Hi,
I am trying to update myself on the status of Tor Router. I remember not too long ago it was a sexy project, funds were raised and people got paid to work on it. Has it been abandoned? How come we still don't have a Tor hardware router?
All the best, SiNA
I'm wondering why
SiNA Rabbani:
Hi,
I am trying to update myself on the status of Tor Router. I remember not too long ago it was a sexy project, funds were raised and people got paid to work on it. Has it been abandoned? How come we still don't have a Tor hardware router?
Hi SiNA,
There is a hardware device where we have focused efforts and we're having internal discussions about how to proceed. This has been a skunkswork project and it is unfunded - the hardware platform we've selected is as open as it gets without being a MilkyMist, which would be ideal (FPGA CPU, etc) but is sadly impractical.
We don't have a Tor Router hardware deployment for a few reasons. Off the top of my head: we would want to raise funds to support Tor Router specific development, user support, tooling for hardware production and then ongoing costs related to the project.
All the best, Jake
Thanks a lot for your quick reply Jake. I'll see if I can align my efforts to help raise funds for this specific project.
I get asked by funders and NGOs, for ideas to invest. I'm personally very interested to help make Tor Hardware router into a reality.
All the best, SiNA On Nov 23, 2013 6:39 AM, "Jacob Appelbaum" jacob@appelbaum.net wrote:
SiNA Rabbani:
Hi,
I am trying to update myself on the status of Tor Router. I remember not too long ago it was a sexy project, funds were raised and people got paid to work on it. Has it been abandoned? How come we still don't have a Tor hardware router?
Hi SiNA,
There is a hardware device where we have focused efforts and we're having internal discussions about how to proceed. This has been a skunkswork project and it is unfunded - the hardware platform we've selected is as open as it gets without being a MilkyMist, which would be ideal (FPGA CPU, etc) but is sadly impractical.
We don't have a Tor Router hardware deployment for a few reasons. Off the top of my head: we would want to raise funds to support Tor Router specific development, user support, tooling for hardware production and then ongoing costs related to the project.
All the best, Jake
tor-dev mailing list tor-dev@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev
ficus at robocracy dot org continued to work on Tor Router for a while. Thread: "[tor-dev] Status of Torouter project"
What happened to this contribution / contributor?
They are selling a router that runs Tor for $50 bucks. I have not seen or researched the setup yet.
--SiNA On Nov 23, 2013 7:13 AM, "adrelanos" adrelanos@riseup.net wrote:
ficus at robocracy dot org continued to work on Tor Router for a while. Thread: "[tor-dev] Status of Torouter project"
What happened to this contribution / contributor? _______________________________________________ tor-dev mailing list tor-dev@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev
Wouldn't be better to partner with many hardware providers?
I mean supporting many hardware devices, rather than going with a custom hardware?
Hardware distribution is a serious problem.
Being able to support dozens of small devices, programmable routers, NAS, rasberry, etc, is IMHO a best choice.
You invest where the "Value" is, that's the software logic, not the hardware support by introducing logistic problem.
Il 11/23/13 7:15 PM, SiNA Rabbani ha scritto:
They are selling a router that runs Tor for $50 bucks. I have not seen or researched the setup yet.
--SiNA
Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) wrote:
I mean supporting many hardware devices, rather than going with a custom hardware?
Hey Naif,
Access Labs' openwrt-based torouter firmware is still the best and most stable. It worked pretty well for me back in August on a TP-Link N750, and earlier on a Buffalo router, so it's worth looking at. PORTAL is also a cool project, but tbh I don't know much about it.
This is the sort of project that someone should pitch to RFA when the next Open Tech Fund round opens in January. In my mind, the ability to make your own torouter out of inexpensive (and ubiquitous) routers somewhat trumps having open-hardware torouters available for purchase. But all work in this area is a true labor of love, and it makes sense for people to pool their efforts where they feel the greatest impact can be made.
~Griffin
(unsurprisingly, I speak only for myself and not my employer)
On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 06:32:27AM -0800, sina@redteam.io wrote 1.3K bytes in 0 lines about: : I am trying to update myself on the status of Tor Router. I remember not : too long ago it was a sexy project, funds were raised and people got paid : to work on it. Has it been abandoned? How come we still don't have a Tor : hardware router?
It's still a sexy project to some. Funds were never raised to do work on it, at least not by Tor Project or anyone directly related to us. It's been available to the community to take and build something. We've seen the Access Labs work[0], OnionPi[1], and now Safeplug[2].
We did experiment with the Excito B3 platform[3] as well.
Much like the App Store[4] discussion, I think we're best suited to make Tor as portable and performant as possible, but leave hardware integration to others. We're the experts on Tor. We should stay focused on Tor and not get distracted with things that can run Tor. I'd rather see 3rd parties consulting with us to build "tor routers". We don't have the expertise nor resources to handle the hardware product lifecycle.
This is a fine topic for discussion.
[0] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/OpenWRT [1] http://learn.adafruit.com/onion-pi/overview [2] https://pogoplug.com/safeplug [3] http://www.excito.com [4] https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2013-November/005773.html
On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 12:18:02PM +0000, andrew@torproject.is wrote 1.6K bytes in 0 lines about: : Much like the App Store[4] discussion, I think we're best suited to : make Tor as portable and performant as possible, but leave hardware : integration to others. We're the experts on Tor. We should stay focused : on Tor and not get distracted with things that can run Tor. I'd rather : see 3rd parties consulting with us to build "tor routers". We don't have : the expertise nor resources to handle the hardware product lifecycle.
And another appears on the horizon, http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/orp1-an-open-router-project
If the Raspberry Pi is suitable, I imagine an easily deployed image (for example an 8GB/16GB disk image that can be written to a SD card with various win32 Disk Imager or similar would make it a lot easier for users to get their RPis up and running as routers/relays, so if that could be made available I think that would be good.
On 26 November 2013 03:46, andrew@torproject.is wrote:
On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 12:18:02PM +0000, andrew@torproject.is wrote 1.6K bytes in 0 lines about: : Much like the App Store[4] discussion, I think we're best suited to : make Tor as portable and performant as possible, but leave hardware : integration to others. We're the experts on Tor. We should stay focused : on Tor and not get distracted with things that can run Tor. I'd rather : see 3rd parties consulting with us to build "tor routers". We don't have : the expertise nor resources to handle the hardware product lifecycle.
And another appears on the horizon, http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/orp1-an-open-router-project
-- Andrew http://tpo.is/contact pgp 0x6B4D6475 _______________________________________________ tor-dev mailing list tor-dev@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev
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adrelanos -
andrew＠torproject.is -
Derek Moss -
Fabio Pietrosanti (naif) -
Griffin Boyce -
Jacob Appelbaum -
Maxim Kammerer -
SiNA Rabbani