[Newbie] Installed relay, but no traffic

[Justin Aplin]

On Dec 6, 2010, at 4:09 PM, andrew cooke wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I installed Tor (v0.2.1.26) on Linux yesterday.  As far as I know, I  
> configured it to be a relay.  The log ends with
>
> Dec 05 18:15:05.509 [notice] Bootstrapped 100%: Done.
> Dec 05 18:15:05.509 [notice] Now checking whether ORPort  
> 71.192.164.111:9001 and DirPort 71.192.164.111:9030 are reachable...  
> (this may take up to 20 minutes -- look for log messages indicating  
> success)
> Dec 05 18:15:13.761 [notice] Self-testing indicates your DirPort is  
> reachable from the outside. Excellent.
> Dec 05 18:16:06.835 [notice] Self-testing indicates your ORPort is  
> reachable from the outside. Excellent. Publishing server descriptor.
> Dec 05 18:16:18.602 [notice] Your DNS provider gave an answer for  
> "pmsxxrb3tc7t4", which is not supposed to exist.  Apparently they  
> are hijacking DNS failures. Trying to correct for this.  We've  
> noticed 1 possibly bad address so far.
> Dec 05 18:22:14.185 [notice] Performing bandwidth self-test...done.

This is good.

> which appears to be correct (Comcast is screwing with DNS).
>
> However, I don't see any "unexpected" traffic on etherape.  I am not  
> using it myself (I just wanted to add a relay to the system) and am  
> on a cable modem with dynamic IP (which is tied to acooke.dyndns.org).
>
> Have I done something wrong?  Is it normal to have no traffic?

It can take up to 48 hours of uninterrupted running before you start  
seeing traffic pick up. As I understand it, public relays will see  
less traffic than exits, and bridges will see less than public relays.  
Since I don't see etherape on https://torstatus.blutmagie.de I'm  
assuming your relay is either configured as a bridge, or you've turned  
it off. Either way, let it run interrupted for a few days and see what  
happens.

> Also, what is a suitable value for the bandwidth setting?  This is  
> just a "normal" residential Comcast cable modem in CT (the Linux box  
> is connected to the cable modem on one NIC; a wifi router running as  
> a simple hub is connected to another NIC; other computers in the  
> house use wifi routed through this box.  It's running opensuse 11.3)

It depends on your upload usage. For non-file-sharing purposes,  
allocating 75% of your maximum upload speed won't cause much of a  
disturbance in your day-to-day use (residential connections are  
generally asymmetrical and contain 8 to 10 times more download  
capacity than upload). Residential connections generally have an  
upload cap somewhere between 512kbps and 1mbps (64kBps - 128kBps) in  
my area; if you don't know yours I'd test it out or look in your  
contract to get an idea. Filesharing (I'm thinking Bittorrent in  
particular) doesn't play will with Tor on residential connections  
unless you've allocated each an appropriate share of your upload  
capacity, and have a router that can handle a large number of  
concurrent connections (although as I understand it your node is  
plugged directly into your modem? In that case, nevermind.), so keep  
that in mind.

Also, what are your limits and burst limits currently set to?

>
> Thanks, and apologies in advance if I am doing something dumb.
> Andrew
>

~Justin Aplin