Suggestion: Many OR-ports would improve the network

vikingserver at gmail.com vikingserver at gmail.com
Sat Jun 9 13:28:09 UTC 2007


Is there a plan for TOR servers to be able to announce several OR-ports
and DIR-ports?

I have been running a server now for a year or so, with the purpose of
being an entry server for people behind restrictive firewalls.
I choose port 995 which is a port often used by SSL-email servers. I
choose this port because I didn't find any tor server back then that had
a server on the port 995. Many TOR servers used ports 9001, 9030 or 9031
or other ports usually blocked by restrictive
company/organization/educational firewalls. And some servers used port
80 or 443, both ports that also are often blocked by restrictive
firewalls. Many companies instead have one proxy that handles all 80/443
traffic, blocking traffic to ports 80 and 443, while they often allow
direct connection to email ports 110 and 995.

If it was possible to announce several listening ports on both directory
servers, authority servers and normal TOR servers, it would greatly
improve the possibility for people behind restrictive networks to use TOR.
Many people behind restrictive firewalls can't use TOR firstly because
the TOR network's authority servers have unreachable ports, and secondly
because many servers use the same (often unreachable) ports 80, 443,
9001, 9030, 9031.

If it was possible for servers to announce many OR-ports and DIR-ports,
it would improve the situation for people behind company/educational
firewalls. It would probably also help people in countries that block
things on the Internet like China and Saudi Arabia, but perhaps those
countries are quick at blocking all TOR-servers by IP.

I can configure my router/gateway to listen on many ports, and direct
all ports to TOR's OR-port. But it won't help anyone, as the current
directory V2 doesn't allow servers to announce many listening ports to
the DIR-authorities.

If servers could simultaneously announce ports 20, 21, 25, 80, 110, 115,
119, 443, 458, 465, 537, 554, 587, 995, 2979, 4000, 5190, 5010, 7070,
8080 and other common ports, it would really help people behind
restrictive firewalls. (Of course not every server admin will configure
their router/gateway this way, but if only the authorities and a few
servers did, it would allow a big group of potential users to be able to
use TOR.)

Will there be a change in the future to allow servers to announce many
OR-ports and DIR-ports? When will this happen?

/Viking server admin



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