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Re: [tor-relays] Planning a relay
Is it possible that your relay can be online for those 22-25 days
straight and then hibernate for the rest of the month instead, or must
it be the case of every few days? If it could be online for that
period as a single block that would be far better.
Also you are correct on the physical safety of the device, which is
why running it at home or in a secure environment (ie a good
datacenter) is the best approach. However, physical and even server
security isn't the threat to anonymity, the intelligence agencies can
gather almost as much information from tapping the backbone cables and
IXP's as they would running their own or hijacking yours. Generally
datacenters are recommended rather than running it at home as it is
usually cheaper, lower risk of your door being busted down (of which I
have experience in being the target of raids) and it more stable.
I would not at all recommend you use a VPN to route your relay traffic
through as this merely passes the burden onto somebody else who may
not be entirely comfortable with you doing this without asking in
advance. Furthermore, it offers no more security to the circuits your
relay is a part of and I would argue it could actually hurt anonymity
since you are giving a third party access to the traffic information
of your server.
Also, Tor Project only really recommends bridges be run in the Amazon
cloud due to the small deployment and low cost, with the IP included
in that and for bridges the IP is the real resource as opposed to disk
space, bandwidth or CPU power. Therefore it enables lots of new
bridges to be brought online easily, cheaply and without the
complications or additional considerations that would be required in
bringing online an exit relay for example.
-T
Hi, i might have explained the scenario a bit poorly. The machine
doesn't go offline every few days but every few weeks, and then for a
few days at a time. Nothing to be done about that.
Busting down doors is pretty much spot on about the reason i am
unwilling to run the relay on my own IP address: i've read enough news
about overzealous law enforcement in my country (non-Tor related, but
still), and i'm certainly not going to face the public harassment and
general fuss of an unnecessary and very embarrassing seizure.
Regarding the VPN provider's consent - i have asked for permission and
they fully endorse running a Tor relay through their services, which
means they are ready and willing to handle any and all abuse issues. I'm
not sure about the anonymity side of things, which is exactly why i came
here asking for opinions, experiences and general advice. All input is
very much appreciated.
In the end, in my case, it comes down to either contributing a
VPN-tunneled machine for ~25 days a month to the Tor network, or keeping
it away from it. If the VPN part is too compromising i'll have to put
the thought on hold, but i'll keep on reading in the meantime.
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