[tor-relays] Some thoughts from a tor bridge op

[a tor op]

Hi

I am a TOR bridge operator running a bridge with 8 Mbps advertised BW and having obfs4 installed. Been up a year or so on this install.

I'll put a few misc thoughts out here, only been lurking on list earlier.

I have been thinking a little about how useful this system is (MY bridge that is), in part since I haven't seen so much traffic lately. The latest few months I have seen some 1-4 (concurrent?) users according to Atlas whereas I had up to 10 during a year ago. There is also a count in tor log abut how many clients that have been seen in the latest hours etc. I then had a drop til nil due to not being updated when Lucky removed his Bridge Authority I think, or related to some other more or less related technical issue.

What is a normal figure on this, anybody know?

The thing is, in tor log it is reported that all is fine and that connectivity is ok.

In Atlas these flags are reported: Fast Guard HSDir Running Stable V2Dir

However, I have been thinking about a few other issues too though. One is, I noted that my provider gives this particular VPS a private IP address and traffic is NATed to the VPS according to info in the control panel.

I do see a few GBs being pushed every other day so I guess things are kind of working, though.

Is there something I may need to edit in config?

Specifically the "OR Adresses" being mentioned on Atlas page contains a port that is not opened in local FW on server.
Still it works and gets some client traffic(?)

In torrc I some time earlier put in "ExtORPort auto" and also another port that is opened in FW using "ORPort".
I also have the "ServerTransportListenAddr obfs4" with "0.0.0.0" and yet another port that is not being opened in FW, in the file.

There are a few technicalities that might need some clearer explanation in manual/man/how-to I think.

One thing I am thinking of is whether this private address and NATting issue makes the system not perform as I intend (although I do see some traffic as mentioned).

Just a few thoughts. Any comments appreciated.

A TOR bridge op
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