[tor-relays] Feedback

torserver at datakanja.de torserver at datakanja.de
Fri Feb 26 04:15:10 UTC 2016


Hello,

i have been running a new relay for a short time period now and would
like to bring to your attention the issues faced, that finally led me to
refrain from keeping this up any longer:

  * Documentation was ok (on torproject.org) and the installation (using
    deb on ubuntu) was easy.
  * It took quite some time to understand the implications (opening
    ports in the router, hazarding security to my computers, as i was -
    to this date - relying on the routers firewall working) - This job
    of mine basically got delayed until later, when i would have
    learned, what is needed in that respect.
  * Next, i noticed a frequent (daily) behavior of the Tor server
    dropping traffic to around zero. Inspecting this, let me to
    understand, my provider was disconnecting me and reassigning a new
    IP on a daily basis, which took some time to propagate. Even worse:
    It did not propagate on its own, i needed to restart the tor service
    to reinitialise...
  * Asking in the online channel, i was guided to change my "Nickname"
    torrc config to match the dyndns entry corresponding to my server.
  * But this never made it to the directories, thus forcing me to
    manually restart Tor on a daily basis in order to force the changing
    IP address into them.
  * Finally, i was told, this behavior would be disruptive to the
    network, i therefore brought the service down for good, wasting the
    bandwith, i was willing to spend, for the near future. :-)
  * Ok, otherwise, i would have to pay additional fees to rent a server
    off-site with a permanent IP, but that would be giving more, than
    what was easily affordable, as my machine is running 24/7 and the
    connections open anyway. Thus Tor doesnt seem to be able to absorb
    the kind of bandwith, i was willing to share long time.

This is leaving a sad taste on me, who is pretty much interested in
privacy, anonymosity, which led me to avoid the mailing lists with a
durable email-address. But just using a read-only one wouldnt allow me
to post to the list. That is why i created this one temporarily, just to
let you know about my experiences...

NewTorKidOnTheBlock
(this was the name of my Tor relay)




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