[tor-relays] Noob query, wish to run a bridge relay for tor community.

[kaliania at mailfence.com]

Yes, you can throttle bandwidth of your relay (both in terms of overall thoroughput and the amount you let through per second), you can schedule when it runs, and you do not need to adhere to any sort of schedule. None of this needs to be manual aside from the initial configuration. As long as the computer is online and running tor, it will do everything on its own. It will not affect your personal browsing speeds at all. 

However, you should be aware of the ramifications of running a relay on your home network. For instance, you will end up with your IP on some blacklists (even if you are not running an exit, some people will annoyingly blacklist all relays). In general, remember that doing this will mean your home IP is publicly listed as a tor relay. You may not want this for a number of reasons. You may consider running a bridge instead, which would not be included on relay lists, although I am not sure what other ramifications that might pose. You should figure out what those would be and discuss it with everyone who uses the network. 

If you do decide to set something up, I would look into doing it on a linux vm, or a separate computer running linux. At the very least, would probably be a lot easier to set up. If you decide not to set up something at home, but would still like to try running a relay, a safe and not-too-expensive way to do so is to rent a VPS from a provider who is ok with tor relays and set it up there. 

In any case, thanks for your willingness to help the network!

On 21/01/23 02:25PM, ramesh bhootra wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have been using Tor since a decade, always had limited resources and
> couldn't give back anything to the community.
> Now I wish to run relays in an effort to give back something.
> 
> Right now I have a 100 mbps reliable internet connection on a gaming laptop
> with windows 10 "HP Envy K204tx", I disabled windows updates, and a good
> quality ethernet cable. Even though it's a laptop, I use it like a desktop,
> with hdmi out to a TV, ethernet cable, usb hubs and 24x7 electricity with
> lots of inverter (home ups) backup.
> 
> I keep this laptop always stationary since I have another sleek and
> lightweight one which I use for portable purposes.
> 
> Earlier my internet plan was limited to 500 gb per month but recently
> they upgraded it for free, now it's 3000 gb per month, which is too much
> for me and my family, we hardly use 300-400 gb per month.
> 
> 
> 
> I was thinking about running a relay for Tor, (maybe a bridge relay) at
> night since both my laptop and internet are unused at night.
> I have following queries:
> 
> 1. Can I run relay on my laptop simultaneously while using other internet
> services and browsers normally?
> 
> 2. Is it possible to schedule everything automatically, say to run a relay
> from 1 am to 7 am then shut it down automatically after that? I start using
> it at 9 am and 2 hours of rest will be enough for the laptop.
> 
> 3. I have Kaspersky internet security, will it create problems for running
> tor relays? Currently when I use tor browser as a client, I don't have any
> issues, kaspersky doesn't provide a warning, doesn't block any connections.
> 
> 4. Do I need to be punctual in running the relay every day at the scheduled
> time? Is it okay if I can't run the relay on a few occasional days, for
> reasons like power outage, feeling sick, too busy etc?
> 
> 5. Can I use a Tor browser (client) while running the relay? If yes, will I
> get faster browsing speed with that?
> 
> >

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