[tor-relays] Circuits from Tor relay?

[teor]

> On 7 Dec. 2016, at 08:07, Rana <ranaventures at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Arm reports that my relay has 15 circuits connected to my (middle only) relay. Some of the circuits have one middle relay and some of them have two. All the circuits are FROM my relay to exit nodes, and all have the same guard (first) relay.

Your relay is testing whether its ORPort and DirPort are reachable from
the internet. To do this, it uses a Tor Exit circuit to connect to the
DirPort, and uses a Tor internal circuit to connect to the ORPort.
 
> My relay has a small number of inbound connections and a minuscule number of outbound connections (it is a very new relay as I wiped out and restarted my old one a day and a half ago). Most of the inbound connections are from DurAuths.

The Directory Authorities are testing whether your relay is reachable
from their IP address. To do this, they connect directly to the ORPort.

Also, the Bandwidth Authorities are testing what amount of traffic your
relay can handle. They uses a Tor Exit circuit that goes via your relay
and an Exit.

> What are all these circuits??? Why would a middle relay build full circuits to exit nodes?

Like Tor clients, your relay also builds various circuits preemptively,
in case it needs them later.

If you want more specific help, please provide the following
information to the list:

What do the logs on your relay say?

What is your relay's fingerprint?
(Your relay is publicly listed in the tor consensus. If you want to
keep the details private, run a bridge relay.)

T

-- 
Tim Wilson-Brown (teor)

teor2345 at gmail dot com
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