[tor-bugs] #10957 [Tor]: Be more aggressive about enabling Extended ORPort

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#10957: Be more aggressive about enabling Extended ORPort
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     Reporter:  asn     |      Owner:
         Type:  task    |     Status:  new
     Priority:  normal  |  Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.5.x-final
    Component:  Tor     |    Version:
   Resolution:          |   Keywords:  tor-pt, tor-bridge
Actual Points:          |  Parent ID:
       Points:          |
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Comment (by asn):

 Replying to [comment:1 nickm]:
 > Replying to [ticket:10957 asn]:
 > > Bridges without Extended ORPort do not publish statistics about usage.
 Some people really care about statistics.
 > >
 > > In #9651 (merged in 0.2.5.1) we decided to add a warning if the user
 has PTs but no Extended ORPort.
 > >
 > > Maybe we should be a bit more aggressive about enabling Extended
 ORPort, since many operators might simply ignore that warning.
 > >
 > > Some solutions:
 > >
 > > a) (Most aggressive) Just enable Extended ORPort by default if ORPort
 and PTs are in effect. Of course, make it listen only on localhost.
 >
 > Could this actually work?  IIRC, no single port can be both an ExtORPort
 and an ORPort.  So what would actually happen?
 >

 I meant "Enable Extended ORPort as a separate port, if ORPort and PTs are
 in effect". Basically also start up an Extended ORPort listener.

 > > b) Turn the warning into an error, so that people can't start their
 bridge without it. The problem here is that it's not really an error,
 since the bridge will work fine without ExtORPort, but there will be no
 stats.
 > >
 > > c) Use Unix sockets in platforms that support it; similar to how we do
 it for ControlPort.
 >
 > d) Outreach on the blog, on tor-talk, and in other venues.

 Yes, I've already sent 2 emails to tor-relays about this (one when
 ExtORPort got merged, and another one some days ago). Some people have
 enabled it already, but far from everyone. I guess this will change as
 time goes by.

 As time passes (and 0.2.5.1 becomes stable) we should also add the
 ExtORPort option in:
 https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-
 instructions.html.en#instructions

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/10957#comment:2>
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