On Sat, Nov 15, 2025 at 06:41:38PM +0000, Too via tor-relays wrote:
I've been running a tor guard / middle relay from my home for some while.
Thanks for running a relay!
To avoid the blocking in the future, I want to switch to a bridge. I have a few questions regarding that: - Does it even make sense to switch to a bridge after already exposing the IP(s) for the guard / middle relay for some while?
You're right that it's not ideal, because places like China and parts of Russia have probably blocked your IP address so your bridge won't be reachable in those places for a while either. But I would say it's still useful, first because it is useful in other places that didn't block your IP address, and second because eventually those places will unblock your IP address too.
- Does it make sense to run a bridge if my IP rotates every night?
I would suggest running a 'standalone snowflake proxy' for that situation: https://snowflake.torproject.org/ https://community.torproject.org/relay/setup/snowflake/standalone/ since it doesn't rely on having the same IP address over time.
- Should I shut the relay off and wait some while before starting the bridge, to get the IP(s) off blocklists first?
You could if you want. Or you could just set it up and not worry about it. Whichever brings you more joy.
In case no bridge makes sense, I'm thinking about utilizing the server capacities for a guard / middle relay that pipes the traffic through a VPN instead; I found conflicting information on whether that's a good idea though.
We think that approach is a bad idea in general, because it adds more surface area to who gets to see your relay's traffic (encrypted data + metadata), and also it adds additional latency that doesn't need to be there. (There is also the question of how to find a VPN company that isn't secretly harming you, but that is a separate discussion which doesn't need to be the main factor here.) Thanks! --Roger