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The Tor project is really important, and I'm really glad the EFF supports it. It's come a long way in the last 10 years too. For about a year I ran a fairly hi

The Tor project is really important, and I'm really glad the EFF supports it. It's come a long way in the last 10 years too. For about a year I ran a fairly high traffic couple of exit nodes (circa 2004) and it was a really scary experience - constant legal threats, phone calls from people screaming that we'd hacked their servers in the middle of the night, and several conversations with the lawyers of big media companies. People who run exit nodes have some serious stones. It was finally too much, despite the crew at the EFF being really helpful when we called asking if they might help us navigate some of the more intimidating legal waters. All this to say, I'm really impressed at the lengths the project has gone (and continues to go) to make Tor safer, more accessible, and easier to use for nontechnical folks. I just downloaded and installed this, and it worked, and worked well. A far cry from the earlier days. Cheers to Tor and the people working on it, running exit nodes, bridge nodes, and offering legal support to those that need it.

s_q_b 12y ago
I run one. I tell anyone who complains that's legal, explain Tor, and send them the form letter, and then never respond again. Three years running, and I've never been sued or otherwise affected.
- GFischer 12y ago
  Thank you for running a node. I'm very grateful.
  - s_q_b 12y ago
    No problem. It's a few bucks a month. Some may reply that is a legal risk as well. I believe it is clearly within the bounds of the law. If the police shut then down I would fight to the extent of my ability in the courts to have them restored. I believe strongly in our system, and that all men and women (including law enforcement) are bound by the same set of laws, and are equal before them. Tor is legal under those laws, and the courts stand ready to vindicate my rights if they are violated.
- click170 12y ago
  For those wondering which form letter parent is referring to. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorAbuseTemplates https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorAbuseTe... https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-mini...
- DINKDINK 12y ago
  What stops someone from masking their own behavior by falsely attributing it to a TOR user. That is, someone runs a TOR exit relay and whenever a complaint comes in for an action actually executed by the relay host, falsely attributing it to a TOR user.
  - SamReidHughes 12y ago
    Bandwidth in not equalling bandwidth out.
    - h_r 12y ago
      Showing what? That you might have been using your own node for something?
      - SamReidHughes 12y ago
        Yes, and the value of out minus in correlating with the complainant's bandwidth experience.
        xamolxix 12y ago
        > Yes, and the value of out minus in correlating with the complainant's bandwidth experience. That would be true if only if that's the only extra thing you would be doing on the node though. Even then seems like pretty thin evidence.
        SamReidHughes 12y ago
        Graph bandwidth usage second by second or minute by minute and it gets to be a pretty keen indicator.
  - Hello71 12y ago
    in addition to sibling, the threat of being sued for perjury along with whatever else you did also, the same argument applies for tor at large
imaginenore 12y ago
What happens when somebody tries to do something really bad from your IP? Like hacking government sites, offering child porn, etc?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
blacksmith_tb 12y ago
Though their TOS seems to forbid running an exit node, I run a fairly big relay on one of my Digital Ocean droplets - even the $5 instances have a ton of bandwidth which can be donated, if you aren't using it all for other projects.
- KnightHawk3 12y ago
  They haven't shut you down from all the DMCA requests?
  - phaer 12y ago
    blacksmith_tb wrote "relay, not "exit node", so I guess their droplets don't receive any DMCA requests.
tacoman 12y ago
I use Tor every day for random ordinary things, like looking up recipes or researching banal purchases. The responsiveness of the Tor network has improved dramatically in the last year. It seems that the biggest threat to the Tor network right now, are web sites that treat Tor users differently. For example, Cloudflare is currently serving captchas to Tor users. It's an automated response based on reports of abuse from the exit node IP at some point in the past. Some individual sites have been doing this for a while to tackle abuse problems, but for a service that handles as much internet traffic as Cloudflare does, this is not a good sign for Tor. https://blog.torproject.org/blog/call-arms-helping-internet-services-accept-anonymous-users https://blog.torproject.org/blog/call-arms-helping-internet-...
- dmix 12y ago
  Ugh yeah Cloudflare will make TOR unusable for casual use the more popular it gets.
- ensignavenger 12y ago
  Any thoughts on how cloudflare and others should go about things differently? They certainly have a compelling motivation for their actions.
  - tacoman 12y ago
    Other than for altruistic or PR reasons, I'm not sure why they would. Currently, they aren't preventing Tor users from reaching the web sites of their customers, they're just making it a little more difficult.
  - UhUhUhUh 12y ago
    It's all about js. Can't there be an alternative to js built in TOR?
hippich 12y ago
Is there a way to run a node which does not route exit traffic at all? if so - I still think it is great to help grow network.
- IgorPartola 12y ago
  Yes, it's called a relay, and it's very easy to configure. If you do this, your exposure would be minimal, while providing a huge benefit to the Tor network. See https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/what-is-tor.html https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/what-is-tor.html
- okbake 12y ago
  As already mentioned, you can run a relay. You can also only allow exits out of certain ports. So if you only wanted people to use your exit node for IRC, you can specify that in your exit rules.

s_q_b 12y ago

I run one. I tell anyone who complains that's legal, explain Tor, and send them the form letter, and then never respond again. Three years running, and I've never been sued or otherwise affected.

GFischer 12y ago
Thank you for running a node. I'm very grateful.
- s_q_b 12y ago
  No problem. It's a few bucks a month. Some may reply that is a legal risk as well. I believe it is clearly within the bounds of the law. If the police shut then down I would fight to the extent of my ability in the courts to have them restored. I believe strongly in our system, and that all men and women (including law enforcement) are bound by the same set of laws, and are equal before them. Tor is legal under those laws, and the courts stand ready to vindicate my rights if they are violated.
click170 12y ago
For those wondering which form letter parent is referring to. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorAbuseTemplates https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorAbuseTe... https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-mini...
DINKDINK 12y ago
What stops someone from masking their own behavior by falsely attributing it to a TOR user. That is, someone runs a TOR exit relay and whenever a complaint comes in for an action actually executed by the relay host, falsely attributing it to a TOR user.
- SamReidHughes 12y ago
  Bandwidth in not equalling bandwidth out.
  - h_r 12y ago
    Showing what? That you might have been using your own node for something?
    - SamReidHughes 12y ago
      Yes, and the value of out minus in correlating with the complainant's bandwidth experience.
      - xamolxix 12y ago
        > Yes, and the value of out minus in correlating with the complainant's bandwidth experience. That would be true if only if that's the only extra thing you would be doing on the node though. Even then seems like pretty thin evidence.
        SamReidHughes 12y ago
        Graph bandwidth usage second by second or minute by minute and it gets to be a pretty keen indicator.
- Hello71 12y ago
  in addition to sibling, the threat of being sued for perjury along with whatever else you did also, the same argument applies for tor at large

imaginenore 12y ago

What happens when somebody tries to do something really bad from your IP? Like hacking government sites, offering child porn, etc?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

blacksmith_tb 12y ago

Though their TOS seems to forbid running an exit node, I run a fairly big relay on one of my Digital Ocean droplets - even the $5 instances have a ton of bandwidth which can be donated, if you aren't using it all for other projects.

KnightHawk3 12y ago
They haven't shut you down from all the DMCA requests?
- phaer 12y ago
  blacksmith_tb wrote "relay, not "exit node", so I guess their droplets don't receive any DMCA requests.

tacoman 12y ago

I use Tor every day for random ordinary things, like looking up recipes or researching banal purchases. The responsiveness of the Tor network has improved dramatically in the last year. It seems that the biggest threat to the Tor network right now, are web sites that treat Tor users differently. For example, Cloudflare is currently serving captchas to Tor users. It's an automated response based on reports of abuse from the exit node IP at some point in the past. Some individual sites have been doing this for a while to tackle abuse problems, but for a service that handles as much internet traffic as Cloudflare does, this is not a good sign for Tor. https://blog.torproject.org/blog/call-arms-helping-internet-services-accept-anonymous-users https://blog.torproject.org/blog/call-arms-helping-internet-...

dmix 12y ago
Ugh yeah Cloudflare will make TOR unusable for casual use the more popular it gets.
ensignavenger 12y ago
Any thoughts on how cloudflare and others should go about things differently? They certainly have a compelling motivation for their actions.
- tacoman 12y ago
  Other than for altruistic or PR reasons, I'm not sure why they would. Currently, they aren't preventing Tor users from reaching the web sites of their customers, they're just making it a little more difficult.
- UhUhUhUh 12y ago
  It's all about js. Can't there be an alternative to js built in TOR?

hippich 12y ago

Is there a way to run a node which does not route exit traffic at all? if so - I still think it is great to help grow network.

IgorPartola 12y ago
Yes, it's called a relay, and it's very easy to configure. If you do this, your exposure would be minimal, while providing a huge benefit to the Tor network. See https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/what-is-tor.html https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/what-is-tor.html
okbake 12y ago
As already mentioned, you can run a relay. You can also only allow exits out of certain ports. So if you only wanted people to use your exit node for IRC, you can specify that in your exit rules.