the setting:

CircuitBuildTimeout 4 # Try 4 seconds before abandoning to build a circuit

Ideally, if you want to determine what the best routes are for you, you would set CircuitBuildTimeout to 1. Then you would restart TOR and try to connect to www.google.com. You will be redirected to a TLD, for example www.google.gn. You make a note of the speed and then restart TOR and browse to www.google.com again. If you repeat this several times and www.google.com redirects to www.google.gn you can assume that you have found a very fast path and you can take {gn} off the ExcludeNodes list.

After that, increase CircuitBuildTimeout to 2 and repeat the procedure above. For many requests and for small values of CircuitBuildTimeout, you will find the shortest paths and the TLDs can be taken out of the ExcludeNodes lines.

A combination between this procedure and net index by ookla should give you very good results. This was tested and from a crawling TOR that would load google in 10 or more seconds, we brought it down to barely noticeable speed. There were also no upstream proxies, and even if they were, the countless reloads should have compensated for them.

Also note that the CircuitBuildTimeout has a direct relation to your privacy since you will find the shortest circuits using this method, but you will also end up using them frequently. However, it will still mask your IP address and if that is your unique consideration, then you can safely set CircuitBuildTimeout to 1.

These are various patches, hacking around tor (most likely breaking anonymity in favor of speed). The patches are against the git version but similar code can be found in the release versions.

tor defines the option EnforceDistinctSubnets (and enabled by default) in order to not build a circuit through a /16 netmask. This patch changes that restriction to a /24 netmask (255.255.255.0).

--- src/or/nodelist.c~	2013-07-04 08:14:35.000000000 +0100
+++ src/or/nodelist.c	2013-07-15 22:20:39.000000000 +0100
@@ -959,7 +959,7 @@
 addrs_in_same_network_family(const tor_addr_t *a1,
                              const tor_addr_t *a2)
 {
-  return 0 == tor_addr_compare_masked(a1, a2, 16, CMP_SEMANTIC);
+  return 0 == tor_addr_compare_masked(a1, a2, 24, CMP_SEMANTIC);
 }
 
 /** Return true if <b>node</b>'s nickname matches <b>nickname</b>

This can be found in routerlist.c on tor version 0.2.3.25.

Allow 2-hop circuits instead of 3. It is not clearly defined how many hops will protect your anonymity (except for the general "the more, the merrier" guideline). So, why not use 2 hops instead of 3 - or increase this value for longer circuits.

--- src/or/or.h	2013-07-10 06:12:22.000000000 +0100
+++ src/or/or.h~	2013-07-10 06:09:02.000000000 +0100
@@ -4153,7 +4153,7 @@
 /********************************* circuitbuild.c **********************/
 
 /** How many hops does a general-purpose circuit have by default? */
-#define DEFAULT_ROUTE_LEN 3
+#define DEFAULT_ROUTE_LEN 2
 
 /* Circuit Build Timeout "public" structures. */

There is an .onion website that advertises itself as a judge of bad nodes, it can be found at:

• http://xqz3u5drneuzhaeo.onion/users/badtornodes/ (darknet)
• http://torstatus.blutmagie.de/index.php (clearnet)

and they can be used to generate ExcludeNodes and ExcludeExitNodes configuration lines for Tor - obviously, you cannot be sure whether these generators are trustworthy.

The following is a generated list of fingerprints that are deemed to be misbehaving. The site above was last active on March 10, 2012 so this list may be outdated. The two lists below should be added to the Tor configuration file:

## Bad Nodes
ExcludeNodes $c730f00eb35eddf4f9b99c957f3c16656e5ca29c, $354e2ed163ba928e2e5f40819f6df2b97988df73, $bbefffa108ad16b8e5f0323cf086811c17190bba, $f941e14100a9a9b00cbeb55c72dfa211ef98bdf2, $0ddd660e450f8aa852226a28b5bfcaa914911e30, $a75bea3bf10978ecf210b7651b19bfe3f70e7fe1, $29d05c706c12baa12ae889caf81554d266948f79, $cff48861e1a2774bf0d483998198cfecea9ff477, $79b8ad256fb269416747697be0e854f84442efe9, $b827f69101b71c05a956bfead8ad152b6541223e, $85173744907a6599c9f718bebd51353c5a094d49, $daf53151f62800e34a398e7cc3416b935deb546c, $1d6deac8364d9d6c42cc4fb83c364c7b71ae8691, $2bc4012f2193cb92b9995f42e987ba0044098b30, $91ede73fb8c2edca41ffc86539f36213844376c4, $5d84518804ab4b032531b2647603fe1c5e569c26, $4205c064e59aaafeadd2ace80d705183c4f2758a, $14f04a0861b913bfcac1eabac74a1f47bdf41f3a, $1f9803d6ade967718912622ac876feef1088cfaa, $eda829cba890bbb30fe5be04779d83044126ba67, $fe0551589d19dcbeb193fe78a9a003a8a2fc09aa, $6c7c819f808ac125c69e1d981f350dcba44da8b5, $35bdc6486420efd442c985d8d3c074988bfe544b, $43be706e24143ab6b3b86dbf7cd4fde1e0c4caf1, $103827708bd078eec737137585eccb5bcea6424b, $8ff73b8fbfbf2ccb52a8e46a515418f97a69c812, $f2244a8d5da14359cda1dab70f328e62e74e9837, $c9be2c39ca4e6f120293c80d2cbe2bc34f3a1f30, $bcc93397b50c1ac75c94452954a5bcda01f47215, $ee25656d71db9a82c8efd8c4a99ddbec89f24a67, $1b777f2c879c76fc529d1ec63508aad0e1759e79

## Exit Nodes
ExcludeExitNodes $36ddc2eb59a84da313112cae186ecef4acbfcfd5, $5eb6c2094c4ac42d3fbd1cba25fc3b4196e2ff83, $94d587cd723e3def95616fc75489c45303df9aed, $55ea8b4b1c8f066baf7c2979ddfd00f8276038f4, $ea23975f961ac2b8941ca52da67efb1cbfca18ab, $0a35553a4aa10831f3f2143eacc8539632d9541c, $c813d142c092ac01f2f20970dba7086b8a7e52a3, $eeefcb3d12571e00d96286e65dea2ae6b40e73b4, $4d13bb7a08e14952e346cfbcb3cf5c45bb228cf4, $bbc05ff7c09b6a0122861d5ac7fea75b89d7212c, $9c8bb2a38d99283c4acefb1ad4f52a23413787d6, $7c18ee0cb68a259ba6ce0001f2f7b8180a875a6d, $0343fa5be98bb751492244bcd211d493e6340f9a, $76d583de43c20d7e05f5e5e878591e40cba5353a, $3df610e0a277f7d90f3ee7192dbb08caff3727ee, $e1cd3b6c24700e1aa236295ddba2c84a0fea7a67, $9dd7f70e41bebf8f3cb5a2419643ce108d9b69e6, $5168ba1a59afa8557cfc521b5f547c3891eaf106, $d63587fd607aed803cd8ced9ddb5076f99752c65, $19a564c7856788f9bf3004e099d864a7802502a9, $47bbde163dc80f5f5e666698ab4b97900dcff929, $acbacb92581c078cc6e285075cfef467e9ccf76a, $7aa23f871264e0d006ec12ef9eb229a2015023fc, $5af9d6f4ca429110a3504742ae7852eba2aad64b, $405b07b30586bc5ddef77f4f3b8d831ccb0e541b, $cb982649a0785639a3891e89d4e165a44ad3f60b, $c44fa995abb9c18969464cc479d3d722250a9ecb, $59e87afdb5d3effce63afdfa3c0b00eb8d07db82, $e566ad3c6fc7dea0a3356ddfbb6b57ca79d74cd6, $a3931b4c5a41cdef29987351d541e424e4a5b77f, $ce57a98cec55c767c1dab14507915b893b8b777d, $c647d56c900ceea91eee2d3249ef949e29dc57e8, $afb32eead177efc7d2bd1ae7b890dae448c60237, $bce9ebe70016fb4c54ed549c4d8f035d7888d04c, $c7d92fc915f118b7b75e137f11a29413158bd2b5, $7e0b691c7b6f48304a31098cf6a12c502f1c45ab, $9f6589962c1f58478a38d4da85d36c81fdb8c0a0, $726df9cede96a3e70282234fccf827e435291853, $14153d9bfdd77e477ff5bb5f7b87af4f581f6285, $c53c81a5c6c89903acacb0db1c8e2b6c91c074a3, $471886434d7abdb62c216217c2b50cb50ebec6b3, $f19aeeccf966e49b9eef429e43c8cf9362edeacd, $e2f501df1c17737bddf155b9f57612a09bfc1ef8, $90804a60f89789d44a16a88596598fbc8f5e177b, $eee5603baca71acc9d7634e6ffd824003f3fdc39, $1d61e0b75e8e127693bf2dc1f2904b58f50249d9, $bc808734c6c7a166403c69f8f42a5b6ef8065f8c, $97400af2a769188357f9198a9da584531c6b7ce6, $019ef7dbc8d67ccca755128ef73d118e381e09ec, $d587010aac789741178b435fae48c6624c3d502c, $df94ad444c1d0a1060c8ba1114245798687ad3a7, $1bd40c7a3a4d1e5c8285d9e5695ea3f21a3951e0, $84ca95a4d9e824c6f9662711b887433525760f72, $ad1dab3a9fcb6ec81a518c4bb98f28e8faeea1ac, $11d3c5445af4d57a65551affc8469e11659daa35, $510adf1cc8e0d9ba763afc8e018c3d83e5f055a8, $ec714625c4ffc32e22b67dc425d336de00b3bd8b, $8bb21f7686ae18672debcdfe0892b6f0b280e75e, $2a4ea2effa76c10779ae06d1f14a8c835f7abe2f, $e9d9e02eda5419dae55ee381367b261f7dd31f6e, $1e8a60cbf29f2b35071442a4bb57b8eb47a8b947, $a06fb187d6d88edaffc878eb6f1df0c5b59aa333, $7eaa3c48a3483ac67d81816d356cd7d04d7fd1db, $ab674b8bd8cc779c581f25e0da86612f000c8b26, $ac51642fa7a01c47b66f9747abb41a2bc07c41f4, $e63337786b7e1fb2480e798c0a6c951e2d56e913, $01e80769f0739b5fe49ba0343e7f0249350a0bd6, $8bd75f9675f0b87496e89e4025558c45ba75123c, $94e0927767f8c20d73eb458b1dfdaf8426431c55, $cf57a5358addf413d4e7c1267a99394bd2cf8523, $c0e236c6e9a6b29efe247dcbc8a1eaaac247770c, $192fa9d6e9a27024f6e733a6196d33cc8425d1c9, $d5edc74f2fb81e6ac1a8eba56448f71ddfaa4ae5, $3a3797558ea5e974278e7c060c1e994411dc2cc6, $89b3a6eb23686f2326c5d3437244897f7cef9aeb, $8a560069c696d0cd50408be284c85b6d2a6e0b9a, $055d304e29cf064a8cb8ab2c13aedb836bb79af5, $6586cee14353dd1e6faf3f172a23b00119a67c57, $09c0c5800177bf3a11a78a98a1cafd8e7ad2ea02, $269533885d491544b862af6497c058892d7f308a, $1df79e5a8901463383f01c58fba72f4a1d3f4a94, $a2c7c344a899233c0768401b9c340574d8a2643b, $d1186220c52e61134cbdbd68fa4cf0ae0c75015f, $6f383c2629471e1ae7da053d04625aaed69844cc, $07e226ccd6e50700a669906688f0661031cc56c1, $b0c142c97db514db3a419d1aa4ce04e1a86c151b, $f349b8f53ecd2c02349983ea8c8f615ad753a275, $38652dc45e38ccd4c5b00746a2c7bd536f97e1c0, $ba8539403b5e698a93d907dfea8b48ff2b81a4c3, $579888c8a61b99e3a2942b7415aa0a1b9f6a7e9d, $404b3594dc6bb205e43f0bd0b168a78c6aa2c88d, $8e670205cf878f3e50db014d77f0f8070eb1c611, $02460816d52f14ad4c068eee71b255582caccea4, $8c6595deabf0a0dd81835471fb6c044bdcfb1f8e, $3d168107bbbfc5213dcd83cfd7918d4f8eb8bb4a, $bb73111ec9a138c39e3a49c5aa89ce8864ee804a, $dcc44bfc8ada4e5d750e675b653f2ae28690cd31, $639ecc2d4fb514a8dee938c4210a49bed7859604, $cd053c104bc559c791c3fd5d3bd6fb8fac6edb88, $7697c880eb2051d361f29d383b87d1b5c2baf8f3, $4780f09fd8156d2471d276c4ae8b4364795bba53, $11a0239fc6668705f68842811318b669c636f86e, $71e78e9b961d5e25f1a16fccd15e81aa3b36cb93, $3d0fafb36eb9fc9d1efd68758e2b0025117d3d1b, $5a6fc0957b9b2eab36595c5913897f8daafd1272, $35e8b344f661f4f2e68b17648f35798b44672d7e, $25658a5df26121f7da21eda6ccef9b8d0ae8d79e, $d0d9758796ee8ad89769fef8d11e4fa60642cc55, $9530c61386be6a0087e80752223534c18df4b3ff, $8e068a19835bfe4adee57a51d96ef0598723517d, $82b38a8c3cf979b9faf547620072e6b538cc10b8, $412260256ce25cd5c155b00e14fa2d30a9533374, $96271599012517d202a7ca90133d7e0cc434a11d, $03ac5b7f2cf317f074db78c7988ebafebada47cf, $494ba52ce8a1683332c3c77c403192069eea0155, $47916cab5878c810e7ef71a316d37fc823cc7f52, $659df6537d605feab3b77e58e75342d704f0a799, $9f5db40b02b5b9171e9deaee62d89d5562572c37, $a9c039a5fd02fca06303dcfaabe25c5912c63b26, $92d151a8219cc742de7e0eaeb6d18faf9793ba79, $3077df82e3e8958d5f9bb02fa0a2d1ecade8f411, $76544bba2a1f3e73b05d4d78ae01de1b5acd7a00, $a07177486a1f51b041d0205d2675b3c9ef6569ce, $caf7986ecf1fbf903e68155531f8930c9ecc3a0d, $48949e6050aada3c9c0980d13036a2097b7c575a, $70ff4fda8f72207907b0948709a2dd2b360622d4, $8908f39e78d60e766179243f5661b5862fdf029e, $810962dc3c058c757070420e9a9497532bb8185a, $9b41b9b3d4661566c660096b715bc647fbd72a72, $3e96079b64d7d0ed602c9245772b491362b83b31, $4800e53b039aa14a69104bb54473bd75e2d310c8, $320c2c69edd602517a8bdd24032529f0de431aaf, $fc35de87f6e4022693323275f6b8ee5f72fd21b5, $58ca3b6414e859ade539a61f476d6dcbe1411652, $103827708bd078eec737137585eccb5bcea6424b, $885f25f704b12223f823758f8443bcbf17378a8f, $a28642fce5be5805a907c1c8b95f6876be11b337, $258a5503d00fcc540c5d7234a63ddbe7fb55a2c2, $f5a78ed829191d76c7399b86e4429f8f663e0c02, $d3ed911183df31fdb744a22f94be6a856ac77d12, $023220505a550d6fdf0c20ff7c48e66ba06a49a6, $134e9b5d16a3027d2fcf60a78c1be9355b4fa99e, $78ea229c038a7e1d09ddf36be13ca565d5002fc6, $f6e9c0b2c07460ffdb564a9954c8d6859199fa6c, $6cc6f0c09acdb2c48feccaa89bb0fe630f59a709, $fbadb0598b2fe16aa1a078187620ec4c2df08451, $63e939b53dcb491876b92c688c5b176b361e7e51, $3cf38e32941e54acebb720f5f2b1feea77927cbe, $97900d053b21aef9dc98e712d440fd13890b5f69, $f55bfeb3befe9efdee5c9bfc997ab1efc1efbdf9, $f6dd866296210b17fee010c3e4a2e0c9e52e6717, $9d4d995aa745a3caa6276afad505d3e4097aa075, $65c35c03571307d7546d6978605a6b11b473f6ee, $4186509c707e96b77b51a76f8294d7e22ff52c61, $fee83a80c09a710c5415f28a9658d5d459d8b45d, $2ce7d7703c7679f0bbe711668ff0923ffcf8997f, $3875c9c843d33762fa733bcaf128f26a10bc75e7, $e4be02471657c3a17c667d7c079498e4b314049f, $5cfc04ffb4a95cbcc25df03bc41be4cae0d78870, $03330efabb3acce0bf28035b1451adaacc8e0c15, $64186650ffe4469ebbe52b644ae543864d32f43c, $d87a71e5ec936501fbd0e613d309ce4ce2091f62, $bd45dd7cd871a710296db92f07fe3948139e6c23, $c4d41bfb33993f9d64699726a445283ce307e30c, $13a742728e5e0fc7fe363a07799f0fad276ded43, $7935072efbd8d5bbc30653e0f1016c2a3274e4e2, $b00db0952e535ede60a930a055d0966580317ae5, $6dc7315120ff4c1b0d0627883ea68169b2d53397, $56892c4b26c20431759cff34bbeb63543af8d3e1, $a59e1e7c7eaee083d756ee1ff6ec31ca3d8651d7, $cfa48fc3e843dff01aa026ec77010ab57e8c2ff0, $b8f81cf0c665ea8be947f102cbff97615f1ff300, $62dd97f4ac270da1483e94687d9a16556bd12ad1, $88b467dffc6b18f92dc4e0c3062c2c09c38fd0a6, $4d77086694ad9486cf0e79df676a0c84f7236f11, $98c1383c91716692a5770160150819f0edf3bb71, $e1d77a5c1b93818fafc8b142c23cd6f81dc8b339, $59e0a8a44076603ab6b535713b80a6c66df783db, $a60223ceadf1a96ef87109b507f84728f80badc6, $18261b303d082d82af157ff02914c0cc32f5da1f, $ff0a11113bdaa33dfaf16bc5e4191d05407c0048, $a1cddd78fc1efa45069f3693fd0ea3f465bbfc35, $9c0cd9690e523b8a8b36f759cc688fb28f150450, $d016ffbeac51b95ad0fdd6df1c4a855c3bd5566b, $6790bdeb52c07321b0e14079c4008d3254ff5be2, $afed25a8c1767bb5347ed93461d38a23d7b220da, $dcee1d0658d3d390790e1afa554bfcaca6818ac6, $b34350e2fb1ac3e70364e724355a3e505fb6b4d8, $72894a0f3431b6642ca9f475580a7d7e87af7de0, $c5ca2bc3d5d4e9464013d3138f8d2567e574ae74, $054d433c88ee66f1c7818196ff466d1f11fca9b8, $e4210062d7c3d5e95233f12082fb7790a1809a3f, $50dd343021e509eb3a5a7fd0d8a4f8364afbdcb5, $9e169e9accab4f555ca391204517dc5b4b9e4f0e, $1323fb1a612f22da7cf39d9c475baa220065ca4c, $5ddf57fe96ab1ebacd711772623f083f7f83c60f, $0eb4d8ef24984ab51d7ca189f7ac844ff35d83bd, $6aaf9c136ad177442d609509633b3c806e32a573, $913c460401c798706ae4e31513d84adce05b5826, $0984e21b387d0c2c2b0e5f032219ee5d4e25d4c7, $f2816dbe9f1aa98e45c3dc6412b79f435c493bc9, $361f55e4062bf3ef08645e81a20eb5bf20cf3665, $89c059df583f84c9102f5c271b5771e767b86819, $5003e646a85f65b0c29fded14159152da435d422, $bac69b5dd4be2d51cd20e43892c3d024d30ce964, $db44c07afc110d226bbb7782fcf71185615d21ed, 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an effective solution is to add the StrictNodes 1 option to the Tor configuration file as well to ensure that these nodes are never used.

To get list of engines, first issue:

openssl engine

which will output a list of engines:

(aesni) Intel AES-NI engine
(rsax) RSAX engine support

Then, edit /etc/tor/torrc and add the following directives:

HardwareAccel 1
AccelName aesni

in order to use a given engine.

To install the latest Debian package from torproject.org, first create a file at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tor.list with the following contents:

deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org stable main

After that, import the GPG key for the repository by issuing the following commands:

gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv 886DDD89
gpg --export A3C4F0F979CAA22CDBA8F512EE8CBC9E886DDD89 | apt-key add -

Now update the sources list:

aptitude update

and upgrade:

aptitude upgrade

First download the relevant packages:

• Tor
• OpenSSL

to, say /usr/src. Then compile OpenSSL:

./config ec_nistp_64_gcc_128 shared zlib-dynamic --openssldir=/usr/local/openssl

Note that ec_nistp_64_gcc_128 enables elliptic-curve cryptography and it can be used by Tor.

then you may need to run:

make depend

and then to compile issue:

make

and finally:

make install

which will place openssl into /usr/local/openssl.

The next step is to compile tor statically:

./configure --prefix=/usr 
            --sysconfdir=/etc 
            --localstatedir=/var \
            --enable-upnp  \
            --enable-nat-pmp \
            --enable-bufferevents \
            --enable-static-openssl \
            --with-openssl-dir=/usr/local/openssl \
            --enable-static-libevent \
            --with-libevent-dir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

In case –enable-static-tor is enabled then tor may bomb out with: configure: WARNING: Could not find a linkable openssl. which does not seem to go away.