Greetings!
I've used tor as a client for a long time & now I'd like to give something
back to the network by running a relay server. I've been following the
advice on the tor wiki, specifically "Complete Tor walkthrough for Windows
users by Steve Topletz"
(http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/Tor4Windows) but I'm having
some problems! I will attempt to provide an overview of what I have done so
far. However, let me be clear, I am NOT in any way a highly advanced
computer user & whilst I don't consider this task to be 'beyond me' my lack
of technical savvy is almost definitely working against me here (infact this
is a learning experience for me), so please bear with me as I attempt to
explain my problems.
-postponed opening any ports (explaination below)
1) opened an account with dyndns to create a static ip address/host name
2) configured my hardware firewall (BT Home Hub) with the dyndns account
details
3) configured tor as a relay server on windows xp using the vidalia server
settings console: (I've chosen to disable the "Mirror the server directory -
Directory Port 9030" option because vidalia's help section says this uses
more bandwidth & I don't have a lot to play with) & I'm not running tor in
the background as a windows service. I've just configured all of the typical
settings for a relay node.
re-started vidalia & tor:
the vidalia message log presented me with my tor server indentity key
fingerprint & informed me:
"Now checking whether ORPort XX.XXX.XXX.XXX:9001 is reachable..."
then:
"Your server ( XX.XXX.XXX.XXX:9001) has not managed to confirm that its
ORPort is reachable. Please check your firewalls, ports, address, etc/hosts
file, etc
With regard to port forwarding/opening ports - whilst I've been running tor
as a client I've had no problems just allowing it via zone alarm & my
hardware firewall (BT Home Hub) hasn't required me to give tor any special
permission, tor has just worked. In the set-up that I've described here,
Zone Alarm informed me that Tor was attempting to act as a server & I gave
it permission to do this. I haven't received any warning messages apart from
the one I've detailed already.
Questions:
1) Now that I want to run Tor as a server, do I need to make any changes to
zone alarm and my hardware firewall (BT Home Hub) to allow specific ports?
In the article I mentioned at the beginning of this mail, the author refers
to opening ports 443 & 80.
The BT Home Hub allows me to configure applications stating, "Each incoming
port range can be translated into a different internal (local network) port
range. Port ranges can be statically assigned to devices or dynamically
assigned using an outgoing trigger."
The options I have for configuring applications on the BT Hub are:
protocol (tcp/udp)
port range
translate to internal (local network) port range
trigger protocol (tcp/udp)
trigger port
I'm uncertain of how I should make any configuration on the BT Hub but would
appreciate any advice - I've chosen to ask this question here, rather than
at a BT forum in case there is something I need to know that's specific to
tor.
2) I've used the vidalia console to configure tor as a server. Do I need to
make any other changes to the Torrc file (i.e those detailed on the wiki -
"Complete Tor walkthrough for Windows users") or is the configuration I've
made with the vidalia console sufficient? The settings I've made on the
vidalia server settings console remain commented-out on the Torrc file.
Any help would be greatly appreciated & I aplogise again if my lack of
knowledge seems retarded!
Regards,
Stephen