[tor-relays] Middle relay IP blocking

[Gary C. New]

On Monday, August 7, 2023, 2:28:56 PM MDT, s7r <s7r at sky-ip.org> wrote:
 
 
 lists at for-privacy.net wrote:
> On Samstag, 5. August 2023 08:40:42 CEST Marco Predicatori wrote:
>> securehell at gmail.com wrote on 8/4/23 01:46:
>>> I tried reporting a similar issue a few months ago (post wasn’t approved
>>> by
>>> moderator). I was running a relay from my home ISP. After a short while
>>> certain websites became inaccessible from other computers in my home
>>> network that shared the same public IP. After trial and error with other
>>> IP addresses (non-Tor) I realized commercial gateway services had
>>> blacklisted our IP address.
>>
>> Same here, middle node. In order to access some sites, I have to shut down
>> briefly my modem in order to obtain a new IP, and for a while all goes
>> smoothly again.
> 
> Hi @all,
> 
> Just my 2 cents. Is this worth the hassle?
> Calculate your power consumption 24x7x30 @home.
> 
> For 1-5$ you can get a VPS.
> This exit has 1GB RAM and 1CPU and costs $3.50/month
> https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/376DC7CAD597D3A4CBB651999CFAD0E77DC9AE8C
> 
> Search or ask for offers on LEB & LET:
> https://lowendbox.com/
> https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/185210/tor-relay-bridge
> 
> $websearch: cheap vps unlimited bandwidth
> IONOS 1,-EUR/Month - 1GB RAM - 1vCore unlimited bandwidth - prepaid (=no contract term)
> https://www.ionos.de/server/vps
> 
> Dedicated server for $15 per month: 4 Cores/4 threads - 16GB DDR3 - 5 usable IPv4  :-)
> https://www.nocix.net/cart/?id=261> 
> 
> While all the above is true, a thing to remember is to make sure we 
> don't end up all renting too many VPS'es or dedicated servers in the 
> same places / same AS numbers - we need network diversity, it is a very 
> important factor, more AS numbers, more providers, more physical 
> locations, etc. So, running at home is super good and recommended from 
> this perspective, provides us with the diversity we need, however not 
> being to login to online banking to pay an electricity bill because of a 
> middle relay is also way too annoying.. however who can afford the 
> hassle should definitely run a middle relay or bridge at home (even Exit 
> relay, I do run an Exit relay at my office place and I had one police 
> visit in like 8 years or so).


Marco... Thanks for the great VPS information.
In addition to network diversity, there is the fact that most individuals find it necessary to run an at Home internet connection 24 x 7 x 365. So... Other than for the reasons inspired by the subject of this post, why not just run a low-resource consuming Tor server at home, too, which meets the requirements and continual request for Tor Bridges?
Moreover... In the Tor documentation describing the various relays, it might be wise to highly recommend that new at Home operators focus their resources toward Tor Bridges (opposed to Relays) to avoid this common pitfall.
Just my 2¢.  
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