Judging by the level of your
computer skills implied by the emails, those involved in
Tor have better things to do than help a guy like me. I think it is
important to the entire world that the internet links us together, and
Tor may be the most crucial part of that.
I have 3 machines as possible candidates for a Tor relay:
A)
A decent PC (around 6 years old) with Vista installed. It's been
unused for 2 years. I am willing to do a clean re-install of Vista or
even Linux (with help) to run it as a Tor relay, night and day.
B)
A MacBook Pro (4gb ram, Intel, Snow Leopard). Again, I am willing to
wipe it, and do a clean install of the OS and use it for a Tor relay,
night and day.
C) My personal laptop an Asus G74S (12gb ram, i7 quad core 2.2ghz, Win7 Home Premium 64bit), which I "sleep" most nights.
Modem: DSL from "Telus" (in
Victoria, BC, Canada) with 4 ports (I use 1 cable port to my personal
computer, 1 wireless port for my iPad or Android cell phone).
Questions:
1) If I run a Tor relay with that modem, are there any security risks to the other devices? I am no technical guru.
2)
If I run a Tor relay on either (or both the Vista PC and MacBook) of
the computers mentioned above, will it be mostly a "set it and forget
it" maintenance? I cannot devote much time (and definitely don't have
much expertise).
3) Will I compromise the anonimity of Tor users due to my lack of technical skills while running a Tor relay? I don't want
to do more damage than good.
4)
Can I throttle down the bandwidth on my Tor relay(s) when I need it for
my own personal machine? I don't want to disrupt the Tor net.
5)
Can
you suggest the best way to use my machine(s) to make a reliable,
maintenance free and secure Tor relay, requiring the least amount of
time? I am guessing it's the MacBook cabled to the DSL, running only
Tor relay software, and running only a normal relay.
6)
At this point is it worth my while, to attempt a Tor bridge or exit
relay or am I even capable of doing it properly? I have little
experience or expertise in networking and not much time.
Thanks for spending your valuable time reading my questions. I hope to make it pay off, in a long term Tor relay.
Rob Smith