[tor-relays] 7 relays gone because of spammers

Wed Feb 25 20:14:44 UTC 2015

On February 25, 2015 8:21:32 PM Speak Freely <when2plus2is5 at riseup.net> wrote:

Hi,

> Oh yes, my money is gone already. They have no interest in talking to me
> anymore, as the decision was final. The Abuse department won't talk to
> the Support department, and the abuse department won't talk to me.

Thats really sad. Spam abuse reports are hitting me pretty much every day @ 
Online SAS (online.net, France). I fill out their abuse formular every time 
"This is an Tor Exit Node with a reduced Exit policy". It's a 72 hour 
deadline. Works fine, they never shut down anything.

Every country and every ISP seems to be a completely different game :-(
>
>
> I'd be more inclined to think these spam assassin fellas/"evil doer
> finders" just parsed the exit-node files and decide WHOOPIDY-DO I did my
> job! Over-zealous punks trying to get their lists larger than their
> competitor.
>
> OVH appears to have based these accusations on what other websites have
> said about my IP addresses, and not a single actual complaint against
> the relays I run.
>
> But I could be wrong.
>
> Either way... It's unfortunate.
>
>
> OVH has never contacted me for anything, except to notify me of
> connections to the manager.
>
> For clarification from their email to me where they showed positive
> feelings toward Tor, here is my original email to them about me running
> those relays.
>
> The first paragraph butters them up, and the second last paragraph
> attempts to show that I wanted to run clean, safe relays.
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> "Greetings,
>
> I'm a current customer with two VPS servers with you, so far you've been
> awesome! I've never met anyone who has heard of you, that that is beyond
> shocking. Your prices are better than almost everyone, your service is
> superior, and I'm pretty sure your claims regarding hardware performance
> are the closest I've ever experienced to truth.
>
> Alright now to the fun stuff.
>
> Section 1)
>
> I have read online that you are accommodating to users setting up Tor
> *middle* relays on VPS accounts, and as such I recently set one up.
>
> However, that wasn't necessarily the brightest decision on my part. Can
> you confirm that you let customers run Tor *middle* relays? These are
> the none-exiting relays.
>
> Given the recent activities around the world, I'd like to set several
> more relays up. If you do let customers install Tor, can they be
> installed on VPS Classic accounts?
>
> Here is a description of the Tor platform,
> (https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html.en)
> ...
> Tor is network software that helps users to enhance their privacy,
> security, and safety online. It does not host any content. Rather, it is
> part of a network of nodes on the Internet that simply pass packets
> among themselves before sending them to their destinations, just as any
> Internet intermediary does. The difference is that Tor tunnels the
> connections such that no hop can learn both the source and destination
> of the packets, giving users protection from nefarious snooping on
> network traffic. The result is that, unlike most other Internet traffic,
> the final IP address that the recipient receives is not the IP address
> of the sender. Tor protects users against hazards such as harassment,
> spam, and identity theft. Initial development of Tor, including
> deployment of a public-use Tor network, was a project of the U.S. Naval
> Research Laboratory, with funding from ONR and DARPA. (For more on Tor,
> see https://www.torproject.org/.) I hope, as an organization committed
> to protecting the privacy of its customers, you'll agree that this is a
> valuable technology.
> ...
>
> Section 2)
>
> I've read online nothing but ambiguity regarding exit relays. My current
> understanding is that if we run them, we risk the account being
> terminated. Would you terminate the single VPS server, or my entire
> account with all of my VPSs?
>
> If this somewhat murky situation is the case, would you be willing to
> assist me with minor activities in locking down the server? If I run
> exit relays, I want to use rather extreme exit policies, locking out
> most ports, and only allowing certain traffic through. I don't want to
> create a conduit for illicit downloading of videos, software, games,
> etc. And child pornography. Surely there has to be something your
> SysAdmins can do to help stop that. Blacklists, I suspect. So locking
> out that type of traffic is important both for my sensibilities, your
> network, and our legal safety.
>
>
> I'm more than willing, and interesting in discussing this further with
> you. In a world where free speech is under attack, we need to protect
> those that speak up.
>
> Let me know.
>
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Matt"
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I tried... I tried to be as helpful as possible in explaining what Tor
> is and does, and I tried to start a positive dialog and relationship
> with them. The numerous telephone conversations I've had with them were
> always quite positive and friendly. I was always assured they would
> contact me first, let me deal with the complaint, etc...
>
> But I've come to realize this wasn't because of any complaint. Some
> "john" at OVH saw my IP addresses on a set of lists, most likely
> siphoned from the publicly available exit-relay lists, and decided I
> must be doing something bad.
>
> Because they're no longer talking, most of this is all a guessing game.
>
>
> How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
> How can you get your t-shirt if you don't run your relay?
> Sorry, but that made me smile.  :)
>
>
>
> Speak Freely
> _______________________________________________
> tor-relays mailing list
> tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
> https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays

-- 
Sincerely yours / Sincères salutations / M.f.G.

Sebastian Urbach

-----------------------------------------
Religion is fundamentally opposed to
everything I hold in veneration - courage,
clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and,
above all, love of the truth.
-----------------------------------------
Henry Louis Mencken (1880 - 1956),
American journalist, essayist, magazine
editor, satirist and critic.