Hi,
tl;dr: it is not clear to me what I should ask to my provider about SWIP, if this is something I can set up on my own and/or how I should ask for this to my provider.
I have been running a couple of relays for some months (since the last EFF Tor challenge) and now I would like to operate an exit node.
I also want to be careful and set up things properly for Minimal Harrasment (h/t to Mike Perry)[1]. I am planning to set up everything in Italy - I am Italian and I would like to do everything here - but looking in this list (at least since I am subscribed to it, it seems to me that there is not much information about running exit nodes from Italy. All the more reason to try it and document things properly.
I have bought some credit on Aruba, which is a quite well known provider in Italy on the low-end/entry level (they used to make spots on television at prime time) and I also think one of the biggest in terms of sales and infrastructure. They are not listed on the list of good and bad ISPs[2] so, again, let's see and document (in all honesty, there is not much choice on the list as far as Italy is concerned).
After all this premise, I have some questions: (1) In the guide it is advised to "Get a separate IP for the node. Do not route your own traffic via this IP". As I understand it, this is just saying that if one has a machine with some other content hosted on it (e.g. a website) it would be better to separate the exit node IP from the IP that serves the other uses of the machine. Is this interpretation correct? I am planning to use a small instance for now (1 GB RAM, single core, 2TB traffic/month) and use it exclusively for running the node. Does this advice still applies. What are additional IPs good for? My ISP sells additional (public) IPs for 3,60 euro/month, would it be worth or necessary purchasing such an additional service?
(2) SWIP/RWHOIS + ARIN/RIPE This is quite unclear to me. all I know as of now, about SWIP/RWHOIS/ARIN/RIPE is what can be read from the relevant Wikipedia pages. How can I ask my provider about this? I have seen there is a template here[3], but it seems to me that this is not really applicable. That case is about a fairly large organisation, buying a fairly large service. I would like, if possible, some indications on what to request from your average Joe. I am not exactly comfortable on asking something based on a templatee I am not sure I fully understand about something I know very limitedly.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Cristian
[1] https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment [2] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/GoodBadISPs [3] https://www.torservers.net/wiki/hoster/inquiry